KU Softball Media Day Quotes
Feb. 5, 2007
LAWRENCE, Kan. –
University of Kansas softball coach Tracy Bunge and senior pitcher Kassie Humphreys spoke to the media Monday about their season-opening tournament in San Diego and the upcoming season. The Jayhawks begin their 2007 slate Thursday at 6:30 p.m. (Central) against UC Santa Barbara.
Selected media day quotes:
Head coach Tracy Bunge
On using the same pitcher in back-to-back games:
“It is very early to say what we are going to do. Our hope as a coaching staff is that we don’t have to do that with (Kassie) Humphreys. We are going to have either George (Valerie) or (Sarah) Vertelka step up and be a solid No. 2 pitcher so that we can give Humphreys a break. We don’t want to have to do that to her because if you are talking about 350 innings, by the end of the season, sometimes those pitchers tend to break down. We want to keep Humphreys as fresh as we can and not overthrow her.”
On which starting spot has the most competition:
“It’s at first base. Nicole Washburn should have the hand up on things because she is a senior with a great deal of experience coming back. Amanda Jobe, from the Kansas City area, we like what she brings. She is a natural lefty over there. She has a little more pop in the bat than Nicole. Nicole has the experience and she understands what we need defensively from her and she is a little more vocal than Jobe. A lot of times freshmen come in and are quiet on the field and with having a new middle infield with Stevie (Crisosto) playing shortstop and Sara Ramirez playing second, we need as much experience around those two people as we can get. Now what happens at the end of the year, we’ll have to see. Both of them will get an early chance to play, that is probably the most open competition we have there.”
On the catcher position:
“Last year we had Erika Simington and Tiffany Craner. Erika caught early and Tiffany finished the year as our primary catcher. Both of them are very capable, but you throw Elle Pottof into the mix after coming back from an off-season last year due to injury. Elle offensively is probably right now more of a threat than the other two. Tiffany proved last year that she is a good backstop and does a great job defensively.”
Senior pitcher Kassie Humphreys
On starting the season:
“It will be nice to finally get out of this cold weather. We’ve been practicing indoors for so long and we are really excited to get outdoors and see what we can do on the dirt as opposed to turf which is what we’ve been doing for about a month now.”
On being a senior leader:
“We have such a young team and I’ve always had a older group in front of me to set an example. Now I feel a little more of that pressure, but at the same time the freshmen are really great and they learn very fast. They are their own individuals so you can’t be responsible for everyone, sometimes you just have to be responsible for yourself.”
On expectations for the season:
“I would like to be successful in doing the little things right. As far as how far we can go in the season, I’d like to get back to Regionals and Super Regionals and then hopefully one day make a World Series. I don’t really have great expectations for myself, but I see an opportunity to maybe do better and I hope to do that this year. I have worked on a lot of things over the offseason, so I am feeling a lot more comfortable with where I’m at.”