May 27, 2006
Head Coach Clint Myers
"It's awesome. This team is awesome, the feeling is awesome. We sat in this room in august and talked about dreams and commitment. We talked about effort. We saw all of that tonight. At the end of our video that we put together for our banquet, there's a song titled `Dream Big.' These girls today took it beyond the dream and made it into a reality, but we are not done yet. I can't say enough things about this team. Between the lines, this young lady did a great job and I can't wait to see the match up between her and [Texas Cat Osterman]. It's going to be a heck of a battle. We're so [darn] happy."
On which is better: or :
" is better by far! was fun, but this is a dream for me. This is my dream. When I was a player coming back, this is what I wanted and [VP ] gave me an opportunity making me her best hire yet. It is just awesome and I am so excited to go and play for a national championship."
On team buy-in:
"I did. It is something that you saw this team mature through the course of the year. You saw them mature and really develop when we won four of five to go over .500 [in Pac-10.] going into the Regional. Coach Wagner helped them understand about rankings and pairings. It was explained to the girls that their destiny lies in their hands. I felt it was a real maturing activity. Katie Burkhart has definitely matured and she is one awesome young lady."
2B Mindy Cowles
On team expectations:
"Coming into the season, coach took us into this room for our team meeting and said to us, "I'm taking this team to the World Series." We kind of looked at each other because it was never like that before; it was never set up as our goal. It was, `we're going to win conference, and we're going to go to Regionals.' But his first day, he told us he was taking us to a championship. We have all just believed in him since.
On having Katie Burkhart on the mound:
"It just makes us feel confident that we don't have to worry about her falling apart on the mound. You know that she's going to get this next hitter and get that next out. And if she doesn't, we have enough confidence in our defense to know that we can pick her up."
On her home run:
"I was seeing the ball at the beginning of the game today and yesterday very good. Before I got up to bat, Coach Wagner came up to me and told me to advance the runner and relax my swing. I did and I just hit it well. I have felt more relaxed at the plate than I have earlier. At the end of the Pac-10 tournament, I felt like I was too anxious up there and I feel better now."
"I was coming off a good weekend last weekend and I felt I was seeing the ball very well. I focused on just doing my job.
On the match-up with :
"We need to just stick to our game plan. We have been doing a real good job with that and its exciting to go up against a pitcher like that to see what you can do. "
Pitcher Katie Burkhart
"Warming up in the bullpen, today I felt so much crisper than yesterday. That always a concern sometimes whether you can come out strong the next day and I felt so good today that it didn't matter. I was ready to take it pitch by pitch because we had Serrano out there too.
On pitch movement:
"We definitely changed our game plan. They were expecting curveballs and the lefties were setting up. We worked in a few more pitches and didn't give them the pitches that they were expecting to hit."
On making the WCWS:
"This has been a dream of mine since I was 10 years old. Words cannot explain this. I've never been one to be speechless, but I have no words. All I can say is that this is amazing and I am so excited. This team is going to go far."