I can see the conference champion going 9-5. The good teams are going to do a lot of beating up on each other. I'm just happy we're going to be up there with them.

That's not really the effort I was looking for today. This group's been able to get up for some big games, but today they just didn't get up for it.

With the amount of base runners we had, I wasn't about to hold up anybody at third, that's for sure. I told my pinch runner, 'Look, she had to make the perfect play, and she did. She made a perfect field and the perfect throw, so don't hang your head.

I can see a 9-5 (record) winning this conference, I really can. We're going to spend a lot of time beating up on each other.

For a kid who just got her driver's license, she's tough as nails. She's one of the toughest sophomores I've ever seen. She doesn't get rattled by anything; she loves to pitch and she works hard at it.

We have games where I think they're finally getting it and it's clicking. Just about the time you think you're turning that corner, you have a game like this and it's almost back to square one.

I think we had some first inning jitters. You can't make a mistake or two against good teams like this or it's going to burn you.

We came out in the first inning with a little bit of jitters, and you can't come out with jitters and make a mistake or two against a team like this without being in trouble. I think once we got through the first inning, Lauren (Popov) really settled down and threw a fantastic game.