Feb. 18, 2010
SAN DIEGO -
Kathy Van Wyk
SDSU Softball Head Coach
Opening Statement: "We had a good opening weekend, ending up 5-1 with the one loss coming against a team we probably shouldn't have lost to. It's nice that we've been able to build confidence slowly and this weekend will be a good test for us. There's a good level of teams who are coming (to San Diego)."
On playing a No. 1 team in Washington: "It's a great opportunity. Number one you get a chance to knock them off. Number two you get to compare yourself to the best and that's what we try to do throughout the season. You want to see how good you are and I think we have a good shot at (a win). Sam (Beasley) is pitching really well and we bolstered our offense tremendously. I've always believed we could play defense with anybody in the country. We had a shakier start on defense last weekend than I would have liked, but that is to be expected. It was the first games of the season and they are going to come out nervous. Every team in the country came out nervous. We'll be fine, our defense will hold up."
On what a win over No. 1 Washington would do to the SDSU program: "I don't even know if I could describe what a win would do because Washington is the team with the target on their backs. Everybody is out to get them. A win would give us instant credibility and respect from around the country. It would wake people up and they would say, `San Diego State is a team we need to watch out for.'"
On the weather affecting play in the Campbell/Cartier Classic this weekend like it has in other years: "We're in San Diego. Thirty percent chance is a 70 percent chance it's not going to rain. I think we're in pretty good shape this weekend."
On any surprises on anyone so far in the season: "Obviously the May twins have done fantastic. Kristin May has been clutch for us already a couple of times this year. We've got at least five newcomers who will help out our offense and bring new things and the twins are two of those (newcomers). Justeen Maeva just started playing four games into the season. She had a slow start, but she is going to be our true No. 4 hitter. Tanya Holguin is swinging the bat very well and our new catcher Eva Sahatdjian is also swinging the bat well. We've had a luxury this year already that we've never had before, which is trying to find enough spots in the batting order for all those hitters. That's a nice problem to have and we'll take that."
On Samantha Beasley's pitching performance so far this season: "She obviously had a shaky finish to last year. She also had a shaky start to the fall and had a lot of ups and downs. We sort of simplified it for her in what she's going to throw and I really think that's helped her to focus her energy into just those pitches. It was outstanding (last weekend). In the past, lefties have given her fits. This year she is throwing a much better dropball and lefties were .091 against her last week. There's been a big, big difference. We worked on the mental game with Sam and visualization. Those things are really coming around. And she's a junior and has another year under her belt; she's a completely different pitcher."
On the offense taking some pressure off the pitching staff: "That's definitely going to be the case. We saw both ends of the spectrum this past weekend. We had some close games - two international tiebreaker games and one that went into the bottom of the seventh inning. We saw some fighting in that regard where our pitchers had to hold up. Scoring more runs is going to take a huge amount of pressure off (the pitchers). They won't worry about being so fine around the strike zone, which will allow them to throw better pitches."