Eudora High baseball coach Dirk Kinney knew it would be difficult to follow up on the Cardinals’ runner-up finish at the 2006 Class 4A state tournament after losing a core group of seniors.

Fortunately for the fifth-year coach, he had a solid group of juniors this year that got Eudora to a 12-6 record and a spot in the regional semifinals.

“We had a lot of good sophomores that didn’t get to play a lot because we had such an outstanding senior class,” said Kinney, the Journal-World’s 2007 All-Area Baseball Coach of the Year, about his 2006 squad. “But the sophomores, at the same time, got a lot better last summer, and it showed this year.

“A couple ground balls and we’re probably looking at a different seed in (regionals) and probably a little better record. But at the same time, you win 70 percent of your games, you can’t complain when you lose six starters and seven pretty good seniors.”

However, the Cardinals got a bad draw in the regional semis – Kansas City Ward.

Ward defeated Eudora in the state title game in 2006 and, after beating the Cardinals this year, went on to win its fifth consecutive 4A state championship.

“They’ve got our number – but they’ve got a lot of people’s number,” Kinney said. “But like I tell the boys, there’s 64 teams and only one of them ends up being happy. We’ve just got to figure out a way to beat those guys. We’re just going to have to keep working, and eventually we’ll catch them.”

Although they lost in the second round of regional action, Kinney said he was impressed with his team’s ability to make it past first-round opponent Spring Hill.

“It was a big win for us because they have probably one of the best pitchers probably in 4A,” said Kinney, who has a record of 87-21 at EHS. “He’s a very tough lefty, and I believe he was undefeated going into that game. We hit the ball pretty well and did a lot of good things, and (junior) Brian White stepped up for us on the mound, going 5-1 (for the season).”

Despite All-Area first-team outfielder Kent Swanson graduating, Kinney said next year’s team looks to have a similar set up as the 2006 runner-up squad with fellow first-teamers Chad Krutz (third base) and Matthew Abel (outfield) leading a large senior class.

“We’ll have a lot of good seniors, we’ve got an extremely talented to-be-sophomore class and we’ve got a couple of good juniors,” Kinney said. “It should be a fine club next year. I’m pretty excited about it. We should have a majority of the team back, and I think all the boys are pretty excited about it.”