In days gone by, at the age of 6, most young baseball fans are still just picking out favorite players and their favorite team.

However, the Whitehouse Wildcats T-ball team recently strolled through the Texas Teenage Baseball of Texas district tournament and now these 6-year-old players begin to put their names in baseball fame, qualifying to represent their team and community at the state level.

The recent tournament was held in Jacksonville and the Wildcats went 4-0 in the tournament to earn a berth at the TTAB T-ball state tournament, coming up in Cameron from Monday through Friday.

The Wildcats are 20-4 on the season after the tournament sweep in Jacksonville.

The first game win came against the Whitehouse Tigers. The Wildcats then handed losses to the Jacksonville Bears and the Whitehouse Gators.

As the Wildcats continued to roll, the Gators went the long way back through the consolation bracket to earn a spot in the finals.

The championship game turned into a back-and-forth, hard-fought battle with the Wildcats taking a 28-27 win.

Team members for the Wildcats include pitcher Lane Brinkley, catcher Ethan Flewelling, first baseman Carson Davenport and second baseman Jackson Holt, shortstop Price Bryan and third baseman Jackson Waller. In the outfield, Brandon Hutchinson mans left field, Ethan Ontiveros is the center fielder, with Zachary Moncrief in right field. Also seeing action and able to fill many positions are Carey Cooper, Tory Fuentes, Logan Frazier and Elijah Davey.

Justin Holt is the head coach for the Wildcats and is assisted by Shane Davenport, Trevor Brinkley and Adam Voight.

The Wildcats were the regular season American League champions and were allowed to pick up three players to advance to play at state with the Wildcats.

Carey Cooper comes over from the Whitehouse White Sox, while Brandon Hutchinson and Jackson Waller played in the regular season with the Troup Young Guns.

“We have had a great season so far and I know the players are really fired up about playing at the state tournament,” Holt said. “We had a great regular season and we really had a great tournament and too many standouts to single out any particular team standouts, but it was a total team effort.

“Our trip would not be possible had it not been for several sponsors stepping up to make the funding possible for the young Wildcat crew to embark on their first state competition.”

Sponsors making donations to the team include Soho Construction, Bank of Tyler, Eli Rebich, Hunt Custom Homes, Drs. Lawrence Anderson & Sasha Vukelja, Flowers Davis, PLLC, JMEM, ETEX Enviro Care, Juls, Foot Clinic of East Texas, Real Edge Real Estate and Tire Worx: Tire Center.

Also making donations were Bancorp South, Panel Truss of Longview, Ramey & Flock, Vascular Specialist of East Texas, Tyler Truck Center, Elite Restoration, Mike McCormick, Austin Bank, Drake Real Estate, Chuck Osborn Agency (State Farm Insurance), Brad Sham (voice of the Dallas Cowboys), New Generation Learning Center, Isaacs Wrecker Service, Mike Jeter and Pro One Auto.

Other donators were ABC Auto Parts Whitehouse, Kee Electric, the Whitehouse Firestation, Ozarka Water, Brookshire’s, Moran Munchies, New Life Worship Center, and Kids R Life.

“We cannot thank these sponsors enough for stepping up and making it possible for the team to make the trip,” Holt said. “And in Texas Teenage Baseball, we try to not only teach them the game of baseball, but it also puts an emphasis on teaching the lessons and character learned in winning and losing and having fun with the game that we hope they will all play for many years to come.”