Rudder baseball coach James Ward would rather not make a big deal about the Rangers' impressive 10-1 record.

Team chemistry, hard work and willingness to accept a new system are topics that Rudder's new coach embraces, because Ward believes those are the keys to the early season success for the second-year program.

Ward doesn't mind talking about depth, either.

The Rangers have a deep lineup and pitching staff, and that abundance of talent makes Ward optimistic about the tournament his team is hosting this weekend, and about Rudder's prospects for the remainder of the season.

"I got to see the kids play in the summer," said Ward, who came to Rudder from Alief Elsik. "I saw that they're competitors. The get after you and they're hungry. They've bought into the philosophy I was selling, and I've got great assistant coaches.

"I felt like we could be pretty good. Coach [Ken] Reinhardt told me that if we got pitching, we could be pretty good. Well, we've got pitching. We've got some kids that will throw strikes, and if you do that, you've always got a shot."

Rudder has been tough on opposing pitchers. The Rangers feature a balanced lineup driven by Matt Fritsche, Blake Kopetsky, Will Johnson and Kyle Danford. Johnson leads the team with five home runs and 17 runs batted in. Kopetsky has two homers and is second in RBIs after driving in four runs Tuesday when the Rangers opened District 24-3A play with a 14-4 victory over Caldwell.

"Everybody's always trying to hide two or three batters [in their order]," Ward said. "We don't hide anybody. We've got nine people who can get on base and score. It's at the point now where people may have a hard time figuring out who they don't want to pitch to."

Ward has found a positive in Rudder's only loss, a 12-2 defeat against Class 5A Harker Heights last weekend in the Killeen Shoemaker tournament.

"The kids are really playing well," Ward said. "We got spanked by Harker Heights, and I think that was good. I think it woke us up."

The Rangers went 4-1 in the Shoemaker tournament, a testament to the pitching depth Ward values. The pitching staff is led by Johnson, Kopetsky, Danford and Matt Smith.

"We're lucky," Ward said. "I have probably four true starters on the mound, and then I've got three real good relief pitchers."

Rudder's mound corps should be tested this weekend. In addition to hosting the first Rudder Ranger Baseball Battle on Thursday and Saturday, Rudder will play a district game at Rockdale on Friday night.

Wrapping a tournament around a league game forced Ward to limit the Baseball Battle to six teams, which will play in two pools to determine the matchups in Saturday games for first, third and fifth place.

Rudder will play Manor at 6:50 p.m. Thursday in the last of the day's five games. The Rangers will take on Troy at 10 a.m. Saturday.

The other teams in the tournament are Navasota, New Waverly and Leon. The championship game is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday.