I told the girls that who plays is really going to come down to who is putting the bat on the ball.

They had an inning where they scored five runs and we dropped four outs. It's all a ripple effect. Unfortunately, we make a mistake, and then we make another one instead of stopping the bleeding.

We're always preaching score early and score often. The girls seem to relax when we can get out on top. We've been hitting well and in timely situations and that's something we didn't do that well last year.

The first batter of the game the other day got on base with a walk, and she tried to steal. Heather threw her out by a mile. They didn't try to steal another base the rest of the game.

If she has a good season and she wants to be the big gun and get it done, then she may see a little more time on the mound.

Once we got to the sectional last year, it was almost like a sigh of relief. I felt like anything after that was going to be icing on the cake. This year, you set the ball higher and say, 'Maybe that is not enough.