Gallagher Addresses Media During Monday News Conference
April 22, 2002 | Softball
Softball coach Karen Gallagher addressed the media Monday at a news conference at the Kohl Center. Gallagher discussed her thoughts on the team, its upcoming home stretch, its cancelled games versus Indiana and hitting.
The transcript of the news conference follows.
Opening Statement: 'I think this weekend is probably the biggest weekend of our year. We face Iowa and Northwestern in a very tight Big Ten race and I think it's a key weekend for our kids to step up and deal with our reality. I think our reality is that we have to perform very well, because there's pressure on them to win probably three out of the four ballgames right now. They're capable of it. I think when we support our pitching staff and get Andrea Kirchberg some runs, we 're in pretty good shape. We've had our moments throughout the season doing that, we're a very capable offensive team and I think when we're doing that we're fine. We had a great weekend against Michigan/Michigan State and I think it really helped our spirits going into [last] week. We played well against Loyola, didn't get it done at UIC in Chicago and of course the weather took two games away from us this weekend. My feelings on that is it's just too hard to play in and I don't want to risk injury at this point and the last [news conference] I was asked about the weather and how it affects your athletes and I think that was a key day in how it affects athletes. You could risk injury and at this point in the year, I don't want to do that. We have two key weekends coming up for us and I want to make sure everybody's healthy. "
Will the Indiana games be rescheduled' No. We lose the games and just hope it doesn't hurt us come tournament time when they decide who is going to the tournament, or when we decide if we're going to the tournament I should say. Currently, we're fifth in the Big Ten.'
On hitting: 'Inconsistency. It's just one of those things where they hit the best pitching in the country one game and the next game they just don't step up. Again, we have a young team, I think a lot of them are learning how to become good hitters, but I think just consistency and focus at the plate'we 're doing a better job at that. I think we've got some young athletes in our program that are learning to hit at this level and once they get to that point and understand that they have to make adjustments against top Big Ten pitching I think we 'll be in much better shape. I'm sure you ask any major league baseball coach or hitting coach why their team can't hit from one day to the next or why it 's kind of a roller coaster ride, it's hard to say. They get enough practice doing it and that certainly is not an excuse. We've played enough games, we should be on our way up in terms of peaking at the right time and I don't know, hopefully these past games over the weekend didn't hurt us, but we've played enough games where you expect the consistency at this point."
Do you have your hitters bat against Andrea' 'Yes, we sure do. And they hit her well actually, that's an interesting factor in it all. Probably because they know her well, they know how her pitches move. You know, we see her everyday.'
How's Iowa' 'Very good. They're a complete ball team. We need to step up and play well against them.'
Do you have to win three out of four this weekend' 'That's always our goal going into a Big Ten weekend. You always want to take three out of four games and that's a good situation. I think we need to do well. The two teams we're playing are the two teams we're battling for position in the Big Ten. I think we're capable of being one of the top teams in the Big Ten. Our goal was to win the Big Ten and I think we had the team to do that, we have the talent and all the factors, we have the pitching, we have better defense and I think when we play good defense, that's another key for us. When we play good defense we win ball games.'
Will less travel help' 'Yes, I'm exciting about being home. We're home the rest of our [Big Ten] season and I really think it does help our athletes. No. 1, just being able to take care of themselves better, they can focus better where they don't feel like they have to study for a midterm on a bus or an airplane. Yeah, it certainly does help.'
How much does the weather factor in getting a top recruit from a warmer climate to go here' 'I think it is an issue and I think that 's one of the first questions kids like that will ask. Will they chose UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State over us if they have a shot and can get all their games in and play in good weather' I think that is an issue.'
How can you convince those recruits otherwise' 'Win a Big Ten title and get to a World Series and do all the things that good programs do to get top recruits in the country and we're in line to do that.'
