Softball

Press Conference Quotes - Game 1

May 17, 2001

Recap|Box Score|NCAA Regionals

Stanford Head Coach John Rittman
Opening Statement: I thought that after the past few years of losing the first two games at regionals that our team was really focused. Just after the regular season ended, you could see the excitement and the anticipation for what lies ahead for our ball club. All week at practice, I had no worries because I could just see it in their eyes that they were focused. No matter what the challenges that these girls faced, they were going to step up. This is step one of the weekend. We're taking it one game at a time.

Q. How do you think your pitcher [Dana Sorensen] did today?
A. I think Dana did really well - getting ahead of hitters, mixing the changeup in. She's keeping them honest with the changeup. Coach Alameda was calling it early in the game, she wasn't throwing it for a strike, but kept with and eventually was throwing for a strike. I thought she pitched extremely well.

Stanford Player Sarah Beeson
Q. What did you think of their pitching today?
A. I thought they did a pretty decent job - mixing it pretty well. I just made her come to me and took my pitch.

Stanford Player Jessica Mendoza
I know from last year and years past that there's a lot of build up because it a No. 1-No. 6 seed game, but we went in thinking it was a huge game. We played the game really well together. We played like it was the championship or the last game, not the like the first one in a tournament.