Heading into the state championships, the Oak Harbor Junior “A” baseball players are setting their sights on the trophy.

As the top seed for District 1, the Wildcats will be the team to beat, having already defeated the other three teams from the district.

“I can see this team taking it all,” said manager Mark Naymik. “San Juan, Burlington, and Snohomish were all teams we came out on top of during districts. During the regular season, we split games with both San Juan and Burlington. The only game we faced Snohomish in was during districts, which we won 2-1.”

Naymik said the other four teams will come from districts 3, 5, and 6, each team either seeded one or two from their respective playoffs.

Complacency will not work at state for the able, local team. Aggressive and controlled play will be tantamount to victory.

“The boys will have to play fundamentally sound baseball, and keep up the offensive attack,” the manager said, adding that the pitching staff had a 1.17 ERA and a team batting average of .363 during the district tournament. “Because our bullpen is so deep, we were able to throw fresh arms at the other guys.”

Naymik and his coaching staff also scouted the opposition fastidiously, looking for any chinks in the armor.

“With these numbers and good coaching, you can see why we were the champions,” he said.

The Wildcats will play their first game on Saturday at 5 p.m. in Mount Vernon at the Skagit Valley College Dream Field.

“The boys are pumped and hungry to win,” Naymik said. “So are we as coaches.”