May 14, 2011

Recap |  Box Score

Head Coach Robin Petrini

Q: Obviously a big win, very important win. Can you just talk about how it feels to come from behind yet again, for the eighth time in ten wins?
A: I told the team that the mantra of this team is team. They have come from behind, it has come from lots of different people. Lots of different people score, KJ walks, Mary comes in and pinch-runs and scores on that triple down the line from first base. That's the epitome of a team game right there. Somebody gets on, somebody comes in and pinch-runs, somebody else comes trough with a hit and we're able to pick up some runs. I just think that it continues to show what great character this team has.

Q: Over the past few weeks, you've had several innings where you batted through the entire order. It seems like a lot of the runs have been coming in bunches.
A: I think that once the offense gets going, and you get some momentum in an inning, and we've been very good about keeping that momentum in that inning and doing as much as we can when we have it.

Q: Can you talk about Jackie, how she was able to respond after she got herself in a little bit of trouble?
A: Jackie settled right down. The first three innings, they kept nicking us for a couple runs. And then when we put up six, we gave up one run, and I thought "Hey Jackie, no big deal. Stay after it." And the key was, we broke up their order. We kept getting eight, nine, one; eight, nine, one, two. And so the two fast kids weren't able to be on when three, four, five came up. That was the key--that we were able to break up their order.

Q: Obviously they have a lot of powerful bats in the line-up. Can you talk about how difficult it was to try to keep them in park?
A: You have to be careful with them. They got a couple kids--their three, four, five are good hitters, and with one swing they can definitely change a game. I thought we pitched those three kids very well. [Michelle] Batts had a couple hits, a couple RBIs, but they were just singles right in front of us so they weren't able to get a big inning out of it. I knew they were going to score and we just were going to have to outscore them.

Q: So you guys were down two-nothing. In the Big Ten season you guys have been down a lot, so how does it feel to come up to the plate and get that huge double?
A: It feels great. I mean everyone want to be in that situation, so coming through, especially with two strikes, that was big.

Q: Robin's mentioned how you haven't gotten a lot of the two-out, big RBIs. Was there any less pressure on you during that at-bat because there were no outs on the board?
A: No, there's always pressure. Plus I didn't get my bunts down, so I knew I had to do something to pick it up.

Q: Robin wanted you to bunt and sacrifice. What does it feel like, with that big 0-2 count, just to see the ball well?
A: Well I've been seeing the ball well lately, and I saw it big, so I just hit it. Luckily it got by her.

Q: Penn State ended up sending 11 runners to the plate in that inning. It seems like a lot of the runs over the past two weeks have come in one big inning. Is there anything you guys can point to about that momentum and how to team gets going at the plate?
A: Well I would say that we've been playing pretty well together and as a team, so once one person gets something, we just continue rolling. We all get excited so it just rolls onto the next person.