NATCHEZ &8212; You may never know with 7- and 8-year-olds, but this much Natchez Nationals head coach Bruce Ross knows: his team can hit the ball hard.

The Nationals and Americans open the sub-district tournament today in Brookhaven as postseason tournaments officially kick off for youth baseball this summer, and the Nationals have at least some momentum on their side. Both teams play at 6 p.m. today &8212; the Nationals against Copiah and the Americans against the Brookhaven Nationals.

Their dramatic win over the Americans last week was one the Nationals may not forget, and it showed they have some fight in them. They were down 10-6 with two outs in their last at-bat before rallying for five runs to take the win.

&8220;The kids didn&8217;t lay down,&8221; Ross said. &8220;The bottom of the lineup came through just like they were supposed to, and we drove them around. We never quit. Any time you can score five runs with two outs, you&8217;re doing a little something. This team has a lot of heart.&8221;

But like the Americans, the Nationals have not been able to take the field much since then with the weather this week. Ross&8217; bunch was able to get on a soggy field and practice Thursday for a final tuneup, and they will go into today&8217;s game hoping to play like they did in last week&8217;s city All-Star championship series.

&8220;We feel all right,&8221; Ross said. &8220;Just like in the other game, we&8217;re hitting the ball hard in practice. I don&8217;t know. They&8217;re 7- and 8-year-old kids, but we feel pretty good. If we win the first game, we&8217;ll get a good little break until 1 o&8217;clock Saturday.&8221;

The Nationals came through in the series on a few occasions thanks to the top of its order with its first five hitters &8212; Trey Fleming, Turner Lessley, Brandon Ross, Thomas Garrity and Caleb Cross.

Brandon Ross may be one of the hardest hitters on the team, but Cross had a home run in each game last week and also drove in the winning run in Game 2.

&8220;Our whole lineup hits the ball,&8221; Ross said. &8220;We have a little bit of pop at the top, and the bottom half can get on like they&8217;re supposed to. You&8217;ve got to hit it out there pretty good. But you don&8217;t know how they&8217;re going to start out. We&8217;re fielding the ball pretty well. We had a little trouble there other night in one inning, but we didn&8217;t die. They came through like they had to.&8221;

The Americans head into the tournament having played well in the second game last week despite coming up short. The top half of their lineup can hit it with Michael Iles, Josh Brown, Skeeter Myles, Nick Lefebvre and Tyler Buckles coming up with key hits in the series.

The tournament will end Saturday with a championship game scheduled for 5 p.m. and the if-necessary game at 7 p.m. In a new rule this summer, the North tournament winner will face the South champ in a best-of-three series to advance to the state tournament.