He's been on fire. We've been facing good pitching and the kids have been competing. That's all I ask for. We've been swinging the bat well. It was nice to see us get some two-out hits.

He did what we wanted him to do. He mixed it up a little bit and kept us in the game.

We know he's got power. Sometimes, you don't know what you're going to get. I decided to give him a start to see what he does. We tell the kids they've got to be ready when they get the call.

I thought Faulkner established himself as a legitimate ace. It was our first time out and we had some errors, but the kids battled back. I'm pretty happy with the way we hung tough. This is a senior-laden team and I have a lot of kids with character.