The Austin Greyhounds are right where they want to be.

Now they’ve got to bring their best game.

The Hounds will open Class ‘B’ state tournament play this Saturday in Howard Lake when they take on the Shakopee Indians at 5 p.m.

Shakopee (24-13 overall) beat Isanti 4-2 to get to the state tournament. The Hounds (22-9 overall) beat the Dundas Dukes 4-1 to get to state and they are riding an 8-game winning streak.

“We’re excited to play in Howard Lake and we’ve never played there before,” Hounds manager John Frein said. ” All of these teams will be pretty solid. We feel like we have a good chance to win it all, but every team goes in with that mentality.”

The Hounds are chasing their first state title in a decade and Frein said the team will have to play very well to get that done.

“The key for us in the sections and supersections was getting up early,” Frein said. “We also did a pretty good job of capitalizing on our chances and getting out of jams. We’ll have to keep doing those things.”

The Hounds have four pitchers with ERA’s under 3.00 as Zach Schara has an ERA of 0.93, Weston Hanson has an ERA of 1.96, Nels Nelson has an ERA of 2.79 and Joe Huffman has an ERA of 2.98.

Matt Cano is hitting .362 for the Hounds, Jordan Hart is hitting .385 and Nate Johnson is hitting .357.

Frein wanted to thank the volunteers who stepped up at the supersections in Marcusen Park as he said around 50 people who helped out.

“There’s a good buzz around Austin as a host site right now and everything went well,” Frein said.

If the Greyhounds beat Shakopee, they will play the winner of Savage and St. Michael Sunday at Maple Lake at 7:30 p.m. If the Hounds fall to Shakopee, they will play the loser of Savage and St. Michael Sunday at 11 a.m. in Maple Lake.

The other state qualifying teams are Victoria, Eagan, Moorehead and Cold Spring.