The Star Tribune gave the Jordan Hubmen baseball team plenty of press leading into the state tournament.

These few things were disappointing or odd, though:

- Why would both the Strib sports section and the Strib South section write preview stories about the Hubmen on the same day (Wednesday, June 13)? Oh well, the attention was nice and the photos big.

- Those two stories had conflicting numbers for T.J. Oakes' earned-run average. One said 0.97 ERA, the other 0.96. I guess different reporters round numbers differently.

- The Strib said Ron Beckman is the Jordan Brewers' all-time hits leader. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought Paul Buss had the most hits.

- A day later (Thursday, June 14), the Strib called the Jordan baseball team by the girls teams' nickname -- the Jaguars. That's a bad one.

- A map showed Jordan outside of the Twin Cities area. Hmm, some of us consider Scott County to be increasingly metropolitan, but maybe it's farther away than we think.

- The Strib ran a full box score in the Saturday, June 16, paper. There could've been more, but they do focus on the champions. I say the Hubmen are winners -- they just had a tough second game.

But to the Strib's credit, the reporters got some neat quotes out of coach Kyle Johnson and the players, including:

- "It was different this year. Our focus was to get to this point. We put our work in," Steven Beckman said.

- "We now play with so much confidence. This team, with so many seniors, became a lot closer, too," Joe Lucas said.

- "When you throw two guys that stand 6-5 at you, it can be a little intimidating. They're big guys, and they're athletic," Johnson said of pitchers Lucas and T.J. Oakes.

- "He has the mentality of a pitcher way beyond his years. For a kid his size, his potential is unlimited. He is already one of the best around," Johnson said of Oakes.

- "I work off of what T.J. does. He really helps me out a lot. He is so mature and seems older than a senior," Lucas said of Oakes.

- "Anytime you have pitching in high school, you have a chance to win," Johnson said.