Shumaker will be our horse. He throws in the upper 60s and low 70s in big games.

I don't even think its sunk in yet how lucky or how big this is going to be. They are just taking it in stride, and they are eating it up. It's going to be an everlasting memory for each and every one of them.

It was a great place to grow up, and I had a lot of fun there. Once you start a family and move away to a bigger city, you tend to appreciate the small-town living of Ottumwa.

This is a bunch of kids that are big game players that step up in the limelight. We have a lot of mentally tough kids.

I think the streak can lay into our favor, because I think we're going to be overlooked. This is the best Davenport team we've had since 2000. I like our chances. If we don't come out of here at least 2-1 and don't have an opportunity to be in the elimination round, I'm going to be disappointed.

We will need to settle in and mature very quickly. We will need to be very poised in those games and find a way to be successful early, before we hit the Ivy League portion of our schedule. That's where the maturity of our older guys, as small as that class is, will have to come into play.