Merrill had good pitching and hit the ball hard, and I was proud that other than a couple of hiccups we were right there. It shows a lot of respect for our program that they would come down and play us, and I thought we both got a good experience out of it.

We came back, but we couldn't close the deal. Today was a great game, but we just didn't execute when we needed to.

We did a better job today of putting the ball into play. I think we've been doing a little too much waiting at the plate, and we've been trying to stress to the girls that if the pitch is close and they think they can hit it that they should be going after it.

What I was most pleased with was the bottom of our order. Those girls came into the seventh with the mindset that it wasn't over yet.

I'm very happy with what I saw from Jordan, especially with no walks. We have the defense, we just need her to give them an opportunity to win games for her.

The bar is set high. These kids are hungry. If we do what we're capable, we're going to be a team to reckon with. We have definite goals as a team -- win conference and go to state.