CUYAHOGA FALLS: The Woodridge High School baseball team finished last season with a bitter taste in its mouth.

After winning more than 50 games the past two seasons, the Bulldogs were stopped in a Division III regional semifinal for the second consecutive season.

''The past two years we have made it to the Sweet 16 and got knocked out there,'' senior outfielder/pitcher Nick Jones said. ''It has not been the best feeling; Lost at the same field, same time each year.''

Those two semifinal losses — to Burton Berkshire in 2006 and Youngstown Ursuline last year, both games at Massillon's Carl ''Duckey'' Schroeder Field — are what drives Jones and the Bulldogs to their goal this season: getting past regionals and earning a state championship ring.

''Hopefully we can just go farther than we did last year,'' senior catcher Mike DeBord said. ''It's pretty cool getting back there for the second time and winning two district championships, but we'll all tell you it wasn't enough. We definitely should have gone farther last year, and hopefully we will this year, too.''

The Bulldogs have many reasons to think they can make it all the way this season. Seven starters return as well as four other letterman, giving coach Dennis Dever plenty of depth at the plate and on the mound.

Woodridge hit .373 as a team last season behind seniors Jones, DeBord, Joe Le
wandowski and Jordan Wilhite. All four had batting averages better than .400, and fellow senior Dave Krusinski hit a respectable .366.

''We really focus a lot on hitting every day,'' Dever said. ''If our kids work on it, they really see the results.''

It is obvious both Jones and DeBord have put in the necessary work. The seniors tore up the Portage Trail Conference County Division last year as they led the team with averages better than .460.

Each clubbed four home runs, striking out only a combined 12 times. DeBord struck out seven times in 94 at-bats; Jones only whiffed five times in 90 at-bats.

As good as this team hits, it will be the pitching that will dictate how far the Bulldogs can go.

''We are always going to have pitching,'' DeBord said. ''We have four guys coming back; our three seniors are going to be great for us.''

DeBord would know best. He has been the starting catcher since his freshman year, winning Division III All-Ohio second-team honors last year.

Seniors Jones, Krusinski and Wilhite (All-Ohio honorable mention), coupled with sophomore Anthony Westren provide a deep pitching staff.

Jones, a left-hander who earned All-Ohio first-team honors last year, struck out 58 hitters in 37 innings, compiling a 1.70 ERA.

''At the high school level right now, he is probably a little bit better outfielder,'' Dever said. ''But I think in the long run the position where he has the most potential is at pitcher because of being left handed and he has three quality pitches. He can get a lot of guys out with that.''

Jones, who will play for Savannah (Ga.) College next year, offers a mid-80s fastball, curve and change-up.

''He can't throw it straight,'' DeBord said. ''He really can't. It's such a big advantage when he throws that fastball.''

Krusinski and Wilhite shouldn't be thought of as secondary pitchers behind Jones, however. Wilhite struck out 68 hitters in 48 innings as he went 8-2 with two saves last season.

Krusinski, who will head to Walsh University on a partial scholarship next year, will be trying to equal his junior season where he went undefeated (7-0).

''Krusinski has always had the best curveball,'' DeBord said. ''He has that 12-6 (curveball) and it's just filthy, but Nick probably has the best fastball just because it moves so much and is so hard to hit. He has the best change-up, too.''

It all adds up to what appears to be another run at a regional title for Woodridge and possibly more. The Bulldogs have only one thing on their collective mind heading into the 2008 season.

''When we break practice every day it's, 'State on three,' '' Jones said. ''That's how we end practice every day so we all have it in our mind-set.''