NATCHEZ — When the yellow-clad Sports Center team of T.M. Jennings Little League Baseball takes the field for a game, they look across the diamond at a very familiar opponent.

The 11- and 12-year-old league features just two teams this season, which is down from previous seasons. So far the Natchez Falcons have gotten the better of Sports Center. Sports Center has won just one game out of seven.

But winning is not necessarily the top priority of the league and the Sports Center squad, head coach Tavares Letcher said.

“(We try to teach them) that it’s not all about winning all the time,” Letcher said. “It’s about working as a team.”

“We teach the fundamentals and teach them to work together and help each other. We’re helping them become better people.”

Letcher said he has a young team, with several first-year players, and the team has lost several nail-biters to the Falcons, but they are improving.

“They’ve improved a great deal, a lot of (the players) have made progress,” Letcher said.

Falcons coach Deselle Davis sees improvement in the Sports Center team as well.

“We’ve seen big improvement (in the play), especially from (the Sports Center team). They are 10 times better (than at the start of the season),” Davis said.

Letcher said he has been coaching in the league since his son, Tavares Letcher Jr., started playing at the age of seven. Letcher Jr. is now 12 and a pitcher for the Sports Center team.

“I like pitching,” Letcher Jr. said. “I like throwing strikes and striking people out.”

Letcher Jr. said he thinks he is a real good pitcher and the Falcons’ coach confirmed that notion.

“There are some real good pitchers, including (Letcher Jr.),” Davis said. “He’ll probably be on All-Stars.”

Letcher Jr. said All-Stars is one of his favorite parts of Little League.

Sports Center’s Jocquez Ivory, 12, also has his eyes on making the All-Star team this season, although he has never made the team before, he said.

“(Little League) is fun because you can go to All-Stars, and meet a lot of friends,” Ivory said.

He said that the coaches have been teaching him how to play better defense in practice each week. Ivory plays first and third base.

Ivory said that his most memorable game this year was last Thursday. The Sports Center team dropped a back and forth game to the Falcons. But, Ivory said he hit two balls to the fence in the game.

Davis said only having two teams in the league can be both a blessing and a curse for All-Stars.

He said it helps because the coaches get to see all the players play a lot and they develop a relationship with the players on the other team. But, it can hurt because having fewer teams means to fewer players to choose from.

Letcher said that, although the league’s numbers are down, there is still a lot of talent on his team and in the league.

“The players are some of the best in the Miss-Lou as far as talent,” Letcher said.

Letcher believes that the league is about more than just baseball though, he said.

“Little League baseball is like a summer camp for the kids. It helps keep them focused on education because we teach them about how to become men and women,” Letcher said.

The league has one more month of regular season games to go, before the playoffs start, league director Eric Fry said. Fry said he is impressed with the improvement of some of the first year players on the Sports Center squad, along with all of the young baseball players in the league.

The league features 11 teams in four different age groups. Natchez Market, Superintendent Morris, Project Dream and Pilgrim Baptist Church make up the 4- to 6-year-old league. DREAM, Alpha Phi Alpha and Heidelberg Law Office make up the 7- and 8-year-old league. Pyron’s and Supervisor Grinnell are the two teams in the 9- and 10-year-old league.