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Q/A with Senior Catcher Erin Dyer
May 31, 2007
At what point in the game did you feel that Canney was going to have a pretty good day? I think the first inning is always the test with any pitcher and especially when Eileen gets in a groove you know its going to be a good day. That first inning we had two strikeouts and a ground out and after that it was really a bang-bang-bang game. As soon as she feels comfortable I feel she is going to have a good day. Does it take time for Canney to warm-up during the course of a game or was the aggressiveness she showed tonight not uncommon? She is a veteran so she usually prepares herself very well from the start of pre-game to the start of the game. Some of it is nerves, especailly it being the first game of the tournament I think you really need to get comfortable with yourself and the mound. I think it was really that she was able to work through those first three outs and get herself to a point where she is comfortable throughout the rest of the game. I know your sister, Kelly, was watching you from the stands just a year ago. Did you give her any advice before the game or did she seek out any advice from you before making the trip down to Oklahoma City? I definatly didn't have to calm Kelly down. She is a great player who can keep her composure really well. She has asked me a lot of questions on what to expect so it was more so me really just telling her all about the fun and exciting things to look forward to. Before the game I told her just to have fun and enjoy yourself because you never know when you are going to come back. This is an amazing experience and I love being here at the College World Series. I think Kelly was very relaxed which was evident in her her two-hit performance tonight. What strategy did hitting coach Carol Drohan wanted the team to follow against Sun Devil ace Katherine Burkhart, who ones the ninth lowest ERA in the country? One of our biggest game plans was to go after good pitches. She is a really good pitcher and I think she really works hard to get hitters to hit balls out of the zone. Our game plan was to see good pitches and not hit not chase bad pitches. The hitters today did a good job. Tammy (Williams) hit one out. Again, it was the first game so the nerves were there. I think it was nice to score first and score early. It wasn't like we had 10 base hits, we just put the ball in play. I think our game plan worked pretty well. What is the team's mindset headed into Friday's game with Washington knowing you will be facing another tough pitcher in Danielle Lawrie? Right now we are just going to enjoy our win a little bit longer, but as the night goes on we are going to start preparing for tomorrow. We are just trying to be ourselves and play Northwestern softball. Shown at the beginning of the first inning, starting line-ups are introduced by the players themselves in a pre-taped segment. Whose idea was it to encorporate a purple theme in the player introductions? Basically right before our media day we were all panicing on the bus on what each of us was going to say. So as we were all freaking out. Carol (Drohan) came back to the bus and was wondering what we were doing and said she could tell we all seemed on edge. She proposed that we do something about the team so it would be universal and easier to help each other out. We are obsessesd with purple so that whole idea kind of took over and we came up with all sorts of ways for people to say purple in their introduction. I thought it was a pretty cool idea.
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