NATCHEZ — The 2016 Cathedral High School baseball team advanced to the MAIS AAA finals led by a core group of seniors who had been playing together since they were 8 years old.

Perhaps, the next crop is on its way.

Despite playing the majority of their games against 9 and 10 year olds, the 8-year-old Natchez Naturals have managed to tally an 18-19 record, and have several strong finishes in recent tournaments. The team is primarily made up of Cathedral standouts with 12 of the 14 players are enrolled at Cathedral.

“These kids the last three months have been working really hard,” Natchez Naturals coach Ron Rushing said. “We practice them like high school kids — we work on first base to third (defensive strategy), bunt coverage and other advanced strategy. Their knowledge and what they’ve been able to soak in at their age level is pretty impressive … We play real baseball.”

Rushing said the slight jump in age group also meant the kids went from coach-pitch to kid-pitch.

“Kid-pitch was a little bit of a struggle at first — the kids were real nervous,” Rushing said. “But the last few tournaments, we’ve really started to hit the ball well.”

The team plays tournaments as a member of the USSSA league, and Rushing said the team has recently jumped from the AA Division to AAA.

“We’ve gotten better hitting wise, but we’re really strong defensively,” Rushing said. “We’re just working on the kids developing a good swing so they can be better in the next few years.”

Rushing said the strength of the team is its ability with the glove.

“They’re turning double plays and making great plays in the outfield,” Rushing said.

The team played in a tournament this past weekend in Pineville, La., and although the results didn’t quite go as planned, the youthful Naturals still managed to beat the Alexandria Bombers in resounding fashion, 9-4.

“My view, and luckily all of our parents have the same view, you can win every game and every tournament but you’re not necessarily getting better,” Rushing said. “We wanted to make them uncomfortable and have to play really well to win.”

Rushing said the team has one more tournament left before competing in the state tournament June 16.

“A lot of kids don’t start playing real baseball until the seventh grade,” Rushing said. “You can’t make up for the (extra) five years (of experience) they’re getting. They know how to get primary and secondary leads, and just know how to play game of baseball. They’re learning at a very young age.”