bleedCrimson.net Weekly Coach Rodolph Interview

bleedCrimson.net will be conducting weekly interviews with Aggie women's softball head coach Kathy Rodolph throughout the 2009 season as the Aggies take aim at the WAC title. In this week's interview Coach Rodolph talks about this past weekend's Crimson/White game, the depth that she has on this year's team and previews this weekend's finale of games for the fall schedule.

bleedCrimson.net: Last weekend you held the Crimson/White game and the Crimson squad, which had some of your younger players, surprised the White squad winning 14-4.
Kathy Rodolph: The White team, Kelsey Schueler is a freshman pitcher from the Fresno area and she wasn't able to quite get the movement that she normally does on her pitches and so the Crimson team hopped all over that in the beginning and then it was kinda hard for the White team to regain the momentum. But I saw a lot of positives in both sides continuing to battle and a couple of kids I got an opportunity to evaluate them since they didn't play in the Odessa series. All in all I think that the big thing about the fall is we're so condensed in the amount of playing time. I wish we had a few more weeks to play but it's a very short three week abbreviated fall season.

bleedCrimson.net will be conducting weekly interviews with Aggie women's softball head coach Kathy Rodolph throughout the 2009 season as the Aggies take aim at the WAC title. In this week's interview Coach Rodolph talks about this past weekend's fall series against Odessa Junior College, the class of super sophomores that return from last season, a sneak peek at next season's schedule and Friday's Crimson/White game.

bleedCrimson.net: Talk a little bit about this past weekend's games against Odessa Junior College.
Kathy Rodolph: Odessa Junior College is one of the top JC's going to the World Series intermittently. Either Odessa or Midland College usually go to the World Series out of the Texas Region. They had a pitcher Madi Machac that was one of the pitchers for UNM who decided to transfer to Odessa and go a different route. She was able to beat us with UNM last year and she was pitching for Odessa in the first game. I want to say that the first 10 runs scored were against her. What I really liked was that we were able to stay poised and not swing at pitches out of the zone and attack pitches in the zone.

I feel like we have a very strong offensive attack this year with some new additions plus the experience we have back. We have 14 returners back. This is the most mature team that we've had since Coach Heifner and I took over five years ago.

Check out today's installment of the 2008 Blue Ribbon Yearbook Aggie Football Preview. Today we're taking a look at the Wide Receivers and Tight Ends.

Our look back at the Best Wins of '07/'08 will resume tomorrow. In the mean time here's some more from our interview with Aggie softball coach Kathy Rodolph after the season.

bleedCrimson..net: Talk about the season that you had, you faced three of the final eight teams in the College World Series (Virginia Tech, Arizona and national runner up Texas A&M ) and four WAC teams (Fresno State, Louisiana Tech, Nevada and Hawai'i) also got into the NCAA tournament.
Kathy Rodolph: We fell short against Fresno losing to the five times in six days. We raised the bar in every game and I was really happy about that. We lost to them by one in seven [innings], by one in nine and then by one in ten. Fresno was definitely a Top 25 team but I think those games alone gave us the confidence to know that we can come back and do something special next year.

All four WAC teams made it to the championship game of their regional. What I was excited about that is it showed how much our conference improved this year. It wasn't like they just got in and got shellacked at regionals. They all fell in the championship game.

I feel like La. Tech going into the conference tournament, winning it and then knocking off Auburn in their regional. I think it really shows the improvement overall in the WAC.

bc.net: Coming into the season you talked about the goal of your non-conference schedule being to put your kids in the situation of playing against the types of teams that you want your program to be like. Looking back on it can you talk about what your assessment is of your non-conference season?
KR: We lost so many games close that it did affect our confidence and our psyche a little bit and maybe the schedule was a little bit overzealous. But saying that had we not lost Ashley Roszkos to pregnancy and she would have been anchoring the four hole in those games and I believe we lost 16 or 17 games by three runs or less, I believe that if Ashley could have been there in the four hole in those games the outcome could have easily swung our way.

This coming year we've already started scheduling. We are going to go to Arizona State's tournament, we are going to a tournament at Louisiana-Lafayette. We're still trying to work a home and away with Arizona. Our kids know that the challenege is going to be high and that they're going to really have to play well and stay calm under pressure but I don't think that we're afraid of that competition.

bc.net: Talk about the experience that your team gained from playing against all those top ranked teams and how that will help you for next season.
KR: I feel like really where experience helps you is when you have the time in the fall that you're really building to get better as a team when you've had kids that have really experienced that top competition that gives them something everyday to work for instead of just this theme that out there that they may face somebody that's really good. We started five freshmen every game and they absolutely know that if we want a chance to win the WAC and go to regional we're going to have to come through on some of those tough games that we lost. That means one more key hit, one more critical stop, one more strikeout in the circle. I think they all realize what they have to do personally for the whole of the team.

bc.net: Does a performance like Louisiana-Lafayette had being in the College World Series and knocking off couple of the teams there give the smaller schools a little extra motivation to say "Hey we can do this too"?
KR: Absolutely. The reason we're going to Lafayette is we're very good friends with the Lafayette coaches and got to be great friends with them while we were in the Sun Belt and I have tremendous respect for what they've done and they absolutely give a ton of hope and confidence to the mid-major.

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 talks about this past weekend's series against Fresno State, what her team can take into the next meeting with the Bulldogs and playing under pressure.

bleedCrimson.net: Talk about this past weekend's series against Fresno State.
Kathy Rodolph: All in all they were pretty good games. I was disappointed, I felt like Friday night we played well enough to win when we lost 3-2 in nine innings. Fresno is #9 in the nation and a 40 game winner and they're absolutely swinging like 40 game winners. We definitely had our hands full and for our young kids it was the first time for them to play in that atmosphere where there were over 1,000 fans. It was a good crowd and good atmosphere and so I think all in all it was a good experience for us, I was just disappointed that we came up on the losing end in all three games.

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 talks about this past weekend's series win over Cal State-Bakersfield and talks about her seniors as this weekend is their final home games of their careers.

bleedCrimson.net: Talk a little bit about this past weekend's games against Cal State-Bakersfield.
Kathy Rodolph: I felt like we started kind of getting our feet back under us against Bakersfield. They're a quality, solid ballclub. I felt like we did the little things to help us come out on top of Bakersfield. I was very pleased with last weekend.

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 talks about this past weekend's sweep against Utah State, Ashley Maroda's Hitter of the Week honor and looks ahead to this weekend's series against CS-Bakersfield.

bleedCrimson.net: Can you talk about Ashey Maroda getting WAC Hitter of the Week?
Kathy Rodolph: I was very excited for Ashley because Ashley is doing a terrific job and just continues to get stronger and stronger. She really stepped up and helped in the middle of the lineup against UNM and the Utah State series. I definitely think it's the first of more to come.

bc.net: Ashley is the team's second WAC Hitter of the Week and both have been freshman (Hoku Nohara for the week of Feb. 18th - 24th). Can you talk about your freshmen and the contribution that they're making this season?
KR: I think our freshman group is by far the most talented group that we've brought in since I've been at NMSU. I'm very pleased with how all of them have continued to grow throughout the season and step up in pressure situations and really have come through in the clutch many times this season. I think they're definitely something to look forward to over the next four years.

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 talks about this past weekend's series against Louisiana Tech, the exhibition game against the U.S. National Team and talks about the upcoming series against Utah State in Logan, UT.

bleedCrimson.net: Talk a little bit about the Louisiana Tech series this past weekend.
Kathy Rodolph: Louisiana Tech came in here and played real well and we struggled all weekend long in the circle and then we struggled offensively to get those clutch hits. What comes first is was it the struggling in the circle that created that or a combination of both? We honestly didn't play very well.

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 this past weekend's series against Nevada, talks about the upcoming series against Louisiana Tech and talks about the opportunity to play against the world's best softball team on Sunday afternoon.

bleedCrimson.net: Can you talk about the Nevada series?
Kathy Rodolph: Nevada is an outstanding ballclub and I feel like with Kim Watson out hurt this past weekend we struggled a little bit but Sammie [Dillard] and Vanessa [Fitzgerald] stepped up and did a great job for us.

bc.net: Talk about the first day's doubleheader, you picked up a 3-0 win in the first game and then lost a 3-2 10 inning game in the second game.
KR: Sammie did a terrific job shutting out Reno, they're 20th in the nation for hitting. I felt like she did an outstanding job of keeping them at bay. I feel like then when we got into the second game, Vanessa did a good job and I will take responsibility for that loss. I brought in our freshman Kristen Maris, who throws really hard, in the seventh after we had worked real hard to get a one run lead, thinking that maybe they hadn't seen her and that would kind of throw them off. Instead I think she came in a little nervous and kind kind of tubed it over the middle and so they were able to tie it up right away and it took a ton out of us to lose in 10 innings.

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.

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 recaps last week's games against UTEP, the San Diego State tournament and gives analysis on her team's play through the end of the non-conference tournament play.

bleedCrimson.net: Can you talk a little bit about the doubleheader down in El Paso last Wednesday? You fell 3-0 in the first game and 6-5 in nine innings in the second game.
Kathy Rodolph: Honestly, I feel like we were a little bit shaky. UTEP played well, they just absolutely outplayed us. We were a little rocky and had opportunities but we just could not get our feet underneath us to come through.