USAFA — For the first time since 2016, the Air Force baseball is headed to the Mountain West Conference Championship tournament as the No. 4 seed.
It is the Falcon's 12th appearance in the tourney, with a 6 & 21 overall postseason record.
"Our mission at the Academy is very simple: fly, fight, win," said head coach Mike Kazlausky. "So we're not going out there to play two games or three games. We are going out there to win and make the first ever regional for the Air Force Academy."
Air Force was an enen 15 & 15 in conference play, coming in second in the Mountain West in batting average, slugging percentage and runs scored.
"I think the biggest thing is trusting the process and the preparation we have done and not trying to get too big and do anything special for the moment," explained sophomore infielder Sam Kulasingam, who led the conference in batting average. "Just taking it in as another game. Just trusting what we've been doing all year, it's worked. We are just trying to continue the processes we've been doing."
"I would guess that no one wants to play us like more than any other team," added sophomore pitcher Paul Skenes, who leads the Mountain West in wins and is second in era. "I wouldn't want to playoffs but I'm confident going in and at least we are in that's kind of our mindset and now we just got to go out there and win it.
Air Force will begin tournament play on Thursday when they face No. 1 seed UNLV at 7 p.m. at San Diego State's Tony Gwynn Stadium.
_____
Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.
