Let me say a little more right now catch and throw or at least keep the ball in front of him on defense. Teach mechanics and a good batting stance and form. Eli is 11 now and we work a lot leading up to the season starting normally 3 days a week anything from just throwing around in the yard to actual pitching practice and a ton of batting cage work. Once we start team practice which is twice a week we still try to get a extra day of hitting and pitching in and his batting average shows that. As others said at 8 defense is going to win the games most teams will but the ball in play. The team that makes the least errors will win 90% of the time.