VIDALIA — It’s been six weeks since the Vidalia Little League 11- and 12-year-old All-Star team played its last game.

Catcher Lauren Dunbar said, after six long weeks of practices and scrimmages, the team is eager to get back out onto the field for its first state tournament game Saturday in Vidalia.

“We’re ready to play,” Dunbar said.

Coach Randy Poole said the closest to in-game action the team has seen, since Vidalia Little League had its closing ceremonies in early June, are a handful of light scimmages and live batting practice. The team is one of just two teams in the district, so Poole said they forwent the formality of playing a district tournament, since both teams automatically qualified.

“We’re ready,” Poole said. “We’ve had several scrimmage games and played well in those.”

Poole said the team has a pitching staff of five, and said that having a deep of a staff is uncommon for the 11- and 12-year-old age level.

Poole said she isn’t sure if pitching is enough to carry a team to the championship game, but she is confident in her hurlers.

“Some of our girls throw (in the low-50s), and then we have girls that throw (mid-to-low 40s),” Poole said. “We’ve got different ratios of pitching speed.”

One of those pitchers is Becca Cowan, who said her strategy on the pitcher’s rubber is to pound the zone with consistent strikes.

“I just don’t want to let them score,” Cowan said. “I attack them.”

Vidalia’s coach said she hasn’t heard many rumors about this year’s teams in the fold, but Dunbar said the core players are familiar with a handful of opponents from last season’s state tournament.

“We’ve played some of the same teams last year,” Dunbar said. “They were pretty good teams, good competition.”

The group of five girls that have played together for four years includes some of the team’s pitchers and most of the infield.

Poole said the preparation has been easier than building an all-star team completely from scratch.

“We have some chemistry with this team, especially our (infield) has been together for a long time,” she said.

The first game of the tournament at the Vidalia recreational complex is 6 p.m. Saturday. The winner moves on to face Vidalia, who has the luxury of a bye, in the second round of the winner’s bracket.