St. Mary Central 12U All-Stars have experienced group

The fact that St. Mary Central’s 12U All-Stars will be facing teams they are not familiar with at the Dixie Youth North Regional Tournament in Winnsboro beginning today is not something that should affect them, according to head coach John Menard.
His team’s been there and done that already this summer, albeit on different teams.
A portion of the team played on an 11-year-old travel ball squad that finished as state runner-up at the USSSA state tournament in June, while 12-year-old members of the team attended a Grand Slam World Series in Florida where they finished third.
Today, they will begin play in the Dixie Youth North Regional in Winnsboro when they face Pontiff Playground, the District 2 champion, in a 1 p.m. contest.
“We’re going to worry about what we do, because we can’t really worry about (our) opponent, so that’s kind of been our approach,” Menard said. “It’s a good group. They work hard.”
Together, the team members from each individual travel ball team have gelled and are getting along, Menard said.
“They work hard at practice,” he said, adding they are buying into the team-first mentality.
While their most recent success on other teams may not have been in Dixie Youth events, five of the players on this year’s team certainly have experienced success in Dixie Youth as they were members of St. Mary Central’s 10U All-Stars, which were runners-up in the south regional a year ago.
Menard coached that group.
“It’s the same format, same everything, so they do have some experience. They know how everything’s going to work,” Menard said, noting that will help the squad.
St. Mary Central finished 2-2 in District 3 play.
Menard said he has been pleased with the team’s pitching in postseason play, but he noted the team’s hitting must catch up.
“So far in the invitational tournament, in the district tournament, I’ve thought we’ve pitched very well,” Menard said. “Defensively, for the most part, we’ve been pretty good. We’ve had a couple of breakdowns one game in district, but I thought defensively, we’ve done very well. We haven’t hit as well as I would like.”
If his team wants to make a big run like that did a year ago in the 10-year-old tournament, Menard said hitting must improve.
In four district games, St. Mary Central’s pitching staff has combined to surrender 14 runs on 23 hits with just four walks and 28 strikeouts.
Carter Williams is 1-1 on the mound, while Grant Hebert is 1-0 to lead the team.
Joining St. Mary Central and Pontiff Playground in the north regional are Union Parish, Alexandria, Vernon Parish Central, Monroe Americans, host Winnsboro and Franklin Americans.
The double-elimination event will run through Tuesday when a champion is crowned. The winner of the north regional will meet the winner of the south regional in a best, two-out-of-three state championship in Alexandria July 24-25.