The Andalusia Bulldogs (22-8) are prepared to take on Sipsey Valley (12-13) today in the second round of the AHSAA Class 4A state baseball playoffs in Buhl.

“I told them Thursday night after we finished playing W.S. Neal that from here on out it gets harder,” Andalusia head coach Tyler Dent said. “Everyone you play from here on out is better. We know going up to Sipsey Valley that we have our hands full with a good baseball team. Obviously, they are a well coached baseball team. We are excited about the opportunity because we are still playing.”

Dent said the key for the Bulldogs will be to continue playing their game.

“The same thing we have been doing,” Dent said of what would be the key to winning the series. “Throwing strikes and playing good defense. We are going to hit. We might not hit doubles and doubles and doubles in the gap, but we are going to hit. We are going to put the ball in play and put pressure on people and run the bases and bunt. We just have to continue to throw strikes and play defense, which we have done all year.”

Going up against Sipsey Valley won’t be a cakewalk for the Bulldogs, Dent said.

“From everybody I’ve talked to, they are just a bunch of scrappy country kids,” Dent said. “They are team that has had a lot of success. The school is not old and they’ve had success in the past and made deep playoff runs. Expect a bunch of kids that play hard, play the right way and do a lot of good things.”

Dent said the Bulldogs have had a good week of practice.

“We’ve focused on a lot of base running stuff,” Dent said. “We are going to try to put more pressure on these guys as the games get bigger. Nothing has really changed at practice. We’ve got our routine and we’ve stuck with it. We’ve had a great week of practice. I told them yesterday that it says a lot about that on a Wednesday they can come out here and have a high-intensity, high-pressure practice like we did yesterday. We’ve got one more day today to work and get better and we are going to take advantage of it.”

Game one is set for 5 p.m., with game two starting around 7 p.m.

If necessary, game three would be played at 1 p.m., on Saturday.