Feb. 12, 2008
SAN DIEGO -
Softball Coach Kathy Van Wyk
San Diego State Press Conference
Feb. 12, 2008
Head Coach Kathy Van Wyk
Opening Comments:
"First of all we have our American Cancer Society sponsored games this Saturday for "Think Pink" week. We host the University of Tulsa at 4:30 and play Fresno State at 7:00. We have several cancer survivors who are families or friends of team members and they'll be throwing out the first pitch of our 4:30 game.
"We're excited for the Campbell-Cartier (Classic), mostly because the rains have passed. Normally the Campbell-Cartier week is full of rain. We have UC Santa Barbara, Indiana, Tulsa, Fresno State and Utah State. It should be a very good tournament this year and I am looking forward to the weekend."
On last weekend's 4-1 start:
"I was extremely pleased. We played 37 innings of ball last week and really had one bad inning. That's how the Mississippi State game ended up. Things started to snowball and we ended up giving up seven unearned runs in (the sixth) inning. We were in that game the whole way and without that inning might have come around and beat them. Other than that we had a huge win against Cal and a close win over Cal Poly."
On freshman pitchers:
"I could not have been more pleased with our freshmen pitchers this week, both San Diego natives as well. Brooke Petty came in and pitched a shutout against Cal, a very strong-hitting team. She did an excellent job for her first career start. She pitched a little bit against Mississippi State and started the game against UC Davis. She did well in all three. Samantha Beasley pitched the Portland State game on Sunday and also threw a shutout. She only gave up four hits and did an outstanding job. That's a huge relief because we weren't sure with the freshmen coming in having only Christina Ross out there. (Ross) obviously can't do all the work and we were concerned about her back-up. So far, so good."
On Erin Floros bouncing back from her knee injury:
"Erin's doing fantastic. We're using her carefully. We're DH'ing her, we're using her at third base and even practiced her a little bit at first base. We have the luxury of having Megan McDonald as another catcher who as done a fantastic job, throwing out runners and working well with the pitchers. That frees us up to use Erin in other places; maybe take a little stress of her knee. (Erin) swung the bat very well last weekend. It seems like she is back. The only thing I cringe a little bit about is watching her run the bases and slide. But she says she feels great and we are excited."
On Tonye McCorkle:
"We were very fortunate to get Tonye to come in here as a transfer from Syracuse. We weren't quite sure what to expect when she came in. We have a very good leadoff hitter in Brittany Knudsen, who did a great job for us last year. We weren't quite sure what we were going to do with Tonye or where we were going to get her into the lineup. She is more of a top one or two player in the lineup. She came out swinging the bat aggressively and was getting on base. Brittany struggled a bit so we put Tonye at the top of the order and she did a great job. She's not afraid to swing the bat and makes good adjustments at the plate. She also has the ability to drive in runs as does Brittany. We moved Brittany down to No. 3 on the batting order because we know she can swing the bat. She was disappointed with the weekend because she only had two hits, a double and a home run. I told her you can hit doubles and home runs all year if you'd like to, we'll take that. Both Tonye and Brittany have the ability to play anywhere in the lineup, so we have a nice luxury there."
On the positive momentum heading into the Campbell-Cartier Classic this weekend:
"We have great momentum. It's important for us to carry that momentum through this weekend, too. It's always important to have a good start and you want them to have that confidence going into any games. We have another big weekend but then go back to Palm Springs and probably play the toughest tournament we've ever played. We start with Arizona, and then we have Northwestern second, Oklahoma, Georgia and Baylor. All are either (NCAA) Super Regional or World Series teams from last year so it's going to be a huge tournament for us. I really want to carry the momentum into that tournament. With the team we have, we're going to beat a lot of those teams. Some may consider it a surprise, but I don't."