CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — The University of Charleston baseball team is pretty good. The Golden Eagles are in first place in the south division of the Mountain East Conference, sporting a 32-7 overall record, 19-3 in the MEC.

So what is the recipe for success?

"I've never been a part of such a group of guys that care so much about each other," Drew Klaserner said.

Players said some of that success comes from experience and a desire to compete.

"We have a lot of faces that have been through this program that were waiting their turn and were really hungry to play," senior Casey Finck said.

The "win as a team" mentality has a lot to do with the man in charge. Dean Peterson is in his first season at the helm of the Golden Eagles and he's getting the most out of his guys.

"We assume that kids are soft, and I hear all this stuff," Peterson said. "Actually, kids want to be called to higher standards and as soon as I came in and did that and said, listen, we're elevating this program to levels that nobody here has even discussed, there was immediate response to it."

That attitude has changed the program for the better.

"From day one I think established that we're going to be a team that's built on toughness and it's easy to trust a guy like him and play for a guy like him when he's ready to throw himself in the fire with us,"Klaserner said.

The first thing Peterson did was make sure his team knew how much they meant to him.

"The very first thing I said when I got hired was there's no sense in my mind that you're not my guys," Peterson said. "You are my guys. Like I recruited you and brought you here, and I love you and treat you that way."

How important was that message?

"Huge," Peterson said. "Huge because there's the transfer portal and it's really a lot of transactional stuff and it's relational here. Every one of these players, it's personal to me that they would receive an unbelievable education that they would become incredible men and that they would have the best baseball experience possible."