May 23, 2003

Recap| Box Score| Notes| Photo Gallery

TEXAS HEAD COACH CONNIE CLARK
General comment:
"We always said that the characteristics of our team was that you never knew who was going to show up. Tonight it was our senior Lindsay Gardner and she's done that throughout her career here. It was fun to see her be the one to get the leadoff hit and make it happen on the base paths. It was nice to be able to lean on our senior leadership, which helped out tonight. You've got to credit California - they looked like the defending champion. I thought we did battle, but Lindsay made the difference for us tonight."

On pitcher Cat Osterman:
"I thought she threw exceptionally well tonight. She throws the pitches but we also have to credit Coach Marla Looper, our assistant that called the game. She deserves credit for calling a phenomenal game. One of Cat's goals is to mix her speed and be more multidimensional and she showed that in every possible way tonight. She was up effectively, she was down effectively, her curve ball was on both sides of the plate and Coach Looper did a very good job of keeping them off balance. She mixed speeds more effectively tonight than she has all year and I think that was the difference."

TEXAS SOPHOMORE CAT OSTERMAN
On her performance:
"This is probably the best performance I have had so far. I felt really good out there tonight. I finally felt like I found my game and I had it from the first pitch on. It was probably one of the best performances I have had in my career and, overall, I really mixed my pitches well and hit my spots."

On her first World Series:
"I am really excited as a pitcher because I am pitching better every day. We are not looking to the finals and we are not thinking that we are one game away from the finals. We are thinking we have another win to take care of and each day take one game at a time. That is how we did it and that is how we have done it all season. We are not going to look past whoever is coming out of the bottom bracket. It is definitely exciting to get two wins in our first World Series, since none of us on our team have been here before."

TEXAS SENIOR LINDSAY GARDNER
On her base running:
"The only reason people have a hard time getting me out on the bases is because I don't even know what I am doing. When I am out there I try read it and I reacted well on the pick-off play. I made sure she released it towards second and I took off and she just happened to be set up in the right spot and set up for me to kind of knock her over when I went in."

CALIFORNIA HEAD COACH Diane Ninemire
General comment:
"It was a tough game and really turned into a pitchers' duel there for a while. Unfortunately, for us, we weren't able to come up with the key hits. We had runners in scoring position in the third and seventh innings, but couldn't get it done. They just did a great job today."

CALIFORNIA SENIOR Veronica Nelson
On hitting against Texas' Cat Osterman:
"She is a great pitcher and at my second at bat I started chasing pitches. I was a little anxious because I had never met her in a game before today. She did a great job at keeping us off balance and we just didn't adjust."