Our kids came out tonight, competed and enjoyed the moment and got after it. I thought we played the whole game well. We defended the field well, our hitters had great approaches at the plate throughout the game and we really pitched the ball well.
They just compete. They don't hang their heads. Most of the games we've played this year have been close: The wins, the losses, everything. I guess you could say our guys are used to playing in big games this year.
We're certainly playing better. Whether that's just having gotten some games under our belt and guys feeling more settled or not, I really don't know. I know we've pitched better, and certainly when you pitch better that gives you a chance to win any game.
We had outstanding pitching, and I thought we swung the bats well and were able to put some runs up on the board tonight. I thought our at bats throughout the game were pretty good, and we did a nice job of playing offense early, hitting and running and stealing some bases.
The fact that we've played such a tough schedule means that the game won't speed up on Friday night for us. We've played a good schedule so far, faced lots of good pitching and lots of good teams.
Last night was a tough, tough, tough loss. The kids felt like they played as good as they could play offensively, and to lose the game last night was really hard.
We did the things we needed to do offensively to win this game tonight. We did a great job of getting guys on base and playing offense.
You've got to invest in your guys. You have to give them a chance to fail. This is a game of failure. We've just got to stay positive with them. We believe in our guys.