May 19, 2007

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NCAA Softball – Columbia Regional
May 19, 2007
Postgame Quotes – Game 3: Oregon 8, South Carolina 4

South Carolina Coach Joyce Compton
“When we give up that many runs, we just couldn’t get outs at key times. I felt that our offense was never out of it. We couldn’t put a couple of key hits when we really needed it. If the pitcher doesn’t give away that long drive, who knows what would’ve happened. We had our opportunities. I can’t complain about that, although we need to have a few people step up when we have those situations. McKenna (Hughes) and Ashton (Payne) did that. (Jacqueline Wetherbee) had another good day offensively.

Regarding leaving nine runners on base
“That’s a lot. The good thing is we had runners on base. We had a couple key hits down the line, (but) when we started making a little run, we couldn’t stop them. We were a little bit inconsistent pitching. You can’t give good hitters good pitches.”

“I feel good about how we’re swinging the bats. I was disappointed. Although it shows up as one error there are things we didn’t do on defense. That gave them some hits and gave them opportunities. The more opportunities you give them, that’s going to help them out like when (Ann Marie Topps) hit the ball out, she shouldn’t have even been at the plate that inning. Things like that come back to haunt us. I felt like we were a step behind defensively today. The kid should’ve been picked off on third base on their suicide. I thought we should’ve made a better attempt on the hit that (Jenn Salling) got that drove in the two runs. It didn’t hurt us when Adele (Voigt) dove down the line like she shouldn’t do, but they got out of that.

McKenna Hughes
“We’re swinging the bat pretty well, and the confidence knowing you did get 12 hits against a team going into tonight will help us. We are swinging the bat a lot better than we have been and the team has confidence in our play right now.”

Regarding a possible matchup with N.C. State:
“Any team that you’ve scored quite a few runs on, you’re going to feel confident if that’s the team we’re playing tonight.”

Oregon Head Coach Kathy Arendsen
“We are really happy to be sitting here as the winner because that was a great game. We have great respect for South Carolina’s effort. “

“They battled and battled. I am really proud of our team’s effort. They had to work hard but they are really resilient. We had to work but came up with a win.”

On only needing one more game to advance:
“Obviously it helps, but we are only looking at the first game tomorrow. We don’t want to think about another game, or worry about who we are going to play. All three of the teams are outstanding teams, we have played two out of the three and all will give us a great game, we fully expect that.”

“It’s a positive. Every other regional we have been in since I have been at Oregon we had to win the “if necessary” game. It’s a wonderful feeling to be in the other place.”

“I am incredibly proud of them, I think we are incredibly difficult to beat twice. So that obviously gives us an advantage.”

“It’s so key our speed gets on. Our first two hitters get on and good things happen and that’s the way it had been all year. Suzie (Barnes) and Sari (Jane Jenkins) getting on brings up Jen (Salling) with two runners on where she excels in an RBI opportunity, and obviously that cashed in for us.”

Outfielder Sari-Jane Jenkins
“All year we’ve been struggling to have timely hitting, and I think we are finally making adjustments now.”

“We came up big. A lot of hitters came up big at times. Kristi Leiter had some key hits. Ann Marie (Topps) came up big. Hopefully we can keep doing that. I think we have yet to reach our peak but good things are happening so we are going to keep pressing on.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw South Carolina in the game tomorrow. They are a tough team. We have a lot of momentum going our way and if we just keep doing what we are doing then good things should happen for us.”

Shortstop Jennifer Salling
“We have always stressed throughout the year to score first, to score in the first inning. Whenever we are visitors we try to get the momentum going.”