We faced two of the best pitchers we've faced all year. We just didn't put the ball in play.
We faced one of the best pitchers in the country today, a tremendous competitor and a class act, and he was magnificent. It was a great college baseball game. We made it interesting in the ninth, but we were just too far in the hole at that point.
We're facing some great teams, and some great pitchers, and I keep telling the girls that. They have to keep their heads up, and they understand that. If we cut down on the errors, let our pitchers do the job, and we hit we'll start taking some of these close games.
We're not as crisp in areas that we need to be in. One thing is pitching. We have a couple of things where pitchers have gotten into their starts and they've been a little bit erratic and getting into deep counts. That is where it starts, with pitching.
We swung the bats much better, got a big lead and got to look at some pitchers who've been hurt a little bit. They came back on us a little bit, but the guys did what they had to do.
We swung the bat really well. Both of their pitchers are pretty good, but I'm pleased with the way we hit and with the way we had timely hits.
We think everybody is pretty aware as to who the better pitchers are. The publications, I think, have been pretty accurate in identifying those guys. Now, it's just a matter of who do we want?
Years later, I was in Baltimore one day and I talked to (then-manager) Johnny Oates. He said, 'You changed the game. You created the ninth-inning pitcher.' I said, 'It was the managers who did it. They started holding back their best relief pitchers to get saves.'
Pettit was great. I thought Jill did a nice job. Our pitchers did a great job.
We're playing the way we're supposed to play and aren't doing anything crazy. Our pitchers are throwing strikes, our defense has only one error in the last four games and we're hitting the baseball, and I knew we had the talent to do it.