ROANOKE RAPIDS — The Roanoke Valley U12 all-stars will be saddling up and taking a short trip to Oak City to begin their quest for a Eastern North Carolina District title. The local all-star squad, coached by Rick Jordan, will be taking on another local squad in the opening round when they face the Northampton County all-stars at 11 a.m.

Roanoke Valley U12 second baseman Logan Simonowich tags a base runner during a scrimmage Monday afternoon at Dicey King field. Randy Wrenn | Daily Herald Advertisement

The squad prepared for the upcoming tournament with a scrimmage Monday afternoon and are fresh off a round robin weekend warm-up tournament in Rocky Mount. Jordan said the last few weeks of practice have gone well for his U12 squad. “We’ve had about two weeks (together). It’s been going pretty good.”

The U12 squad picked up two wins in the tournament. Jordan added that it took his team a couple of games to all get on the same page, having been pulled from various Roanoke Rapids Parks and Recreation League teams. “I told the boys it was like spring training,” Jordan said. “We were going around, letting everybody play to see how they would come together as a team and who would respond.”

Jordan is no stranger to the all-star tournament, having been an assistant in the past for all-star teams. The long-time coach knew the warm up tournament would be a good opportunity for him and his coaching staff to learn some things about their team. “I learned that we need to get a little more hitting out of them,” he said. “Our defense finally came together and we have two very good pitchers.”

Jordan will depend on Dylan Allen and Logan Simonowich to handle the bulk of the pitching duties during the four day tournament. “They are going to be my No.1 and No. 2 starters,” Jordan said.

There are about five or six guys on the team who play travel ball and who made it to the all-star tournament in the past. So the big stage will not be a surprise to the majority of the team. “If they continue to play like they played (this weekend), I feel very confident that we shall come out as the winners.”