As odd as that sounds, it's probably one of the reasons for the placement with us. I think I had established the most trust with Naomi.

It's a big shopping day for us,

Giving us the 12th seed was the best thing they did for us. No one ever expects you to do anything but lose the first game ... we were so happy to get that seed. It motivated us. Every game, we tried that much more and played that much better. We all had it in our minds we wanted to make it to the state championship.

We said the state messed up by putting 16 teams in the state tournament and giving us a spot. We knew we were going to turn some heads.

He hits his spots all game. He kept us off-balance because he had a good 12-6 curveball and a slider and he threw a changeup well. He threw everything for strikes.

Daniel was a pretty unfit kid for a little while.