Eudora ? By his own admission, Eudora High baseball coach Dirk Kinney isn’t the easiest guy to play for.

He rants. He raves. He’ll throw his entire team out of practice on a whim.

He demands all players and coaches wear long, dark sleeves at every practice – no matter the onset of hot, humid Kansas spring afternoons.

The one and only water break comes at the conclusion of batting practice. Never before. Never after.

Some might argue it’s madness. If so, the method behind it finally comes to light in Kinney’s parting words during a late May discussion about his 2006 ballclub, particularly the seven seniors who have led the Cardinals into uncharted waters.

“They just take ownership,” says Kinney with more than an ounce of pride. “When they mess up, they know what they’ve done wrong.”

Personal responsibility. Discipline. Learning from mistakes. Playing the game the right way.

It’s a winning formula that’s made Eudora – a school that had never previously qualified for the state baseball playoffs – the team that everyone will be hunting when this year’s version of the Class 4A state tournament begins Friday at Dean Evans Stadium in Salina.

Armed with a 22-1 record, the Cardinals enter this weekend’s eight-team shindig as the No. 1 seed and will open tournament play with an 11 a.m. tilt against eighth-seeded Wellington (11-10).

Led by the senior class, from left, of Mark Abel, Kyle Brouhard, Austin Calhoon, Rodney Spillman, Chad Griffin, Luke Abel (seated left) and Miles Cleveland (seated right), the Eudora High baseball team rolls into this year's Class 4A state baseball tournament as the top seed with a 22-1 record.

At a school where athletic excellence has increasingly become the rule and not the exception, the Cardinals’ baseball bunch is thrilled to finally earn its role on the state stage.

“It feels great just because we’ve had great teams through my four years and every year we’ve come up a little bit short,” said senior first baseman Chad Griffin, who is headed to Emporia State next year on a baseball scholarship.

“Everyone on the team expected us to do real well and we went out and played the game the way that we know how. We didn’t accept failure.”

That’s not a word anyone associated with Eudora would recognize during Kinney’s four-year tenure at the Cardinals’ helm. After a 14-7 record during his rookie campaign, the intense field general has piloted the program to a 59-9 mark the last three seasons.

It’s a string of success built on the foundation of a senior class that came in with Kinney as precocious freshmen and in the ensuing four years has blossomed into a collection of senior leaders who not only know how to play the game, but play it well.

“It doesn’t matter who you have for a coach, you’ve got to have horses,” Kinney said. “And we’ve got horses – there’s no doubt about that.”

Offensively, Eudora is averaging 10 runs per game, and the six members of the Class of 2006 who play regularly – Luke Abel, Mark Abel, Kyle Brouhard, Miles Cleveland, Rodney Spillman and Griffin – are each hitting .338 or better. The Cardinals sport a gaudy team batting average of .378, and their on-base percentage of .516 means better than one out of every two batters to step up to the plate has reached base this spring.

Brouhard, the starting shortstop, also serves as a solid No. 2 starter, posting an 8-0 record and a 1.75 earned-run average, while Mark Abel has a 3-0 mark in limited duty.

Then again, for all the senior star power, it’s the right arm of a junior – Kelson Boyer – that will play a pivotal role in deciding how many more spins are left in the Cardinals’ fairy-tale carousel.

The unbeaten staff ace will take his 8-0 record, 0.77 ERA and 19-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio to the mound in the state opener. He’ll also come equipped with the full support of his elder teammates who know this is their last shot to go out a winner.

“We have all the confidence in the world (in him),” Griffin said. “We put faith in him in the beginning of the season … and he’s gotten it done. There’s no reason to look back now.”

No, for all the feel-good stories about one-loss regular seasons and special bonds between teammates, it’s all about looking forward to the possibility of three more games and a place in Kansas baseball lore.

“The state championship is definitely the goal and the achievement that we want,” said Mark Abel, who plays center field and takes over at short when Brouhard’s on the mound. “I would be disappointed if we didn’t come back with the state championship.”