Over 500 baseball players from nearly 50 teams will be in Fort Dodge this weekend for the Fort Dodge Baseball Association’s “Taco Tico Throwdown” at Harlan and Hazel Rogers Sports Complex.

Formerly known as the “Early Bird Tournament,” this event attracts squads from all over the midwest in the 8U, 10U, 11U, 12U, 13U and 14U age divisions. A number of area teams are entered, including the Fort Dodge Legends and Legends White (8U), Fort Dodge Legends and Northwest Iowa Badgers (10U), Fort Dodge Legends and Fort Dodge Sandlot (11U), Fort Dodge Legends and Northwest Iowa Badgers (12U), Fort Dodge Legends and Algona A’s (13U), and the Fort Dodge Legends (14U).

Taco Tico is in its first year sponsoring the event, and will be giving away a free taco and drink with the purchase of a tournament T-shirt.

“We’ve had an unbelievable rise in team entries the last couple of years, and I want to thank our tournament director, Neven Conrad, as well as the FDBA board members,” FDBA president Nick Pederson said. “We already broke last year’s record for total teams entered (among the three local tournaments), and we’re still drawing interest).”

The Taco Tico Throwdown — an A/AA Tournament — is a USSSA sanctioned qualifier, with pool play on Saturday and regular bracket play on Sunday. All of the mini-major fields at Rogers Park — Wrigley, Yankee, Fenway, Dodger and Veterans — will be used, as well as Diamonds 1, 2, 4, 5 and Diamond 6.

For up-to-date tournament information, please visit www.fdbaseball.com