NCAA Super Regional: Game One Quotes
5/28/2011 12:00:00 AM | Softball
May 28, 2011
Washington Head Coach Heather Tarr
Opening Statement...
“The general thought on the game: pretty clean game over all. We have to score to win. It doesn't matter if they have four of five or ten, if we have zero we can't win.”
On Chelsea Thomas...
“She is one of the best pitchers that we have faced. She sets the tone pretty early in the game. She has good control, good command.”
On adjustments that the team will make to face Chelsea tomorrow...
“We didn't have enough information. We are just trying to figure it out and use today as an information gatherer and go from there. Obviously she is going to make adjustments and do some things different, but she did a good job and we have to figure it out.”
On the tone of the first inning...
“No, Chelsea did a great job, obviously, that first inning throwing her change up and getting ahead. Defensively one error is not how we wanted to start that inning but we don't really get too worried. It was only the first inning.”
WASHINGTON PLAYER QUOTES
Kimi Pohlman
On facing Chelsea Thomas...
“I was just looking for good pitches to hit. She does a good job of establishing her zone early in the count and she throws good pitches to hit early. I just tried to counteract that and swing at good pitches.”
Jenn Salling
On going into tomorrow's game...
“I think our team gets tougher in tough situations, and if anything, we want tomorrow to come now. We are ready to go now. We have two to win tomorrow, but we are going to take it one fish at a time. Our team loves tough situations and we are ready to go.”
Mizzou Head Coach Ehren Earleywine
Opening Statement...
“I'm real proud of the girls tonight. Obviously in a best of three series getting the first win is big. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.”
On Chelsea Thomas' performance...
“She answered any questions that I might have had about her velocity going into the week. I don't know what she was registering but she had 13 strikeouts against a very good hitting team from the Pac-10. I think she has some surprises for tomorrow, I don't think we showed her hand tonight. We threw a lot of drop balls, which was enough for the win and to get a lot of strikeouts. Because of the humidity tonight the rise ball wasn't exploding. She had a lot of spin on it, but the heavy air just doesn't allow the ball to rise very well. Hopefully tomorrow night we have a little different weather situation.”
On setting the tone in the first inning...
“Well, we always feel like if we score first we have a real good chance of winning, to the point where generally at the end of the game I use Shana White as the tying or winning run, she's my best pinch runner. We had a conversation tonight before the game and said that the first run is so important to us that we are going to burn her early in the game to get ther first run. We felt like we could run on this catcher and Shana runs really well. I don't know the stat but it's at least 95 percent of the time that we win when we score first.”
On Nicole Hudson's emotional stability...
“She didn't show a lot of emotion. There was a time or two, I think, at the fundraiser over on Buttonwood Drive that I saw her tear up. These athletes that have to go through these types of things, I think they are almost like robots in a way that once they get on the field they shut those thoughts down. She obviously did that tonight, but I know it's been a tough week for her probably. When you are laying there in the dark of your room, right after you say your prayers or whatever, I'm sure she's had her dark moments.”
On his mound visit...
“When I went out to talk to Chelsea, I told her to go right at this kid. If that runner scores it's 4-1, so what, just get the hitter. That particular hitter takes a lot of pitches anyway so just throw it in there and get ahead. She just threw four balls, it happens.”
MIZZOU PLAYER QUOTES
Chelsea Thomas
On her improvements in velocity...
“Last week we looked at my film from the weekend and my body position was a little off, which we think can affect velocity. I worked really hard the last couple days on trying to correct that and getting everything more crisp than last week. Hopefully it worked.”
On her confidence on the mound...
“For me, it's just to feel comfortable out there and my body positioning was making me feel out of rhythm last weekend. The comfort factor brings confidence. I was more comfortable today with better rhythm and body positioning. It's what we really needed to work on last week and we did.”
On setting the tone in the first inning...
“Of course we jumped ahead and got a run, that always gets me pumped up when we get a run right away. I think getting the run and having great defense just set the tone for the first few innings. It's a really big thing for us.”
Nicole Hudson
On her mentality at the plate...
“I was just seeing the ball really well. I made some adjustments to my swing this week and I really think that helped going into this weekend. I'm feeling really good.”
On her home run competition with teammate Ashley Fleming...
“It has been a competition this whole time. But, if she hits a few more home runs and gets ahead of me I guess I can't complain.”
On the difficulty of this week...
“It's been a really long week for me, being able to come out on the softball field and get away from everything back home has been nice. It's been hard.”
On having the support of her teammates...
“My teammates have been there to pick me up all week. We have been trying to help out as much as we can and they have been right there with me the whole time. I've gotten a lot of texts from home that say 'don't worry about us you have a job to do. Go out and play.'”
On representing the Joplin area...
“I feel really lucky to go out and represent that whole area and Joplin. That whole southwest Missouri area is the best place to live in the entire world. To be able to represent that on TV was a really big deal for me.”
