That's when families break with the work and school routine to go on vacation. Office cubicles are more vacant and beaches are more crowded.

It's also when bats start to get broken in Hillsborough and runners go with the crack of the bat, instead of the ping of it.

The fourth annual Orange High Invitational Wood Bat Tournament at Orange High field isn't just an opportunity for high school players to experience traditional baseball at a younger age. It's like recess in elementary school, getting a chance to break free from the standard day-to-day life of aluminum bats they've lived with ever since teeball.

The trick is getting used to it, since each bat has its own distinctive characteristics. That also leads to newer challenges.

"You have to remember (in this tournament) the ball isn't going to fly off the bat as quickly," said Orange shortstop Edgar Lozano. "With a metal bat, I've been jammed before and still found a way to get a base hit. That doesn't happen with wood."

"It's harder to find the sweet spot with a wood bat," said East Chapel Hill's Parker Tew, who threw the first perfect game in school history against Hillside in April. "We've broken several bats this week trying to find the right place to connect with the ball. It's a pretty different game with these bats, but it's fun."

At the same time, getting accustomed to wooden bats has its obvious benefits. Orange High players need only to look at the honored jerseys of previous Panthers. Josh Horton became at high school All-American at Orange and came within one game of winning a College World Series championship at UNC. He eventually became a second round draft pick of the Oakland A's - who, like all Major League teams, play with wooden bats - and is now playing AA ball with the Midland Rockhounds of the Texas League.

While batters can be be reluctant to hit with wooden bats, pitchers tend to embrace throwing against them for one simple reason: They can jam hitters on the inside part of the plate without as many negative consequences. With aluminum bats, hitters who get jammed are much more likely to still ding one off the handle for a fluke hit.

Nonetheless, wooden bats aren't about to break beyond anything but a novelty weekend anytime soon. Aluminum bats have been firmly entrenched at the amateur levels of baseball for nearly 40 years, and they aren't going to disappear, regardless of what purists may think.

The costs are just too high ($160 per bat) and the player's urge to stick to routine is too strong anyway. It's just part of the dual reality of modern baseball.

"There are players who can't wait for this tournament every year," said Orange Coach Dean Dease, who was part of the first group of high school players to start using aluminum bats in the mid-1970s. "Then we'll use the wooden bats for about a week, then they want to go back to the metal again. It's just the course of habit."

"It's just the way we've grown up playing baseball over the years," said Lozano. "I don't mind the wooden bats, but I also like getting back to what I'm used to."

Orange, which has hosted the tournament each of the last four years, brought in Smithfield-Selma, East Chapel Hill and Raleigh Independent for this year's two-day event, which began Friday and was to end Saturday.

Starting next week, Orange, East Chapel Hill and Smithfield-Selma will all pick up the aluminum bats again for regular play in the Central Carolina Scholastic Summer League.