Three Selma All-Star baseball teams will continue their pursuit of state championships this weekend.

As the 11-and 12-year-old O-zone All-Stars try to continue their postseason run in Fairhope, Selma’s 13-year-old All-Star team and 14-year-old All-Star team will be in Muscle Shoals this weekend, vying for state titles.

Since the teams are made up of All-Stars, which are picked by coaches after city league play completes, teams that gel quickly tend to have a leg up on the competition.

For the 13-year-old All-Stars, that may be a problem, because Saturday’s opening slate tournament game will be the first time they’ve played together in a meaningul game as a team.  The All-Stars did play some practice games as a lead-up to the state tournament, but this weekend there figures to be a little more pressure with a lot on the line.

Head coach Charles Wolfe said he’s hoping his team of 13-year-old’s can work through its growing pains quickly.

“All of these All-Star players have played against each other all year, and now they are playing with each other,” Wolfe said. “When you’ve played baseball games together, you know what everybody is going to do, but when you don’t play together there is kind of a growing pain there.”

Wolfe estimated that half of the nine-team field for the state tournament have already played a game this season

The 13-year-old All-Stars did not have to play any games to qualify, because no other teams from their district that qualified. Wolfe’s team plays its first game at 4 p.m. Saturday.  The 14-year-old All-Stars had to qualify through a district tournament, so at least Jason Egbert’s team has had a chance to get its feet wet.

“We got to practice for two weeks before our first game and they just seemed to gel,” Egbert said. “They have been playing together for a few years too, just from competition within the league itself.”

Egbert’s team kicks off tournament play at 4 p.m. Saturday.

“We are going to have to hit the ball,” Egbert said. “We are probably going to face some better pitching than what we’ve faced this year.”

The 11-and 12-year-old Selma All-Stars will play Saturday in Fairhope. The team qualified for the state tournament by finishing second in its district tournament and winning last weekend’s sub-state tournament.