When the Gulf Coast Bank 29ers take the field in the American Legion State Tournament this weekend, there is every possibility several players on the team will be donning baseball uniforms for the final time.

Should Abbeville fall out of the double-elimination tournament, one of the 29ers who will have played his last baseball is AHS grad Brett Meaux.

Meaux, 19, played football and baseball for Abbeville High until he graduated in 2011.

Like most baseball players, he began playing the sport in T-ball at an early age. He also played pee wee football as a child.

He said he misses playing football, but that he’s excited about the state tournament.

“I hope we go in there and get some wins,” he said. “Hopefully we win it. I’m playing to win. I’m going to play my heart out.”

Meaux has worked and gone to school since then, but is in full-on baseball mode right now.

“I don’t like knowing I’m about to be done with ball,” he said of his knowledge that he is likely enjoying his last experience as a baseball player. “But, I might as well play it while I can now. Because, once you’re done, that’s it.”

Meaux plays mainly second base for the 29ers. In most games, he is sharing the infield with his friend and former AHS teammate R.J. Frederick, who plays short stop when not pitching for the 29ers.

As a receiver on the Wildcats football team, Meaux caught many a pass from then-QB Frederick. The two remain close to this day.

“He’s my best friend,” Meaux said of his buddy Frederick. “We’re like the same person pretty much. We’re both competitive and love to play sports... We’ve been close since middle school.”

Meaux said he is right where he wants to be manning the middle infield with his old friend and that he feels their hard-earned chemistry is an asset.

“We had that quarterback wide receiver connection,” he said. “With him at short stop and me at second, I think it’s a pretty good middle infield... We just know what each other’s going to do.”

The 29ers will start the tournament off this week playing Retif Oil, which is made up mainly of players from Jesuit in New Orleans.

Jesuit made it to the semifinal round of the 5A high school playoffs this past season, losing 4-1 to eventual champion Barbe.

Meaux was on last year’s 29ers team that finished third in the state tournament. Retif Oil finished second after a 5-3 loss to Gauthier & Amedee in the final.

Meaux said he fully understands the difficulty of the task at hand.

“I know they’ll be good. We saw them play last year at the state tournament,” he said. “From what I saw last year, they’re pretty good.

“But, if we get our pitching right and play good behind our pitchers, we’ll be all right.”

When his season is done, Meaux said he does not yet know what career path he will pursue. Of course, at 19 years old, he still has time. And, for right now at least, he still has some baseball left to play.

Brett is the son of Billy and Becky Meaux of Abbeville. He has a sister, Becky, 22 and a brother, B.J., 20.