NATCHEZ — The Day brothers always look forward to odd-number years.

That’s because an odd number year means they’ll have the chance to play with each other during the Natchez Dixie Youth’s regular season.

Christian Day, 12, and Josh Day, 11, are both members of the Redd Pest 11- and 12-year-old Dixie Youth majors team. The boys have gotten to play together alternating years for the ages 7 and 8, 9 and 10 and 11 and 12 leagues.

“I’m used to him, and it’s fun having him around,” Christian said. “We get along (well).”

Josh said he always gives his brother some words of encouragement before each game.

“I say to him, ‘Let’s do this,’” Josh said.

And there’s definitely some friendly competition between the brothers, too.

“We always talk about who’s going to get the most ground balls, who’s going to have the most hits,” Christian said. “We kind of challenge each other.”

But Josh insisted that neither brother has the upper hand on the other one.

“It’s equal,” Josh said.

Redd Pest head coach Billy Calcote said he enjoys having both brothers on the team, and each of them has a deep desire to win.

“Both of them pitch, and they both play shortstop,” Calcote said. “Both are competitors — they want to win, and so do we. They’re just good kids who are well-mannered.”

Assistant coach David Day, the boys’ father, said it’s great to be able to coach his two sons along with Calcote.

“It’s a lot of fun,” David said. “Anytime you have boys, you hope they’re athletic. They have potential, and it’s a lot of fun having them on the same team.”

Redd Pest got off to a rough start this season, losing the first five games. But heading into Thursday’s matchup against Wittington Insurance, Redd Pest had won four of its last six games.

“We just gelled as a team, and forgot about (the rough start) and started over,” Calcote said. “We knew we had the ability, we just started slow.”

David said the issue at the start of the season was poor hitting.

“We got good pitching, we just didn’t get good hitting,” David said. “Practices are tough with 14 kids, getting them all the correct amount of repetitions and giving them individual attention. I’ve been coaching five or six years, and I’ve never coached 14 kids on one team.”

The numbers are due to just four teams being in the 11- and 12-year-old age group, David said.

“Initially, there were 48 kids, then on draft day we added more and couldn’t turn them away,” David said. “We decided to stick with four teams instead of creating a fifth one.”

Even after losing the first five games, Josh said more intense practices helped the team work through the self-doubt.

“We practiced harder,” Josh said. “We got down on ourselves at first, but we won a couple of games, and it gave us more confidence.”