The baseball team (14-15 overall, 8-7 in district) looks to beat the Hallsville Bobcats (25-4, 11-2) in their first round of playoffs as they travel to Hallsville on Friday, May 5 for 7 p.m. matchup and then host their opponent on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

“I think it will be a very tough fought battle,” senior outfielder Reed Fraser said. “It will come down to who comes prepared and focused mentally and who can play their best defense without errors. We have relied on that as our strong point for most of the year and it has brought us a lot of success.”

Making the postseason comes with its share of anxiety, senior outfielder Grant Doig said.

“I think I’d be lying if I said there weren’t any nerves,” Doig said. “In the end we just have to go in and rely on our strengths and hope for a good outcome.”

The Leopards secured the playoff spot from a coin flip, after finishing district play tied with Wylie East and North Forney for the fourth spot. To celebrate, the players all got unique haircuts.

“We thought it would be really fun to bond as a team,” Fraser said. “Couple of years ago when the baseball team made playoffs they all bleached their hair. We thought it would all be fun to have a different haircut and get some lines. Just mix it up a little bit before the playoff race.”

Fraser said as long as they stay composed, they can beat the Bobcats who are ranked 19th in the state in class 5A according to TxHighSchoolBaseball.com.

“Hallsville has nothing flashy or extremely outgoing,” Fraser said. “They just play small ball and are aggressive just like us so we should be very even with them. As long as we keep our core values of playing the game the same way we have then we will be fine.”

The baseball team has focused more on their strengths in practice for the upcoming games.

“We’ve been working a lot on pitching speeds in practice to really prepare,” Doig said. “If we play to our strengths of really good pitching and errorless defense and timely hitting then we’ll have a great chance of advancing to the next round.”

Senior shortstop Matthew Almy said the “underdog” perspective will help beat the 2016 Regional Quarterfinalist Bobcats.

“Our team is young and poised for greatness,” Almy said. “We focus and work hard each day to worry about the team that is in front of us and not down the road. Our focus is playing Hallsville tomorrow where we will stamp our name into the state of Texas. As the captain, I have told the team to play our Lojo mojo baseball which will put us in each game we play.”