My son played LL, LL all stars and travel in his preteen years. I don’t believe where a kid plays as a preteen makes a difference. What matters is the passion he develops for the game and how much time he’s willing to put into it. From nine to twelve my son and I were always practicing away from his teams. He never saw it as work. It was nothing but fun to him.
Conversely, my daughter never practiced softball away from her teams until high school. Then she went into intense mode on softball despite playing two other sports. Both kids ended up at the same level of college baseball/softball. My son was better in college. But he was the “it” kid starting with four year old soccer. My daughter started being more consumed with graduating PBK than softball by junior year. Talk about misguided priorities! 😁