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.  Continue Reading This Post >>

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.  Continue Reading This Post >>

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.  Continue Reading This Post >>

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 victories over Georgetown and their play in the UNLV Invitational and looks ahead at the doubleheader against UTEP on Wendesday and the San Diego State tournament.

bleedCrimson.net: Last week you bounced back nicely from the U of A tournament putting together three consecutive run-rule wins, Georgetown 8-0 and 9-1 and then Southern Utah 9-0. Can you talk about the two games against Georgetown?
Kathy Rodolph: We were excited to be back home because it's tough to be on the road as much as we've set our schedule but I think we're learning to adjust to that. I feel like when we got an opportunity for the doubleheader with Georgetown the kids came out determined they were going to start out real aggressive and try to rebound from all the errors the weekend before. That was really our emphasis in those two games and I feel like we were able to accomplish that.  Continue Reading This Post >>

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 Hillenbrand Invitational in Tucson, talks about the doubleheader against Georgetown and looks ahead at the UNLV Tournament.

bleedCrimson.net: Can you talk about the Hillenbrand overall and then about each of the games individually?
Kathy Rodolph: I thought that it was kind of a tough weekend for us. We had way too many errors and definitely did not play up to our ability. Part of that I attribute to Steph Herrera, key senior, leader, having a severe ankle sprain in the second game and going out. That kinda created some uncertainty in our infield but way too many errors playing against quality teams.  Continue Reading This Post >>

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 6-0 performance, talks about freshman Hoku Nohara winning the WAC Hitter of the Week and looks ahead at the University of Arizona Tournament..

bleedCrimson.net: First of all, congratulations on your outstanding week. Can you talk about being able to go from starting out the week 2-8 and finishing the week 8-8?
Kathy Rodolph: I've always believed all along that we have an outstanding ballclub. I just really felt like when we went to Palm Springs we got a little bit on our heels and might have been a little bit surprised at the caliber of competition and so all we've been doing as a staff has been to get us back to playing our game to be aggressive and attack knowing that every time you come out on the field, one of the two teams is going to attack the other. So if that's the case then I'd like that to be us.  Continue Reading This Post >>

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 weekend's tournament and looks ahead at this week's competition starting on Wednesday night with UTEP and continuing in the Troy Cox Tournament.

bleedCrimson.net: This weekend's games, the theme seemed to be "big innings". Can you talk about that and your overall thoughts from the weekend?
Kathy Rodolph: I feel like on Friday night North Dakota State came out very aggressive and hopped on us and we were just flat out not prepared for them to be that aggressive. I felt like we were not as prepared as we needed to be and honestly felt like we may have overlooked them. Hopefully that's not gonna occur again. I feel like that kind of set the tone and put us on our heels. If you look at what we did offensively with runners in scoring positions we hit about 100 points lower when we had runners on than when we didn't, which is crazy. We have to learn to be clutch and I also understand that I'm relying on five freshmen but I also believe that they have the ability and so need to step up and get it done. I also believe that we cannot continue to average six walks per game and not have it hurt us because it constantly puts too much pressure on our defense and silences our bats because we press when we come back offensively. Hopefully before we play UTEP tomorrow night [Wednesday] at home we're gonna correct some of those things.  Continue Reading This Post >>

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 the season opening tournament in California and previews the matchups in this weekend's Hotel Encanto Invitational.

bleedCrimson.net: Can you talk about your overall thoughts from the weekend and then we'll get into each game individually.
Kathy Rodolph: I never aspire to be 1-4 but all in all I'm pretty happy with the way that we played on the weekend even though the outcome wasn't exactly what we wanted. I thought we were able to play with some really strong teams and with only two seniors on the field and five freshmen at any given time, I think the future looks pretty bright.  Continue Reading This Post >>

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 the season opening tournament where the Aggies will face #2 Texas A&M, #18 Oregon State, Cal, Portland State and Cal-Poly.

bleedCrimson.net: You've had a few weeks of practice since we last talked with you, how are things progressing with the team and at the catcher position?
Kathy Rodolph: We have two young ladies that haven taken over for us behind the plate. Brittany Clifton who's a freshman and Dani Fagan. Both of them are doing great, it'll be exciting to see how they manage the challenging competition this weekend.

bc.net: Can you talk about your pitching staff, how does your rotation work since they don't need as much recovery time as a baseball pitcher?  Continue Reading This Post >>

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 her freshman class, the non-conference schedule, their goals for this season and the opportunity to play the U.S. National Team.

bleedCrimson.net: For the fans who don't regularly follow college softball can you talk a little bit about college softball, what are some of the differences between softball and baseball.
Kathy Rodolph: In fastpitch softball the pitcher pitches the ball underhand from a lot closer distance than the mound is in baseball. We pitch from 43 feet and the ball comes in anywhere from 60 to 70 miles per hour which means you have about .3 seconds to decide whether its a ball or a strike. It's an exceptionally challenging game because of the shorter distance that we pitch from. Our bases are at 60 feet versus the 90 in baseball so it's a lot faster paced game. In baseball you can lead off while the pitcher still has the ball, in softball you must remain on the base until the ball leaves the pitcher's hand otherwise you're automatically out. The other biggest difference is the distance of the outfield fence. Our fence is 190' in the foul lines and 220' in center field. A lot of fields are 220' all the way around. Our, because of space, putting our batting cages in, we had to go a little shorter in the corners, and the thin air in Las Cruces leads to a lot more home runs than other places.  Continue Reading This Post >>