With eight departed senior starters, the Vicksburg Gators faced a major chore this summer to fill the void.

Gators’ summer league coach Kevin Cooksey said the youthful and somewhat inexperienced team has made some strides, capped by a good showing at last week’s State Games of Mississippi high school baseball tournament.

The Gators finished fourth out of the 11 teams entered and just missed earning a bronze medal.

“It was an 18-and-under tournament but we played mainly our under 16s,” Cooksey said. “We won our pool and was seeded first over Clinton, Pearl and Richland.”

The Gators beat Pearl, a team that was their main division rival the last two years, 8-1. They also beat Richland, a 3A school, in a close game. They were to finish pool play against Kemper Academy, but the Rams didn’t show up and the Gators were awarded a win and a berth in the semifinals. They were beaten in the first round by Brookhaven.

“We did good as a team,” said new Gators catcher Taylor Brocato, who will replace Tyler Temple behind the plate. “When the Kemper team didn’t show up we went ahead and played Clinton. Then we played Brookhaven and by then we had some guys with sore arms, but we finished fourth overall out of 11 teams.”

On Thursday, the Gators battled reigning Class 1A state champion St. Aloysius in a collision of Bazinsky Field tennants. The two teams battled to a 7-7 tie.

“I would say we’ve won half our games, but we’ve played some really good teams like Terry and Madison,” Cooksey said. “We didn’t focus on the record. We wanted to make good plays in the field, make good throws and get some at-bats. With eight senior starters gone, we had a lot of holes to fill.

“We have some talented players coming up and the thing was to get them some opportunities to make plays.

The highlight for the Gators, Cooksey said, has been the pitching. They lost ace Brian Fitzgerald and No. 2 starter Kurt Cooksey to graduation and needed to find some inning burners.

“I would say the biggest positive this summer is that we diversified our pitching. We’ve used as many as seven guys on the mound, from Cameron Cooksey, Tony Williams, Jonathan Clay, Taylor Brocato, Keaton Jones, Justin Pettway and Cody Waddell,” Kevin Cooksey said. “We’ve also been able to play all of our guys in multiple positions and that will help them next season.”

Brocato, for one, remains optimistic the Gators can contintue to play at a high level despite moving up to the new Class 6A.

In two seasons as a Class 4A school, Vicksburg won 47 games, two division championships and reached the state finals in 2008.

“We knew with so many seniors leaving last season, it would be a tough road for us,” Brocato said. “But I think things will work themselves out.”

*

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com