We've got a great coaching staff and it's an honor to be in such a classy community that cares so much about its baseball team. We want to represent the Smoky Bear nation with pride.

We have a young team that is very inexperienced and at times when we don't throw strikes, their focus can wane from time to time.

There will be some nights when we don't have the talent to match up with the team opposite us, but I fully expect our kids to compete every day.

We had him on the ropes. We got five on him real quick and then our guys eased up and didn't keep the pressure on him. We started to take too many strikes and that allowed him to get in a rhythm, and then he became very tough.