Six-and-under Natchez T-ball All-Star coach Wes Middleton isn’t worried about his team’s run production.

In last weekend’s district championship series, Middleton said his team scored 77 runs over 11 innings — the run limit per inning is seven runs. In Tuesday’s practice before the state tournament today, he focused on teaching his players the fundamentals of sliding.

“I feel confident we can put up seven runs in most innings, but baserunning mistakes are something we’ve harped on,” Middleton said. “We’re teaching them all how to slide, because if it’s not a force out, kids still want to stand on the base and tag the kid. If you teach them to slide, they’re safe most of the time.”

Reaching a group of 6-year-old T-ballers in the sweltering afternoon heat might not be the simplest task for Middleton and his assistants Luke Spillers, Christian Rachel and Trey Isbell. Still, Middleton described his fellow coaches as “jam up” when it comes to their ability to teach the youngsters. He also admires the engagement his team displays when they are given instruction.

“We have a good group of kids that listen pretty well. We practice for an hour and 45 minutes, and some people tell me, ‘I can’t get my 12 year olds to do that,’” Middleton said. “I’m really happy with the group I’ve got, which all stems from what they’re taught at home.”

Middleton said most of the effort he and his staff focus on is teaching his team baseball fundamentals, from tagging up on fly balls to finding the force outs in the infield.

“It’s a big adjustment for everyone going from summer league to all-stars, because in summer league, there weren’t kids that caught balls in the air,” Middleton said. “Now, we played a team that caught seven fly balls in four innings. We learned really quickly that wide-open running has to stop.”

Middleton said most of his team is made up of circle players and first basemen, so most of his players are learning new positions.

“There are eight new positions out there,” Middleton said. “I’m teaching my middle infielders to be the cutoff man and teaching my outfielders to hit their cutoff men, they took to it quickly.”

The 6-and-under all-stars will caravan to the state tournament in Cleveland from Sports Center this morning.