Warren will take on Sharon in the first round of the District 10 Class 4A playoffs today at 1 p.m

After giving his team Wednesday off, Warren coach Rick Eaton had a message for them before practice on Thursday.

“The first thing I told them was ‘I don’t know if you guys realize it, but there’s a champion in this dugout over here too,'” Eaton said.

That was of course in reference to the loss the Dragons suffered to Harbor Creek on Monday to split the Region 6 title with the Huskies, who engaged in a spirited celebration at Old Legion Field while the Dragons watched.

If Eaton had any questions about how his team would respond to not just dropping a game, but leading 7-6 going in the seventh, three outs away from the outright title, they were answered the very next day. All Warren did was come out and earn a 9-7 win over Cathedral Prep, which was 16-1 and the top ranked Class 5A team in the state by MaxPreps.

That closed out a 15-4 regular season for the Dragons, as they now get set to host Sharon today in the first round of the District 10 Class 4A playoffs.

There’s a simple yet perfect reason for that resilency.

“We’ve all gotten closer and we’ve came together,” said Braidy Blair, one of two seniors on the team along with Seth Baldensperger. “We’re working hard every day.”

Because of that youth, many didn’t expect the Dragons to accomplish as much as they’ve had to this point in the season.

“We’re young, we weren’t expected to go very far, but we’ve worked hard and gotten to this point,” Blair said.

It’s a team that took some time to find its groove at the plate, but has certainly been rolling in the second half of the season. Over their last seven games, they are averaging 8.8 runs per game.

There’s a reason for that.

“The first time through we don’t always see the pitcher very well, but we make sure we see what he throws and the second time we’re all over him,” said sophomore catcher Aidan Morrison. “The second time through the region this year we were driving the ball.”

Morrison leads the team in extra base hits and his 15 RBIs are second on the team behind classmate Austyn Cummings, who has 18. Cummings leads the team with a .423 batting average, with Nate Betts checking in at .364, Colby Johnson at .340, and Derek Knapp .339.

Knapp, like his teammates, stressed the importance of a team-first concept.

“Just being a team and having our own game, our game,” he said in regards to the keys for the Dragons’ success. “That’s what keeps us going and brings us together.”

While the offense has come on the second half of the season, the pitching has been solid from day one.

Their top three pitchers – Matt Leonard, Baldensperger and Johnson boast ERAs of 1.44, 2.50 and 1.36 respectively. They stifled Region 6 six opponents all season and will be key to the Dragons’ postseason success.

“We have confidence in each other. I have confidence in them and they have confidence in me,” Morrison said. “We study the batters a lot. I’ve been playing with Colby, Matt and Seth for years. They’ve gotten better, obviously and I’ve known what they throw for a long time. It also helps playing together in the summer.”

That confidence gives the Dragon pitchers the ability to throw any pitch at any point in the count.

And while Warren hasn’t been perfect defensively, the combination of Johnson (when he isn’t pitching), Lance Baldensperger, Cummings and Owen Balas in the outfield, as well as Knapp, Betts, Mitch Grosch, Seth Baldensperger, Blair and Leonard in the infield at Morrison behind the plate, has been solid.

And they will get the chance to run out of the Legion field dugout one more time this season. Should they win, quarterfinal games are at neutral sites.

They will be facing a Sharon team that checks in at 6-12 and is led offensively by Nick Weisen’s .373 average and Joe Faber and Dante Dellibovi’s 13 RBIs.

On the mound Faber leads the team with 32 1/3 innings pitch and sports a 4.98 ERA. Michael Piccirilli is second on the team in innings pitched at 28 2/3 with an ERA of 6.59.

“We have a home playoff game, you can’t ask for anything more than that,” Eaton said. “Come out ready to play get a ‘W,’ that’s our goal. “We have to come out and play our best game tomorrow and move on. That’s what our goal is.”

Eaton, like his players, believes that if his team plays its best, they are capable of making a deep run.

“We just have to keep hitting the ball, limit the errors and play good defense,” Blair said.

Added Knapp: “It’s going to be pretty cool to have our first playoff game be a home game.”

And things won’t always be perfect, but this team has shown an ability to bounce back from mistakes, a quality that is just one of the reasons they are such a strong team.

“We’re going to make errors and stuff like that’s going to happen,” Morrison said. “We just have to move on and keep playing.”