May 19, 2007

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Long Island Opening Statement
"I think we battled very hard. I am very proud of the effort this team made the whole weekend. As I said before, we are a very, very young team and I think we learned a lot here. Our senior Randi Gillespie got a few good hits in her last game. Jenny pitched outstanding for a lot of innings. She threw a lot of pitches in the last couple days, and I thought she did a tremendous job. UMass made a few more plays on the defensive side. They are a very good softball team and we put up two good fights against them."

Randi Gillespie on team
"This team is very special to me. I'm proud of the girls and the way that they battled. We are a young team and I think we learned a lot from this experience. Hopefully, we'll go far in the next couple of years, and I know we will make it to the World Series soon. There is no doubt in my mind about that." Jenny Giles on differences in UMass lineup "They were a lot more aggressive than on Friday. Both days it was a duel. They are all great hitters."

Massachusetts Opening Thoughts
"I thought it was a great battle in the early innings. I thought they kept coming back at us. I thought that we held them off well and that Brandice was very consistent on the mound and gave a great performance. I thought we gave a great plate behind her and a couple of plays on defense. We came up finally with the timely hitting that we so needed this morning. I was proud of our effort. I think its difficult to come back in the same day from an emotional loss like the 12 p.m. game. Our kids had a lot of character and a lot of guts."

Brandice on adjustments that she made pitching to Long Island
"A couple things, I noticed that they started hitting earlier in the count and that they were picking up some of the pitches, but I was able to change things up and work around them."

Whitney on adjustments that the team made to hit against Giles
"Yesterday we struggled with her changed up. We came in with a better plan. I think that we were picking it up better because we were definitely sitting back on her pitches, I know that at my first at bat I just sat back and threw my hands as hard as I could at the ball and waited for it as long as I could. I think that was something that even if we were getting out we were still making ten times better contact than we were on Friday."

Coach Sortino's plans for tomorrow
"I think that you have to look at a day like tomorrow as one pitch at a time. I said this to the team, this is not about cliché's. I have done this before. Take it one pitch at a time. I think we can handle it. I know that we were neck and neck today, I think we have a better expectation for tomorrow, and that we will have better at bats tomorrow. I think we will be a little calmer and probably a little bit more patient at the plate."