Kingsville All-Stars coach Joe Zappitelli has always believed in buildings his teams around two things — pitching and defense.

And now, more than ever, he needs that philosophy to pay off.

For the first time in as long as anyone associated with Kingsville Little League can remember, a Kingsville boys team is headed to the state tournament.

The Kingsville 10- an 11-year-olds will travel to Cambridge to kick off the state baseball tournament Saturday against the District 11 (Northwest Ohio) representative.

And when Kingsville gets there, it will lean heavily on its pitching.

“You’re going to have to go four or five pitchers deep to win the tournament,” manager Joe Zappitelli said. “You can’t go three like we did the first round.”

Those three were Joey Zappitelli, Daniel Joslin and Connor McLaughlin.

“They all have decent velocity,” Zappitelli said. “Connor throws probably the fastest of all three of them. I tend to use him as a closer. Joey has the best control and ball movement. Daniel has a good fastball, but a very, very good changeup. All three of them have pitched for many years.”

And, just as important for a team making it’s first state appearance in ages, they all keep their cool about them on the mound.

“You can have all the talent in the world, and if you don’t have the right head on your shoulders, you’re in trouble,” Zappitelli said. “You’re really a man on an island out there.”

Aside from his usual trio, Zappitelli will also throw Zak Nunistl and Zach Rogers on the mound in this tournament. And in his five-man pitching staff, Zappitelli’s confidence goes five men deep.

“As a coach, the biggest challenge for me is the depth of pitching. I think I have more than normal for most small towns in this area,” the manager said. “But I don’t know if we’re going to go against teams that have seven, eight pitchers deep.”

If that’s the case, Kingsville will have to rely on an offense that’s built to manufacture runs. Joey Zappitelli and McLaughlin provide the big sticks from the plate.

But the rest of the lineup is about setting the table.

Joslin, who Zappitelli describes as a “phenomenal bunter” leads things off for Kingsville.

“He’s a fast runner too. I can’t remember the last time he got thrown out stealing,” Zappitelli said. “And a very, very good center fielder. One of the best around. I don’t think many people realize how important a center fielder is. He’s the glue of the outfield.”

Then there are there’s Kingsville’s RBI guys, Zach Laugnand and Payton Boggs.

“Them two are just our middle of the order hitters,” Zappitelli said. “They know their responsibilities — getting guys in. A ground ball, fly ball, bunt, whatever to get guys in and runners over. Their job is to put balls in play.”

But Zappitelli said the most important part of his lineup is the very bottom. When Tyler Dufour, Connor DeGeorge and Nunistl are getting on base, Kingsville is putting crooked numbers on the scoreboard.

“They’re very good at small-ball,” Zappitelli said. “That’s what we work with on the bottom of the lineup, small ball. Our best high-scoring games are when our bottom of the lineup is getting on base a lot.”

In fact, hitting has been the area Kingsville has spent the most time working on in practice.

“That’s probably what we need to work on the most, more than anything, is hitting. Half our team is from the minor league level and had to get them caught up with the rest of the players,” Zappitelli said.

So the coaches put their players to work. Hitting rubber balls out of a pitching machine. Hitting miniature balls out of another machine. Having kids hit against their best pitchers.

And, if what the coaches are seeing in practice is any indication, the hard work has paid off.

“We went back to teaching the fundamentals,” assistant coach Patrick Arcaro said. “Right now, they’re hitting excellent.”

And Arcaro lists Phil Sarbiewski and Zach Rogers as the most improved of all their hitters.

Their stances were a little bit unorthodox at first, but we’ve gotten to the point where their weight — shifting back to front — is giving them better contact,” Arcaro said. “They’ve really come a long way.”

It’s emblematic of the effort Kingsville has put in since tournament play started.

“The team is very determined. They just want to push forward,” Zappitelli said. “We’re very proud of them, win or lose. They expect to go down there and win. So hopefully we can do that.”