SMC 11- and 12-year-old All-Stars have eyes set on trip to Alexandria

In Tuesday’s winner-take-all District 3 12-year-old championship game, St. Mary Central found itself down as much as 6-1 to Morgan City.
While the team already had fallen to Morgan City, 7-1 in the first contest Monday, St. Mary Central staged a huge comeback in the finale for an 8-6 win, the district championship and a trip to Metairie for the Majors South Regional in Metairie beginning today at Wally Pontiff Jr. Playground.
St. Mary Central coach Mike DeLatte said all 12 of the players on his all-star team play travel baseball and were used to the situation they faced in the finale Monday.
“They’ve been in these situations so many times before,” DeLatte said. “They’re a group of kids that’s always been a special group. I had them a couple years ago with the exception of a couple new ones this year, but the new ones we’ve picked up are just as mentally tough as the old ones, and these kids don’t have any kind of quit in them.”
While their goal is to make it to the best, two-out-of-three state championship series next weekend in Alexandria against the winner of the North Regional in Franklin, first, St. Mary Central will have to come out on top in the eight-team South Regional.
That journey begins with a 5 p.m. contest today against Jefferson, the District 2 runner-up.
Although DeLatte said he didn’t like the quick turnaround from district to regionals because there is not much time for practice, he added that realistically, by this time of the year, there is no more teaching to be done.
“At this time of the year, you’re doing more of a refresher than you are a skill practice,” he said. “This is just keeping them in rhythm, keeping the bats swinging, throwing the ball a little bit. … There’s nothing more I can teach a kid in two weeks to prepare him for district and regionals than he’s learned all year. The coaching has been done.”
While DeLatte said his team’s defense is “about the best I’ve ever seen on a team that I’ve ever coached” and they have three to four strong pitchers, he said hitting must improve this weekend.
“We got to hit the ball better,” he said. “That’s where we’re struggling.”
If St. Mary Central can get the bats going, DeLatte said he has no doubt that his team can advance to the state championship round in Alexandria.
Other teams in the South Regional are Gonzales Nationals, Caldwell Parish, Ville Platte, host Pontiff Playground, Sabine and Minden Continental.
The tournament is set to continue until Tuesday with a championship game set for 5:30 p.m. If the tournament must move to a winner-take-all game to determine the champion, that game will follow at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.