“Three more games.”

Falcon baseball coach Brandon Stegman repeated those words to his players in the huddle after their tilt with Holy Family.

Listening to Stegman’s postgame speech, it’s hard to tell the Falcons dropped their semifinals game 11-6 to the No. 5 Tigers on Saturday afternoon at Erdle Field at the United States Air Force Academy.

The No. 6-seeded Falcons remain alive in the 4A state tournament and will play at 12:30 p.m. Friday against either No. 2 Golden or No. 3 Pueblo County.

Then, the winner of that will face Holy Family in the championship.

“I always have the utmost confidence in my guys,” Stegman said. “I’d be a terrible coach if I didn’t have confidence in my guys. … I want to make sure they know that everyone believes in them. They’re gonna make it. There’s no doubt in my mind that these guys are gonna come back and make those plays.”

“Those plays” included a pair of errors on routine catches in the outfield in the second that led to an avalanche from the Tigers.

The Falcons built a 2-1 lead after the top of the second inning, but the Tigers took a 4-2 advantage after a pair of singles pushed home two runs.

Then, a missed pop fly to right field allowed another three runners to reach home and gave Holy Family a 7-2 lead.

Holy Family added another run and made it 8-2 after a Falcon outfielder missed another pop fly.

“We have to make the plays we know we can make and bounce back from this,” Falcon’s Uriah Maestas said. “If we stay confident, we know what we can do. We know how we can play and we’re going to get after it this week in practice. We’ll go back to the basics and make sure to remain upbeat.”

After the game, Stegman said he believes “the only team that can beat my guys is my guys.”

But he also knows that’s what happened against the Tigers, especially during the seven-run stretch in the second inning.

Stegman briefly chastised the Falcons postgame for the costly errors that paved the way for Holy Family to advance to Saturday’s championship game.

“What happened in the second inning was completely induced by us,” Stegman said. “There’s nothing you can do to clean that up besides getting up reps in practice. We make those plays and it’s a totally different ball game. We make those and the vibe on our side is different.”

Falcon managed another four runs in the contest and nearly rejuvenated its team in the top of the fifth after Chase Kessler hit a two-run RBI double to centerfield.

However, the Tigers made a throw from the outfield to the catcher, who thwarted Ronan Sadorus at the plate.

Stegman noted that effort after the game and players noticed.

“He knows we’re going to come back and get Holy Family in that second game,” Maestas said. “We know we’re good. We just have to act like it and play like it. We always take our coach’s words to heart and we know he has our back and we have his back.”

In the past four seasons, Falcon has lost back-to-back games just twice: once this season to Ponderosa (March 27) and Windsor (April 3); and to Ponderosa and Golden (March 2022).

Stegman said he’s confident his team will continue the trend of finding a heater following a loss.

To reach a third game, the Falcons must beat their opponent Friday and Holy Family at least once on June 1 to force a winner-take-all contest.

“That’s what we’re gonna do,” Stegman said. “We take a loss and my guys are going to come back and we’re going to be a burden for anybody who comes across us. I promise you that.”