MT. CARMEL, Ill. -- The eighth-ranked Wabash Valley baseball Warriors are looking for more offense as they head to Houston, Texas for four games this weekend. 

Don't let the Warriors 1-3 record fool you. They played four nationally ranked teams last weekend in Florida and played three of them to one-run games, winning one. 

"We pitched really well; we played good defense. We did some good things," said Warrior coach Aaron Biddle. "We just did not get the clutch hit when we needed it. 

"You know, a big hit here, a big hit there and those games would have had a different look to them." 

WVC opened with a 2-1 victory over 12th-ranked Northwest Florida State (3-3-1 on the year). Starting pitcher Jacob Frost went five strong innings for the win, giving away to Luke Leverton for two innings of relief, earning a save. 

The Warriors lost to Wallace-Dothan, Alabama (4-0), a team ranked in major pre-season polls, 3-2, on a walk-off hit in the bottom of the seventh inning. 

Then came a matchup against third-ranked McLennan, Texas (5-2). WVC outhit the Highlanders, 8-7, but dropped a 4-3 decision when McLennan pushed across a run in the bottom of the sixth, then held off the Warriors in the seventh for the win. 

The only game that got away from the Warriors came in the finale of the Panama City Beach Baseball Classic. Florida SouthWestern State (4-4) had its' way with five Warrior hurlers in a 16-1 victory.  

"We were in every game, except one where we couldn't do anything right," Biddle said. 

There were nonetheless plenty of positives that the Warriors brought home, one of them being defense. 

And not simply good defense, but four games of errorless baseball on the road against elite teams. All this from a Wabash Valley team with no position starters back from last year and only three outdoor practices to that point. 

Considering all that, "you don't expect to go down there and play great defense, but we did," Biddle said. 

This week's focus has centered around hitting. 

"We spent a lot of time working on offense," Biddle said. "We talked a lot about pitch selection, getting a good pitch to hit and getting the bat off our shoulder when we get a good pitch to hit." 

Rich Bonomolo led the way at the plate, with five hits in 10 at bats. He picked up two RBIs. Nicklas Williams and Luke Odden also had multi-hit weekends with four and three, respectively. 

Friday, Wabash Valley opens play in the Tournament of Champions against Galveston, Texas (6-3). Agnel Miranda will start on the hill for Biddle's team in the 1 p.m. CST game. 

The Warriors play twice on Saturday. Nick Sokol will get the start against Baton Rouge, Louisiana (2-7) at 1:30 p.m.  

Then comes the marquee matchup of the weekend against sixth-ranked San Jacinto, Texas (3-4) at 4 p.m. Last year, WVC defeated the Gators, 10-8, at the Juco World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Warriors went on to finish fourth in the national tournament. Biddle is saving his ace, Frost, for that game. 

WVC concludes play on Sunday against Seminole State, Oklahoma (0-1) in a game that starts at 11 a.m.