From day one, Buckingham County Youth League (BCYL) Coach Pitch All-Stars Manager D.D. Edwards noticed a remarkable level of discipline from the 7- and 8-year-old boys that make up his team, and that discipline has translated into a district title.

The BCYL Coach Pitch All-Stars went 3-0 in the recent District 4 Dixie Youth Baseball Coach Pitch All-Star Tournament in Scottsville, beating the Goochland All-Star team twice after opening with a win over the Amelia All-Stars.

Buckingham returns to the field Friday in Brookneal in the state tournament, facing Timberlake at 8 p.m.

“These kids are the biggest pleasure to deal with,” Edwards said of his players. “I’ve been doing this and my assistant coaches, collectively, for a number of years. I don’t know what’s so special about these guys compared with others. It’s just their resiliency and their competitiveness.”

He recalled the team’s first practice. While he and his coaches sorted out paperwork beforehand, they sent the boys by themselves over to the nearby practice field for a brief time.

“You would expect after 15, 20 minutes, you’d go over, and they’re kidding around and just joking and whatnot,” Edwards said.

This was not the case. He noted that every one of the boys was lined up, warming up, with no goofing around and no questions asked.

“(I’ve) never seen or been a part of a group kids, especially at that age level, that were that all-business, and that was impressive,” Edwards said. “And that’s just led from that day forward. That’s every day with those guys. It’s all business.”

The BCYL Coach Pitch All-Stars defeated Amelia 16-14 on June 23 to open their district tourney run.

The next day, they topped Goochland 19-9 in five innings.

After a June 25th bye, the Buckingham squad won 27-16 against Goochland in the title game June 26.

“Top to bottom, honestly, we hit the ball extremely hard, probably as hard as any Coach Pitch team I’ve been a part of or witnessed,” Edwards said, later adding that “we had two kids that actually batted over .900 through the tournament, and I thought that was pretty significant.”

Those players were Ty Wilkerson, who batted .923, including hitting an error-free inside-the-park home run, and Dawson Edwards, who batted .909.

The manager said Buckingham’s best game was probably its 19-9 victory in which it demonstrated timely hitting and defense.

“This team, we’ve taken pride in kind of building it around defense,” Edwards said.

He made a point to praise his coaching staff for coming together and working tirelessly with the players. The coaches include Dusty Allen, Robert Bishop and J.T. Gilliam.

He expressed gratitude to Scottsville for hosting a smooth, well-run tournament.