NATCHEZ — The 2010 prep baseball season is young, and Adams County Christian head coach Hunter McKievier is learning the value of patience.

When McKievier looks at his squad, he sees a lot of potential — and a lot of youth, he said.

“We have three seniors, and the rest are underclassmen,” McKievier said. “We have a huge group of sophomores that are very talented, and it just takes experience. What I’m learning is, we still have to be patient (with them).

“We’re trying to get them the plate appearances and the exposure to situations that might come up later in the year, but are more critical because they’re district games.”

Although McKievier stressed that he’s not discounting non-district opponents, he said the early games are when you want to be going through the learning process.

“Every game is critical, but once you get into that second season, as we like to call it, you want everything to be a point to where you’re polishing things,” McKievier said.

Part of that process is playing tough teams in the non-district schedule, and ACCS did just that when it scheduled Cathedral for its game today.

“They’re a good baseball team,” McKievier said. “Coach (Craig) Beesley has done a tremendous job, and they added Ron Rushing as an assistant, who also does a good job. They’ve lost four to five starters, but they have the Dylan and Aaron White, kids who can pitch. Caleb Johnson is a good hitter for them and Caleb Upton is an up-and-comer that we got to see last year at Trinity.”

And those names aren’t the only names McKievier knows.

“They’re strong all the way around. I could name off a lot of kids: Cole Mann, Collin Hammons, Daniel Huffines, they’re all young kids that are going to be able to produce at Cathedral. They have a winning tradition and a great program over there.”

As for his team, McKievier said he wants his players to focus on attacking the zone and having smart at-bats.

“Basically, we want to be able to throw strikes, and put ourselves in position to let our defense play behind us,” McKievier said.

“You don’t want the other team to get easy passes, like walks or passed balls. You want to make them earn everything. Hitting-wise, we want to be selective, pick out the right pitch to hit and not chase balls out of the zone.”

ACCS (4-1) will be at Cathedral Monday. The varsity squads will play at 7 p.m.