WARDEN – With an 11-5 record, the Warden Cougars are entering the final two weeks of the regular season with the goal of staying strong in their push for the postseason, according to Head Coach Travis Visker.

“This is a good group of fine young men,” Visker said. “They’re committed to the game of baseball, they show up every day wanting to improve and get better. They’re a pretty fun group to work with.”

After a 2-3 start to the season, the Cougars rallied off eight wins over their next nine outings to improve to 10-4. A strong sense of team chemistry has helped Warden players out on the field, Visker said.

“We all get along, and it’s fun to come to the ballpark with a good group of players,” Visker said. “They push each other to get better and make it a fun environment where everybody looks forward to come in and work.”

Warden’s 184 runs scored leads the Eastern Washington Athletic Conference (East), 22 more than second-place River View.

“(It’s) the work we put in in the cages,” Visker said. “I tell the guys, even when we get up on a team, I’ll slow down on the bases but I’m never going to take the bats out of their hands. You work so hard to work on a good, quality swing, and it’s something that we always try to get better, no matter what the score is.”

The six-game winning streak the Cougars had put together was snapped by Tri-Cities Prep with an 11-1 loss on Saturday, though Warden answered with a 2-0 win in the nightcap of the doubleheader.

“We strung a few more hits together,” Visker said. “The first game, we had a few players dealing with some sore arms a little bit, pitching-wise. The second game, we knew we needed to, at the bare minimum, we had to split with Tri-Cities Prep. They’re a very good baseball team, and we knew we could compete with them.”

Cougar pitchers Kayden Cox, Tyson Visker and Roger Ozuna held the Jaguar batters to four hits and struck out nine batters in the win.

“A lot of credit goes toward our pitchers, they really did a good job of keeping us in the game,” Visker said.

With a strong core of senior players, Visker said a number of the Cougar players have stepped up when needed throughout the season.

“It seems like every day somebody steps up, and that’s what we need,” Visker said. “Everybody’s not going to have a good day every day. When somebody’s not having their best say, someone else needs to step up and fill that role.”

Warden’s final two games of the regular season are a home doubleheader against River View, who is 14-1 and also shares the same record in league games as the Cougars (5-1). If Warden were to sweep, the Cougars would win the EWAC East, and if the doubleheader were to be split there would be a three-way tie between Warden, River View and Tri-Cities Prep.

“The main goal is to play our best baseball at the end of the season, and gearing up to play in the playoffs,” Visker said. “Our ultimate goal is to succeed in the playoffs.”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.