May 22, 2011

Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

California Head Coach Diane Ninemire

Opening Statement

"First of all, I just want to thank the University of Louisville for putting on such a wonderful regional tournament. We couldn't ask to be in a better place. It was so well organized and accommodating to us. I thought this was a championship game in every sense of the word. They came out and played tough defense against us. They had great pitching today against us and were fortunate enough to score runs today. I told them before that it's not always about how many hits you get in a game, but it's our speed that does the job for us. We pretty much won this game today because our speed got on today and forced errors defensively on them with the two errors today. That was the biggest difference in the game today. Jolene (Henderson) threw lights out all weekend. She is just one of the best pitchers in the country and I give her a lot of credit for our success."

California sophomore pitcher Jolene Henderson

On being concerned about Louisville's scoring threats:

"I like to make things interesting. I don't really get too concerned. Our offense was on today and got runs early. I still felt in control even when there were runners on base. I don't seem to get too worried because I know I can do it and I don't doubt myself at all or my teammates."

Junior outfielder Frani Echavarria

On Tori Collins' pitching:

"She's a great pitcher. She definitely hits her spots well. She has some good speed. She came out strong yesterday and I thought our team did a good job picking up her pitches and hitting our pitches. Today, she came out strong and was really on it in the first couple of innings. She got us a couple of times, but I think we finally settled down and looked for our pitches. I think we got some good key hits when we needed them. She pitched a great game."

Louisville Head Coach Sandy Pearsall

Opening Statement:

"Obviously, it was a great disappointment to us. I think we came into today really honestly believing that we had a shot at beating. We felt that we had not played well yesterday. I have to give credit to California and what a great job they did when we were in scoring position. We outhit them. Tori (Collins) pitched a great game. We just did not score the runs when we need to and the other key was that we made some mistakes that give them a few runs and that is something you cannot do against that team. I am proud of how we kept fighting back in there and I felt like we put ourselves in an opportunity to win, we just didn't get it done. That is something we have to find a way to do. We have to find people who will come through for us when we have people in scoring position to get the ball out of the infield."

Louisville senior third baseman Chelsea Bemis

On the frustration of leaving runners on base:
"It's always frustrating because you have the opportunity to score and then when it doesn't go our way it becomes frustrating. We kept battling and we had the chances, but it just didn't go our way."

On Jolene Henderson:

"Their pitcher is really good. She was working really hard with her changeup more than yesterday. She knew what throw and she had a good game."

Louisville senior shortstop Colby Wherry

On coming out of the weather delay:

"I actually thought that little lightning strike delay was going to go our way, then we went to locker room for a while and we came out ready and believing. We thought we were going to get it done, it just didn't go our way."