(Friday), she threw her fastball very well inside. So she went outside early. They adjusted and got tight on the plate. But as they adjusted, Ashley adjusted also. |
A lot of times at practice I can't put pressure on them to do their best all the time. So we run to get them (to work) harder in practice. I found out if I could get them to do that during the games, it puts pressure on them to produce and work hard the entire time. |
I like to feel like your job is on the line every night you show up here. So, I would never say it was written in stone. But I'm comfortable about the way we played the last two nights. |
I thought one run would win it - especially at that time, because nobody had done a whole lot of anything. |
I told her that's probably the best game she's pitched, especially with what was on the line (Wednesday). There was plenty of pressure on her (Wednesday), and she stepped up. |
I was very confident with the way we hit the ball and put the ball in play the first two innings. We usually struggle more at the beginning of the game. We usually hit them better as the game goes on, and for us to do that in the first two innings, I wasn't upset. |
If we're better than the other team, and we play hard, good things will happen for us. Obviously, anytime you can get lead, it's not a bad thing, but it's hard to play hard every night. There weren't any girls out there that I was disappointed in at all, actually. |
In the past, I think sometimes not taking a break hurts you because we spend a lot of time together for three months. It worked (Tuesday night), so right now it was a good idea. |
It's a credit to the girls. It has a lot to do with their personalities. There's not one kid that you'd say you wished wasn't your daughter. |
Right now, I'm proud of them. If we continue with this intensity, we'll be OK. |
She doesn't seem like she's real comfortable and I think part of that is that she's never had to pitch so much. She's put so much effort physically into pitching that something has to give. |
She never really had a chance to hit a whole lot because she was struggling defensively. But the last couple games, she's shown that defensively she needs to be in there. |
She pitched fabulous (Friday night). She did a good job changing speeds. Her fastball inside was working well and keeping people off the plate. And when we had chances to go outside, she made pitches on the outside corner. |
That inning pretty much set the tone. You don't expect to lose to a team 7-1 in the region finals. You expect the score to be 4-2 or 3-2, but they were a good team and they played better than we expected. |
That might be the best overall game Ashley has pitched. She didn't walk any batters and we played well defensively. |