May 17, 2002

2002 NCAA Division I
Women’s Softball Region I Tournament
May 16-19, 2002
Beckham Field (Columbia, SC)
(#5 UMBC vs. #4 Eastern Kentucky)

UMBC Head Coach Joe French: “We’ve had a great year. We’ve broken numerous school and individual records. Eastern [Kentucky] came at us strong in the first inning. We would have liked to score first and break the tension, but I don’t want this game to take anything away from our accomplishments this year. It’s always tough losing, but you are going to go home if you don’t hit or pitch well. Only the best teams in the country survive and are still here.”

UMBC Shortstop Deanna Vecchio: “I think we played very well in the tournament considering this is our first NCAA tournament ever in any sport. To win a game was nice. I think we could have hit a little better against Eastern. I just don’t think that our team was up for it like we should have been.”

Eastern Kentucky Head Coach Jane Worthington: “We need to keep our bats going against UCLA. We hit pretty well and our pitching was excellent. We had runners on against UMBC and took advantage of it with some big hits,and we ae going to have to keep it up to compete in this tournament. We are going to take UCLA inning-by-inning, and if we have to change pitchers five or six times, then that’s what we’ll do.”

Eastern Kentucky Third Baseman Ashley Totten: “We all came ready to play. A lot of people don’t know who Eastern is, we had a good season, and we just want to let people know that we are here.. We’re looking forward t matching up against UCLA. It’s going toake a total team effort to beat em, and we’re really pleased with the way we’ve been playing.”