bleedCrimson.net will be conducting weekly interviews with Aggie women's softball head coach Kathy Rodolph throughout the 2008 season as the Aggies take aim at the WAC title. In this week's interview Coach Rodolph the team's first ever victory over a Top 25 team, talks about this weekend's series against Nevada and talks about the opportunity to play on television.
bleedCrimson.net: Can you talk a little bit about series this week against Hawai'i and last week's games against Loyola Marymount?
Kathy Rodolph: The tough schedule we played in the preseason is starting to pay off because our errors are cut way down and our poise under pressure late in games sure has gotten a lot better both against Loyola Marymount and against Hawai'i on the road. I was real proud of both series.
bc.net: Can you talk a little bit about the first game against Hawai'i? You got your first win against a Top 25 team in the program's history.
KR: The funny thing about it is, Hawai'i is an outstanding team no doubt. They've got the experience of going to the Super Regionals and the majority of their team returning. What I liked most about our kids is we didn't come out intimidated by them. We came out ready to play and let the game decide what was going to happen. That's what I'd hoped would happen when we went into conference.
bc.net: Can you talk a little bit about the second game? You lost 4-0 in that game. Was there any "hangover" from the first win?
KR: I feel like they got a good rally going in the second or third inning when they scored three runs. They started chopping the ball and using the infield. Sammie [Dillard] is a drop ball pitcher and they started chopping the ball and kind of flustered us a little bit. What I was proud of is we were able to come back, stop the bleeding and stay in the ballgame. We started pressing a little bit offensively in that game and so we didn't have as many runners on. I feel like the next day against Kate Robinson, we did a little bit better job offensively against her.
bc.net: Can you talk about that third game? You went into the 7th inning tied 0-0 and then in the bottom of the 7th you got a little bit of a bad break or bad call on the 2nd hit by Hawai'i that eventually led to their game winning run?
KR: We thought we clearly had the kid out that was called safe. Cat went out and checked and the guy said that our kid had never gotten to the bag, from the side it appeared that her foot was on the plate. It clearly did shift the momentum and it was hard to get it back in the bottom of the 7th.
bc.net: Can you talk about the confidence that the Hawai'i series gives your team being able to go on the road against a Top 25 team and hang toe to toe with them?
KR: It absolutely gave us a ton of confidence because now we truly know we can play with anybody and it's all a matter of raising your expectations and knowing that if you give everything you have the game will dictate who's going to win. A lot of times games are lost and not won and so if you can play poised under pressure you're going to come out on the winning side more often than not.
I feel like part of the change is in the pitching staff. They've done a great job of keeping opponents rallies to a minimum. I feel like that's key and that's going to be key going into this weekend against Reno. Reno is very much a momentum team that relies on rallies to score. It's going to really challenge our defense and our pitchers in the circle to keep those rallies to a minimum. What they saw against Hawai'i is Kate Robinson would get a double, she's an outstanding player, she was up for preseason player of the year, she's already been drafted in the first round of the pro league. She did get her double and did get a couple of really good hits but they weren't able to string anything together around her. We were able to capitalize on getting those leadoffs off so that she wasn't able to punish us with those hits.
bc.net: Can you talk a little bit about this weekend's series against Nevada? They're 23-11 overall and 3-0 in conference play.
KR: Fortunately we got to go watch them play yesterday against UTEP, they had a doubleheader. We had the opportunity to go see some of their new young freshmen that we hadn't seen yet. They're an outstanding team and we're absolutely gonna have to play to be able to come out on top of that series. I also believe the quality and caliber of teams that we've been playing, we absolutely have the ability to hold our own with anybody in the conference.
bc.net: Can you talk about their three outstanding pitchers? Jordan McPherson was picked as the conference Preseason Pitcher of the Year.
KR: Jordan is a good pitcher, she does a great job of not throwing strikes and keeping you guessing. She's improved with an offspeed and a changeup as a senior. I feel like we're going to have to pressure her before she pressures us because you don't want to get behind on her too often or be swinging from behind. We're definitely going to have to get in there and attack strikes.
bc.net: Can you talk about the importance of this series being at home? You've been a dominant team at home this season.
KR: I can tell you that the girls and entire coaching staff is ecstatic that we're going to be at home for two weeks in a row because we've been on the road for four weeks. It's nice to come home and sleep in your own bed and have your own fans and be familiar with your own field and how everything plays. When you're going up against a team like Reno that's a high caliber team, you definitely would prefer to play them at home instead of on the road.
bc.net: Can you talk about having one of your games this weekend be shown on AggieVision and what that helps to do for your program?
KR: I feel like the support that we've been getting from the administration and feeling like we're a very valuable part of the athletic department is huge. When you're able to break into the t.v. games and be supported with AggieVision, it's a great recruiting tool to show others how far the program has come over the last four years and the vision of the program from the administration standpoint. It's a huge opportunity.
