Coach Rocky Manuel and his Bellaire Cardinals begin every season planning on making it to the state tournament ..... but that's not quite the same team goal for the Westside Wolves each year.

While Bellaire has multiple state titles to it's credit .... Westside ...during it's short 8 year history .... has made it to the Regional Quarter-Finals once ....but that's all. This year though could be different. Westside is on a roll. The Wolves have won 29 of the 32 games they've played this year. Their two starting pitchers have carried the load. Left-hander Taylor Wall ... who's committed to Rice ....and Right-hander Michael Goodnight .. who's committed to U.H. Head coach Emrick Jagneaux says,"These two have done a great job for us for all four years. It's like we always say ... we've got a left and right handed punch ... and we're gonna try and knock you out with one of them."

Goodnight is considered a power pitcher and he says,"We didn't know what we had at the start of the season ... but we wound up winning 11 straight so that's when we knew that we were for real. So we've just ridden that all the way into the playoffs."

Westside has already beaten Bellaire twice this year ... but winning another series won't be easy ... still the Wolves say they have added incentive. Wall says,"Ya know their Coach Manuel over there .. he said they're the Notre Dame of High School Baseball and so we're like ... okay.....(we) put a little poster on the wall to motivate us and it gets us going pretty good!"

The winner of the Bellaire/Westside series goes to state.