I think the most important thing in this first game was to come out with a good feeling and a good sense of accomplishment.

This team has a lot of heart. They never quit. I’m proud of them. They are starting to believe in themselves and if we continue like this, we could be playing for a while.

We stayed to the plan pretty well. [Serrano] came in relief one time but we had the relief situation all planned. I’m pretty happy with the pitching right now.

Any time you get quality teams playing each other, usually the team that loses is the team that beats themselves. If we can control what we have control of, and that’s staying with our plan...

We were already in the top bracket because we won our pool. It’s a situation where we were going to play Georgia, Michigan and Tennessee there. [Michigan and Tennessee] are two top-10 schools that we’d...

It’s just one of those things. Katie is just going to have to stay patient and do what she can.

She [Serrano] pitched outstanding, and when you pitch a no-hitter, I don’t know too many coaches that complain about that. It makes life pretty easy.

Hopefully as we go along in the season we play better and we start playing better competition. But whoever you go out there (against), the object is still the same.

We didn’t stay in our element very well. We made no adjustments and it was really a poor mental approach.

They’re going to have to learn how to handle their roles. Some who played last year might not play as much this year. We have some good freshmen.

We had phenomenal pitching, and when you can take their offense and shut it down like Ashley did, that was awesome.

It’s a shame that she’s a senior. She’ll be missed, but we have a lot of season left so she’s still getting better and we’re excited about that.

Katie was phenomenal. And it was great to play in front of this crowd. They helped keep us in the game.

They practice just as hard as everybody else and they’d like to play too. So we got a lead and we just wanted to get them in there. They went out there and they gave...

We pitched phenomenal. You can’t say enough about how they [Serrano and Burkhart] pitched.

You can’t give the U of A five free passes. I think [Serrano] hit two and walked three in four innings, and that’s not characteristic of her.

Things that we’ve worked on — the two-strike approach, hitting your spots, picking each other up in certain situations — I thought those were really important and they did a really good job of that.

She’s going to be a great hitter for the next four years. She expects it and we like it so it’s working out a lot for everybody.

She’s having probably her best year ever at Arizona State. Ashley is a big reason why we’ve been so successful.

[The schedule] works out for us. Hopefully they’re going to be tired and we’re going to be fresh.

They are starting to believe. This is a team with heart right now.

The players are tired. It’s nice to come home and sleep in your own bed, practice on your own field and actually play there.

It’s an indication that we’re starting to build a little character, because we didn’t play very well [in the NFCA Leadoff Classic]. But we found a way to win and that’s important. That’s what good...

Considering all the transitions the program has made and all the new things these girls have had to endure and learn, we’ll take where we are. I’d rather be 3-3 right now than 1-5.

The hitting sucked. We were terrible.

I think we’re going to try and give them different looks and hopefully give them three different pitchers so that they’re not going to be able to gauge their bats on who’s pitching.

You try to make all the routine plays and let the great ones happen.

We’re looking for the hot bat and the combinations that are really going to click. The team is getting better and some people are making the most of their opportunities so we’ve got to continue...

What she has done has been remarkable. More and more, though, she is not getting a lot of good pitches to hit because of what she’s done. Sometimes pitchers are pitching around her, so she’s...