Alabama Quotes vs. Washington
5/25/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Alabama Quotes
Game 1 ?? Super Regionals
May 25, 2007
Head Coach Patrick Murphy:
Opening statement:
Great game, great college atmosphere. This is how it should be at Super-Regionals, a packed house. I don’t care where you’re playing or who you’re playing, this is the way it should be. I congratulate the fans and the University of Washington today.
On what needs to change:
I just think we need to take advantage of the opportunities. The bases were loaded with no outs and we only scored one run. [With runners on] second and third we didn’t get any runs in. Those two situations were the story of the game.
On Lawrie’s pitching:
I’ve seen her a lot. I helped her when she was on the Canadian National Team. She was just a little pup then. It seems like she didn’t throw as many rise balls as she did when I was there in Canada.
We need to swing at better pitches. Just need to put the ball in play and get runners on base. That’s been a key of ours all year long. That first run was a ground ball to second base and we beat the throw. Our speed game helps in that respect.
[Lawrie] got into a groove. In the first three innings, she wasn’t into that groove. But when she got out of the inning with the bases loaded, that gave her some confidence.
On motivation for tomorrow’s game:
Just like last week, it’s the same situation. It’s motivating itself. If you lose you’re done, if you win you keep going.
Sophomore Catcher Ashley Holcombe:
On losing game one:
I think tomorrow we’ll come out and hit her hard, and I just think we have to get used to her. I think we were hitting her hard when we did hit her, we just didn’t have the right hits at the right time.
On Lawrie as a challenge:
I think we just need to hit strikes tomorrow and come out aggressive and not let the strikes go by. I think we’re just hitting a lot of balls and not hitting the strikes hard. I think we’ve seen basically everything she’s got.
On the atmosphere:
I think it’s nice to be at home and have your fans. We have a great fan support at home and it’s different when you have the fan support against you. It’s different than what we’re used to, but I think tomorrow its not going to affect us.
Tomorrow we only have to win two, instead of coming back to play four (like at last week’s regional). I know we’re capable of doing it. Just like last week, we had our backs up against the wall and the next day we came out swinging and scored I don’t know how many runs, but we’re capable of doing it.
Senior Pitcher Blair Potter:
On Greer’s home run:
[I threw] a drop curve. It stayed up and didn’t drop like it should’ve. I didn’t throw my best game today. But we do well with our backs against the wall. Like last weekend, we came back and won four straight games. I think we’re capable of winning two tomorrow.
I missed a lot of pitches today. I just wasn’t on my game.
Junior Designated Player Jordan Praytor:
On Danielle Lawrie:
I think she’s a great pitcher. She had us off-balance for a couple of innings there, she had a couple of innings that were three up, three down, which is what we try not to do. I think tomorrow, because we have our backs against the wall, we’re going to come out with some fire hopefully and show that this is not how we hit and this is not Alabama softball.
On letting hits get away:
I think that there were a lot of opportunities that we didn’t take advantage of. I think we had the bases loaded twice and we just didn’t capitalize on our chances. We didn’t put the ball in play enough. Hopefully tomorrow when we’re put in that situation, we will come through.
On Lawrie’s increased strikeouts in the final innings:
I think she really got into a groove there. She had a lot of confidence. We were chasing a lot of balls and we were swinging at a lot of pitchers’ pitches, but not what we needed to be swinging at. Hopefully for tomorrow we can learn from our mistakes.
On having to win two games tomorrow:
I think it’s inspiring that we know that there’s not a single player who can say that she played her best game today and it was a one-run ballgame. Hopefully tomorrow we can put it together offensively and defensively and pitching-wise and come out and play the way we know how to play.
