By Kevin Eckleberry

Sports Editor

A dozen young ballplayers will make their Dixie Youth Baseball tournament debuts Saturday morning.

The Dixie Youth Baseball District 1 9-10-year-old tournament will be held at the George F. Harris Baseball Complex Saturday through Thursday, and one of the teams participating is the Troup American all-star team.

None of the 12 players on the team has ever competed in a Dixie all-star tournament before, compared to the Troup National team that has numerous players with all-star experience.

Troup American opens its tournament stay against Hogansville on Saturday at 10 a.m.

“Not a single kid on my team has ever made all-stars,” said Perry Prather, the head coach for the Troup American team. “But these kids have played a lot of baseball.”

The team is made up of players from the seven teams that made up the American division of the Troup County Parks and Recreation Commission spring league.

Each of the seven teams has at least one player on the all-star team.

Prather, who led the Holmes Pharmacy Rangers to the regular-season championship, likes what he’s seen from the players in the three weeks they’ve been together.

“We’ve had some good scrimmage games, and we’ve competed,” he said. “My biggest thing is to be able to compete whether we win or lose.

“There’s nothing worse than going to a game and not being competitive.”

All of the players, Prather said, seem committed to doing what’s best for the team, and often that includes changing positions.

A lot of the all-stars play the same positions.

“You pull 12 of them together, and they’re all looking for those positions,” Prather said. “But this is a good group of kids. And they’re pretty universal. We’ve got kids who can play all over.”

Troup American has played a few scrimmage games, and Prather said one obvious strength that has come into play is the pitching depth.

“In the first couple of scrimmage games, I pitched seven or eight pitchers, and they all did good,” Prather said. “We have so much pitching, it’ll make it hard to figure out whose gonna pitch. That’s good to have.”

At the plate, Prather said the players have “put the bat on the ball.”

“Hopefully our batting will turn up for the tournament and we’ll get hot,” he said.

Of the seven teams in the tournament, two will advance to the state tournament.

The state winner then advances to the Dixie World Series in Mississippi.