LATTA. Oklahoma (KTEN)- The Latta Panthers have made a habit of competing at state. They booked their 39th overall spring state tournament appearance with back-to-back dominant wins over Ketchum at regionals last week.

That set up a date in the 2A state tournament quarterfinals this week with third-ranked Cashion. And these two are familiar with each other having played twice already this spring.

Cashion won 4-2 and 6-3 in those meetings, but Latta will be hoping come Thursday, the third time is the charm.

"We got to make the routine plays and we're going to have to put the ball in play better than we did the last two times," senior left fielder Holden Lee said. "We haven't scored a lot against them and then the last time we played them, they got a bunch of unearned runs off of errors and walks, we can't let those little things happen like that."

And for head coach Dillon Atkinson, his message has been simple.

"We've been trying to tell our guys, 'hey, you guys are good too, so go out and compete and have fun, don't hold anything back,'" Atkinson said. "So we'll see where it takes us."