NATCHEZ — Basketballs have just recently stopped bouncing in local gyms, and now it’s time for the young boys of the Advance Sports Braves baseball team to take to the diamond and start a long spring and summer full of baseball.

The Braves took to the diamond this weekend in St. Francisville, La., at the West Feliciana Early Bird Tournament. And although the season never really ends for the Braves, it was the first time since December they had participated in a USSSA sanctioned tournament.

Not only does spring bring a new baseball season for the Braves’ players, it brings a new style of ball as well. Last season the Braves made it to the USSSA World Series in Sulphur, La., but that was playing coaches pitch. This season the Braves have moved on to regular baseball, and head coach Shaun McDonald said his team is making the adjustment nicely.

“Our pitching is actually our strength,” McDonald said. “We have seven guys out of 11 on the team that pitch. You’re allowed six innings each weekend (per pitcher), so having seven guys helps a lot to stay fresh.”

McDonald said the team actually started working on pitching even before the coaches pitch season ended late last summer. The Braves first regular baseball tournament was in December at the Crush 4 Christmas Tournament in Brookhaven, where they finished with a record of 1-2.

“Hopefully we will improve that this week and next,” McDonald said.

McDonald said the team’s biggest issue right now is get ting adjusted to base running against live pitching, and he said the team is working on that at every practice.

“Once we went from coach pitch to kid pitch we realized how serious (base running) was,” McDonald said.

McDonald said the players have not really struggled transitioning to regular baseball with the bats in the their hands, and the Braves have always been a good hitting team.

The Braves also have the benefit of familiarity and continuity this season, as they returned almost every player from last year’s 8 and under coach pitch team. The Braves lost just two players off of last year’s team and picked up two new players to replace the losses, McDonald said.

“It’s been a big advantage having the same group of kids come back,” McDonald said.

The Braves will look to play in approximately a dozen tournaments this spring and summer in order to accumulate enough points to participate in the World Series again this season.

“We definitely want to try to get back to the World Series again,” McDonald said. “That’s something we are shooting for.”