NCAA Super Regional Quotes - Game One
5/29/2010 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 29, 2010
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Oregon Head Coach Mike White
Opening statement…
“Well it was a good old-fashioned fast pitch softball game where there was a lot of pressure out there. Hats off to Missouri, they played a great game defensively, a lot of balls up the middle, shortstop played an excellent game. Their pitcher came through in the clutch, when she had to, got some big outs. We had runner s in scoring position several times, but just couldn't get the big hit. That's the way it goes sometimes. I'm proud of the way my ladies battled at the plate. I thought we made her work pretty hard when we had nobody on, but we just didn't do the same when we had runners in place. Tomorrow we'll have to come back out and regroup. Jess Moore pitched a fantastic game for us. It's just a hard way to lose. We'll have to come out tomorrow and have a better game offensively.
On Oregon's throwing error allowing Missouri to score…
“I think she didn't have a grip of the ball. She wanted to maybe hold up and got stuck between. I told her you just need to be aggressive. If you're going to throw it, throw it. Don't try and hang on to it. And it was just unfortunate it happened to be the game-winner for them.”
Oregon pitcher Jessica Moore
On success against first part of Missouri's batting lineup…
“I think with them, I hit my spots pretty well. I used my drop a lot just to keep them thinking. I just think hitting my spots and them not really knowing too much about what I' was going to throw was pretty key for me.
Oregon catcher Ashley Kivett
On leaving the bases loaded in two separate innings…
“That's always going to be frustrating. Like Coach White said, that's when we really didn't execute. But I don't think we're panicking. We've come back and played really well after losses before and I'm confident we can do it again."
Missouri Head Coach Ehren Earleywine
Opening statement…
“Well it wasn't what you would call a pretty win, but it was a win. And one of the things that I had been uncomfortable with over the last couple of weeks was the production of the bottom of our batting order. And today they're the part of the lineup that scrapped up that run for us. So again, it wasn't a pretty run. We're just trying to get some production out of those kids. And Gina putting the ball in play like that with two strikes and making them make plays. That's what softball is all about. You've got to put the ball in play and make people make plays. And that's what happened on the run we got. Obviously Kristin Nottleman threw a tremendous game. Just watching her from the side I wasn't overly impressed with her velocity. She wasn't throwing hard. And usually her velocity and her effectiveness go hand-in-hand. When she throws hard her spin is good, her location is good. So I was a little concerned when she started throwing today because her velocity wasn't good. The bright side is that she threw a great game. She threw a shutout performance and I think they only hit three or four balls off the barrel. So we'll get her some rest tonight and have her for tomorrow. We'll run her as long as she can and then we'll throw Jana Hainey. Obviously disappointed with my offense. We felt like we had a good idea of what we wanted to do at the plate. And I think we had a good idea of what she was trying to do to us. We just didn't hit very many balls hard. Hopefully tomorrow we'll do a better job of squaring up and taking a little pressure off of Kristin.
On Kristin Nottelmann throwing the whole game…
Yeah I do expect her to go seven. But she threw 109 pitches today which is on the higher end of pitch count. It was a hot day. You just never know how much that is going to take out of a kid. But we'll find those things out tomorrow over the course of the game and see how she rolls. If I would have told you in the first inning how long I thought she was going to go today I would have said four or five innings, just because she didn't look like she had great stuff. So there's always surprises. For the most part I'm hoping she goes a complete game as well tomorrow.
Missouri second baseman Gina Schneider
On the play which allowed Lisa Simmons score…
“Well with two strikes Coach E tells us to try and put it in play the best we can. So I got it in play and I ran as fast as I could to try and beat it out. And when I saw the first baseman start towards me I knew it was going to be a bad throw. So I tried to find it (the ball) and take second base. IT didn't happen but I'm glad I got the run in.
Missouri pitcher Kristin Nottelmann
On her performance…
“It kind of was like last weekend. They're a good hitting team. They're going to get hits, they're going to get on base. You just have to go to that next level and really bear down and make sure they don't get that run across the plate. It worked out today that it didn't happen.”
