NATCHEZ — With the Miss-Lou already having an 8-year-old travel baseball team and a 10-year-old travel baseball team, Dr. Geoff Flattmann decided there needed to be a team sandwiched in between.

So the 9-year-old Bayou Bandits were formed, a USSSA travel baseball team made up of players from Adams County and Concordia Parish.

The Bandits wrap up their travel season this weekend with a trip to Vicksburg for the Governor’s Cup tournament. As Flattmann reflected on the team’s inaugural season, he said he was glad to help provide area youth with an outlet to continue honing their baseball skills.

“We felt the 9-year-olds needed an opportunity outside of recreation ball with the more competitive tournament ball,” Flattmann said.

Age 9 is when local youth begin switching from machine-pitch to pitching themselves. In addition to helping teach young pitchers the ropes, Flattmann said there’s also an adjustment between Dixie Youth rules and USSSA rules.

“In travel ball, it’s the same rules as high school on up,” Flattmann said.

Specifically, players can lead off bases in USSSA ball, forcing the pitcher to pitch from the stretch. In Dixie Youth, players can’t take leads. Also, if a catcher doesn’t catch strike three, he’s forced to throw the ball to first, unlike in Dixie Youth ball. Finally, players can steal home in USSSA ball.

“There’s always a place for both,” Flattmann said of the two sets of rules. “I really wanted my group to have the same experiences and opportunities, because no one else is really doing it.”

Nine-year-old left fielder Joseph Garrity said he personally likes USSSA rules better.

“We get to lead off,” Garrity said. “And we get to use big barrel (bats). The tournaments also have bigger fields.”

Flattmann said his main focus as a coach is teaching players the correct code of conduct and always giving them positive reinforcement.

“No one responds to negative reinforcement,” Flattmann said. “We’re not trying to turn them into Major League Baseball players, but we’re trying to make them into good players who respect each other and their coaches.”

And since he doesn’t have a baseball background, Flattmann asked Delta Charter School baseball coach Chris Rayborn, who has minor league experience and college coaching exprience, to assist him.

“It’s nice to have him here,” Flattmann said. “He played, coached and recruited in college. It gives me a lot of credibility with parents.”

Third baseman Paxton Junkin, 9, said he’s enjoying the process of adjusting from machine-pitch to human pitching.

“I’m learning how to pitch, and I’m getting better at fielding and batting,” Junkin said. “I’m learning how to take my stride and how to throw strikes better and be consistent.”