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By David Boyce  |  Northwest vs. Central Missouri  |  Thursday May 12, 2016  •  4 p.m.  |  St. Charles, Mo.  |  Live Stats

MARYVILLE, Mo. - As Northwest Missouri State baseball team rolled away from town to St. Charles Wednesday afternoon, coach Darin Loe wanted the players to understand a couple of things before playing its next game.
 
"You deserve to be here," Loe said. "Our last few games haven't gone our way. We won enough games in the middle so you certainly deserve to be here with the other seven teams in conference.
 
"Don't be satisfied with just making the tournament. Go in there and make a run and see how far we can go. Relax and have fun."
 
On paper, the Bearcats face a stiff challenge at 4 p.m. Thursday when they take on No. 1 seed Central Missouri in the opening round of the MIAA Baseball Championship at Lou Brock Complex.
 
Like in many seasons over the last two decades, Central Missouri enters the conference postseason tournament as the team to beat. The Mules concluded the regular season on a seven-game winning streak that pushed their record to 34-12 overall and 32-7 in the MIAA.
 
In contrast, Northwest finished the regular-season losing its last seven games, but there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic.
 
For one, the Bearcats last two losses were by one run. In addition, in a three-game series at Central Missouri March 24-26, Northwest lost the last two games by a run.
 
"We made a couple of mistakes late and they took advantage of them like a true Central Missouri team does," Loe said.  "Playing them at a neutral site, hopefully that helps us out a little bit.
 
"When you look at the conference tournament, the eight teams that are in it, there is not a whole lot of difference between the eight seed and the one seed. We feel confident we can go in and compete with anybody."
 
In the opener, Loe plans to start junior right hand pitcher Anthony Caenepeel.
 
"He is our innings-eater guy," Loe said. "He has had a tremendous year. I think he matches up best against Central Missouri."
 
Loe has the luxury of having a deep pitching staff, so deep that junior Nikko Pablo is No. 4 in the rotation and is used a lot in middle relief.
 
On April 26, Pablo threw a no-hitter against rival Missouri Western. It was just the third no-hitter in Northwest history. The accomplishment earned Pablo the NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week.
 
"It was probably one of the greatest feelings in the world," Pablo said. "I was happy to experience this with my team. A lot of them have never witnessed a no-hitter, and I never threw one.
 
"I didn't really feel nervous. I was making sure I was making good pitches. I know my defense would back me up. Our defense is pretty solid. I trust them. Throw strikes and hopefully they make weak contact and that is what they did."
 
The amazing part was Loe was only planning to use Pablo for three or four innings. Pablo wound up pitching the entire nine innings.
 
"That was a special night," Loe said. "When he got into the fourth and fifth, who am I to take a guy out with a no-hitter. It was exciting. Nikko is a great kid and has great stuff. That night he had it all working, and we played great defense behind him."
 
Pitching and defense is how the Bearcats will attack opponents at the MIAA Baseball Championship.
 
"We have gotten solid pitching all year," Loe said. "When you get solid pitching, you are going to be in just about every ball game. That has been our strength. We pitched it well and played good defense.
 
"We are an offense that isn't going to hit a lot of home runs and not put up big numbers in innings, but we have the ability to grind out some innings and put up 1 and 2 here and there and hopefully it is enough at the end of the game."
 
Before the season started, Pablo said the team believed this was going to be the year the Bearcats returned to the conference tournament.
 
"I felt with the team that we had we were definitely going to make the conference tournament," Pablo said. "We are family. We play baseball with fun and energy. We go out there and don't worry about anything. That is what has helped. We play loose and that is going to help us in the conference tournament."
 
Over the next few days, the only thing on the Bearcats' mind is the conference tournament. Finals are over, school is out.
 
"It is awesome," Pablo said. "It feels like we are professionals because we are playing baseball and that is just about it. We are living the dream right now and having fun."