NATCHEZ — There’s a change sweeping over the Miss-Lou softball fields.

Youth softball teams around the area are preparing to switch to fast-pitch softball in the coming seasons.

For the Natchez Youth Softball League, that means the 9- and 10-year-old, 11- and 12-year-old and coach-pitch teams will be seeing the ball come to the plate much faster.

Bridget Wactor, the league’s secretary, said whether 13- and 14-year-olds play fast pitch will depend on how many register — the deadline to sign up is today.

But ages 15 and up will play slow pitch this summer.

“The older girls have asked us not to go to fast pitch,” Wactor said. “Most of the girls are already playing fast-pitch at school. The ones that didn’t play at school didn’t want to go to fast-pitch because they only had a year or two left anyway.”

Natchez’s 7- and 8-year-olds will play coach-pitch ball, and the coaches will throw a modified pitch.

But Belinda Brashier of the Natchez league said the other pitchers will throw traditional fast-pitch style.

And every year, another age group will take on fast-pitch, she said.

“We’re just trying to introduce it to this area,” Brashier said. “Right now it’s instructional. We look at it as a fun way for kids to learn the sport.”

Vidalia’s youth softball league will remain slow-pitch this summer but will add on a fast-pitch option next year.

League coordinator Greg Young said the league took a vote of those who registered and those who did not register this year but had in the past, and 70 percent wanted the option to play both styles.

“So next year we’ll be playing both,” Young said. “It will be at two different times, so the girls will be able to play both if they want to. They want to have the option, and we’re going to do everything we can to give them that option.”

Young said there was not enough time to implement the fast-pitch style for this coming season.

Registration for the Vidalia league is $50 for the first child, $40 for the second and $30 for the third, and Young said there has been a good turnout so far. Preseason games start April 20.

“There aren’t but 12 or 13 girls that get picked for a high school team,” he said. “The majority of girls don’t have that opportunity so we’re trying to give it to them. And we’re trying to help them also come up in the lower leagues to compete. It’s for the girls’ benefit we’re doing this.”

Ferriday will continue with fast-pitch softball, as it has done for nearly two decades.

Rutt Horne said Ferriday’s teams are nearly filled, with just a handful of spots left in every age group.

Horne said he feels teams that come to Ferriday have an advantage, and many of the area’s high school teams play in his league together during the summer.

“In the 13- to 18-year-olds, Cathedral, Trinity and Adams County Christian all come here,” Horne said. “Franklin County brings one team, and Monterey, Huntington and Vidalia all have their teams come here.”

Horne said he has tried for years to get Natchez and Vidalia to adopt fast-pitch softball, and he’s glad they are finally taking that step.

Slow-pitch softball, he said, is becoming obsolete, and those that play fast-pitch have a greater advantage in high school and especially in college.

“People don’t like change, but this is a change for the good,” Horne said. “You’re not doing the community colleges any good (by playing slow-pitch). All the scholarships that Co-Lin and Southwest give out should be going to southwest Mississippi kids. We have sent two to three kids to college on scholarship every year.”

Horne said Natchez teams have come to Ferriday to play fast-pitch because they came bring entire teams and because fast-pitch is so rooted in the league.

And more teams, he said, are coming every year.

“In the 12 and under group, last year we had four teams, and this year we have seven,” he said. “All the better ball players have already moved from Natchez, to be honest. We’ve already got all the athletes that are playing high school ball. The rest will probably continue to play slow pitch.”

Horne said anyone can play fast-pitch softball, and he has tried to convince the other leagues of that fact for years.

He said it’s important to make the high schools more competitive as well.

“They are doing the public an injustice (by playing slow-pitch),” he said. “The schools are all fast-pitch, and you have no feeder programs for the schools.”

But Wactor said many of the girls who play in the Natchez league did not want to play fast-pitch. She said the idea to switch was discussed last year, with mixed response.

She attributes part of this year’s slow registration could be because of the switch, although part of it can be blamed on the economy.

“I was calling last year’s list the other night, and that’s what a lot of parents said their decision was being based on,” Wactor said. “The parents said they’re not sure their girls want to playa fast-pitch because the ball is faster and they’ve never played it before. Some of the kids are scared to play fast-pitch.”

But Brashier wasn’t worried about the low turnout a night before the registration deadline.

“We have a number who wait until the last minute to register,” she said.