"We knew we'd have a bullseye on our backs and we were going to see everybody's best, and that's a good thing. We wanted that, it makes us better. The No. 1 thing we were going to fight all year was complacency --- when you're going out and beating some pretty good teams by 10 runs, it's very easy to get complacent.

"They think: 'Well, if I don't get it done, the guy behind me (in the lineup) will pick me up. And they usually do. But when you start relying on that, that's when the runs quit coming."

South Callaway is currently 20-3 and ranked second in the state in Class 3. Not too shabby. But if they needed something to shake them out of complacency, they got it last week in Westphalia.

Fatima 3, South Callaway 1

"That should be a wake-up call," Lepper said.

Skyer Dickneite handcuffed the Bulldogs --- who were averaging 10 runs a game --- with a two-hitter. And Dickneite carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning.

"Not to take anything away from the Dickneite kid --- he's a good pitcher --- but if we're going to consider ourselves a quality, state-ranked Class 3 team, we can't get two-hit by anybody," Lepper said. "You have to put a bat on the ball.

"But Fatima plays a Class 4-Class 5 schedule, so anytime we can compete with them, we feel like we're doing something."

This was a double-whammy for South Cal --- with the win, seventh-ranked Fatima basically wrapped up the No. 1 district seed, as well as the Show-Me Conference championship.

"Between their strength of schedule and beating us head-to-head," Lepper said, "I think that pretty much decided it (the district seeding).

"Every year we have two goals --- to win a district title and win our conference. And this will be two years in a row that we have not won our conference, if everything plays out the way it should. That doesn't sit very well with these boys. So hopefully, that will make them hungrier and makes them work harder."

Working hard should not be a problem.

"They work their tails off --- they're the hardest-working kids I've ever had," Lepper said. "We practice 2 1/2-3 hours a day and that's not mandatory, that's what they want. There's optional practice after that and every day, I have 10 to 15 guys stay after."

Not surprisingly, the hard work has helped produce a massive amount of success during Lepper's tenure. To go along with 82 wins, the Bulldogs went 20-8 and advanced to the quarterfinals in 2015, before going 25-7 and finishing fourth in the state last year.

"We made a great run last year and it was awesome," Lepper said, "but the boys were not satisfied with fourth place. We lost our last two ball games of the year ... our pitching and defense let us down a little bit. Because anytime you score that many runs (11) in a Final Four, you expect to win at least one game, if not both of those games.

"We know we have to pitch a little better and play better defense."

THE BULLDOGS WERE YOUNG LAST YEAR and they're even younger this year with only one senior. That, in itself, is an improbable feat.

They just keep winning, the question is ... how?

Obviously, Lepper has done a good job, but he's also had a good product to work with when these players reach high school. These guys haven't just been playing catch with dad in the backyard growing up, they've played a lot of baseball. Competitive baseball.

"When they come in, we don't have to work on everything, we just have to get them acclimated to the speed of the game and playing at that next level," Lepper said. "The more games they've played and the more experience they have, it makes everything go quicker.

"You can't thank these parents enough for the amount of time they've put in the last six or seven years, taking them to practices and games and tournaments. When you have that many people invested in your program, it's kind of hard to not be successful."

This year's lone senior is Graysan Peneston, who's been a mainstay for four years, not just this year.

"He's been that guy ever since he was a freshman," Lepper said. "We take a lot of things for granted with him ... his baseball IQ is so high and he can play several different positions. And he's such a great kid and role model for some of our younger guys, as far as his work ethic and knowledge of the game. He's always there to hit ground balls to freshmen, he doesn't mind catching a bullpen for anybody ... he can do a little bit of everything and our younger guys feed off that.

"They realize that that's the way the game is supposed to be played."

An All-State DH last year, Peneston is batting .394 with 21 RBI, while he's 5-1 on the mound with a 1.30 ERA, with both a no-hitter and a perfect game this season. Earlier, we mentioned those aces ...

Joining him in this stacked deck is junior All-State pitcher Kaden Helsel, who's the best of the best. He's 5-1 (the lone loss coming to Fatima, despite throwing a four-hitter) with a 1.90 ERA. Helsel also has a perfect game --- that's two on the same staff.

"Anytime we give him the ball on the mound, regardless of who we're playing," Lepper said, "we know we've got a competitive chance to win the ball game."

Then there's sophomore Peyton Leeper, a first-team All-State shortstop, who's 3-0 with a 0.50 ERA. He also has a no-hitter --- that's three on the same staff.

That just doesn't happen.

"To have three different guys have those kind of games in one season, it's unbelievable," Lepper said. "It's kind of hard to quantify who our 1, 2 and 3 are right now."

What a great problem to have. There are four other pitchers with wins for the Bulldogs (led by junior Landon Horstman, who's 3-0), a team that can also pile up the runs --- they've score 10 or more runs 12 times, 15 or more five times.

Among the hitting stars:

* Leeper is batting a high-team .508, slugging .762, with two home runs, 32 runs scored and a team-high 28 RBI;

* Helsel is at .434 with a silly, slowpitch softball slugging percentage of .855, thanks to six home runs, three triples, eight doubles, he has 24 RBI and a team-high 36 runs scored;

* while sophomore Drake Davidson is hitting .414, Horstman is at .333, and honorable mention All-State junior infielder Dylan Lepper has 26 RBI.

LOOKING AT THESE NUMBERS, not to mention recent history, it's no surprise there were great expectations this season. That wasn't lost on some of the teams on the Bulldogs' schedule, teams who waved the white flag before the first pitch was thrown.

"I think we've crossed over to a point where some teams, some coaches, don't think they have a shot to beat us, so they're not going to waste their No. 1 (pitcher) on us," Lepper said. "That doesn't help us. But with the pitch-count thing this year, guys have to hold people back for conference games and with all the rainouts, you have all these games stacked up."

Rainouts like Saturday, when torrential Ark-building downpours led to the postponement of a scheduled doubleheader with Blair Oaks.

Rain might be the only thing that can stop this team. Oh, and those other things in the sky.

Comets.

Stay tuned.