NATCHEZ — Shavoke Herrington is a year too old to play in the T.M. Jennings league.

Most of his recent action on the diamond came with the Natchez High School baseball team this past spring. But while Herrington may be too old for youth ball, that hasn’t stopped him from investing his time in the youth league for which he grew up playing.

Herrington, 13, was on hand Tuesday afternoon at Frazier Elementary School helping the T.M. Jennings 9- and 10-year-old All-Stars gear up for their district tournament, which is Friday in Hattiesburg. In addition to hitting ground balls for the younger players to field, Herrington also gave young backstop Tyrese Brown some pointers.

“The stuff I do for the summer is early in the day, and I feel like this team could beat the other teams if they work hard,” Herrington explained. “I believe in them, and that’s why I’m helping them.”

Brown said he was grateful to have someone a few years older than him point out what to do at catcher. He said Herrington has taught him the importance of framing the ball, blocking the ball and throwing his helmet off if the ball gets behind him.

“It’s nice, because he’s encouraging me to do good as a hind catcher, because that’s the position he used to play,” Brown said.

Seeing the younger players play baseball brought back memories for Herrington, who said he enjoyed his summers in the T.M. Jennings league.

“I’m going to be here for my team — this is my team,” Herrington said. “I’ve been playing since tee ball, and at first I didn’t want to play baseball until my mom brought me out here and I had fun with the other kids. I like winning, and that’s what brought me back out here.”

Jerome Timmons Jr., head coach of the 9s and 10s, said he’s seen improvement in his players since practice started a little more than a week ago. The most difficult thing, he said, is getting them to jell as a team.

“They’re a lot further along than I thought they’d be, because they play travel ball,” Timmons said. “A lot of these kids played the same positions (in the regular season), so they’re learning to play new ones.”

While he still has high expectations for his team, Timmons said this year would be a rebuilding year for the 9- and 10-year-olds.

“I think we’ll play pretty good,” Timmons said. “More than half of our team is 9-year-olds, and the past few years we won district, we had more 10-year-olds on the team than we do now.”

Brown said he’s ready to get to Hattiesburg and show the other teams what Natchez can do.

“I just hope we get the wins,” Brown said. “I’m excited. I think we’ll see some of the same things (from other teams) that we’ll do. I don’t think they’ll be much different from us.”

While this year’s team may be younger, Timmons said the long-term outlook for the 9- and 10-year-old age group is good.

“I think we’ll win state in the next few years,” Timmons said. “A lot of them play travel ball, so they’ll be playing baseball year round.”