I don't really know if anybody's got a realistic shot at winning the conference outside of Mascoutah.

It's an exciting challenge for us. We've got a monumental task in front of us, no doubt. But I think our guys will be ready.

That's something we talk to the guys about over and over in practice. When you get on a good run, you want to try to extend it as much as you can. We got on a good run there and stayed on it and most of the time our defense was fueling that.

That's pretty uncharacteristic of the way we've played. It's hard to overcome that. When you're not getting shots at the goal at all ... we were lucky to probably be where we were.

The Nigerian problem is driving oil prices ? it's a pure security question.

The Nigerian problem is driving oil prices -- it's a pure security question. If the posturing over Iran continues, then we will see oil prices go the same way again.

I told them when we went out in the field in the top of the sixth to get three outs and win it in the bottom half.

It's a tradeoff that we'll take at this point. We're very happy with our victory and we thought we played pretty well tonight.

They're maturing. Last year it was a lot of freshmen in the field, and we've worked hard on defense. We'll continue to work hard on defense. They've got confidence in themselves now, and they're confident they can make plays.

They played great defense. I thought we hit the balls that were going to fall. They made some great plays, and that was the difference in the ball game. They had a couple find the holes, and we had a couple that didn't. We're starting to swing the bat a lot better. We're starting to hit the ball solid.