Tommy Ramos Quotations

We can definitely use that as a measuring stick and find out what we need to work on. The girls can also get an idea of what it takes to compete at that level.

She had a hard time finding her rhythm.

I was concerned that we'd be a little rusty after not playing for two weeks. I was impressed we were still able to execute at the plate. We started a little slow, but we made some adjustments and continued to put the ball in play.

I thought we got off to a good start against Central but we had an error which really made a big difference in that game. The emotions of that game left us where we couldn't bounce back. Against two top 10 teams in the country you can't afford to have a letdown.

I thought the first game went well. We made some mistakes. When you play a good team like that when you open the door they capitalize on those mistakes. They took advantage of it and got some runs when they needed it. It was a great game.

I think we pressed a little bit and we were a little anxious. I kept telling them if they stay relaxed, stay focused and keep pushing, good things will happen.

I think we'll be fine because we gave Chelsea and Liz some time off.

Liz did a great job pitching and she didn't give up a lot of hits. (The Hawks) just put back-to-back hits and got their runs.

I think she's going to do fine once she gets healthy again. Offensively and defensively, she's got the skills to be playing at the next level. To play consistently at that level will be an adjustment for her but I expect her to be an impact player when she gets there.

We need her to be consistent. As a sophomore she knows that and has done a great job for us this year.

We know she's capable of hitting the long ball when she stays within herself and doesn't press. She felt good at that at-bat and obviously it showed.

We were just too relaxed and I thought Western Texas was more aggressive than we were. I thought we were really fortunate to send that game to extra innings.

We knew that Ranger was going to be tough simply because they had a good weekend last weekend. Their pitcher did a good job of keeping us off balance in the first game.

When you play a tight game like that, hopefully you learn from it. We got comfortable, we got relaxed. Instead of going up there and thinking about team swings we were taking individual swings. We weren't really up there with a purpose until they put a little pressure on us.

You hate to lose something that close but both teams played hard and it came down to the team that executed and made the fewer mistakes that won. You enjoy games like that. You want to be on the winning end of it. I told the girls that I wasn't upset over that. We just needed to execute in the second game.

We got ourselves in a hole and the game came down to the last at-bat. The girls did a great job of coming back, battling and putting themselves in a position to win the game. We just couldn't get over the hump.

We hit the ball hard in that game, it just didn't drop. We hit it hard at people and they made some great plays. We didn't make the adjustments at the plate. We also had runners in scoring position, we just didn't execute.

The second game I thought the zone was a little tight for us. If it's a tight zone with a good team like that they're going to capitalize. They're going to put the ball in play and hit it hard. That's kind of what happened.

Right now they're the team to beat. We're picked first in the conference and the rankings are just a big bulls-eye. It gets everybody's attention and helps motivate the teams we're playing. We've got to show up too.

(The weather) kind of relaxes you. We talked about just staying focused, keep everything short and simple and not to press and just let it come. But at the same time, we had to stay aggressive at the plate and on the bases.

This is typical of most Midland College-Howard College softball games. It comes down to execution, who makes the errors and really who wants it. I thought the girls did a really good job and the work we did this week really paid off.

I told the girls to learn from their mistakes in the first game and stay aggressive at the plate. And we did. Again, the winner came down to who made the fewest mistakes.

Considering the conditions and how bad it really was I thought the girls did a good job of executing at the plate. Our defense just got comfortable when they made the errors. We stopped being aggressive.

It was a good start. The girls were anxious and we got some new freshmen in some new positions and I thought they played well. Our sophomores were big as well as it showed that they were familiar with what needed to get done.

They could have easily been thinking about a warm room or a warm bed, but they focused and got the job done.

They weren't being aggressive and they could never find their rhythm. When you have runners get on at the top of the lineup, we've got to have them produce. We'll go back and work on it this week.

Their experience and pressures they had to go through last year only made them better, so when we come to those pressure situations this year, I feel comfortable they'll respond and not stress out over it.

I'm not going to stress out over it and I'm not going to put more emphasis on wins or losses. I'm just going to focus on getting the team prepared to compete at the highest level they can.

If you get too emotional, then your team will play with too much emotion and too much of a high. Eventually you have to come down and you may come down too hard. We don't place much too much emphasis on the opponent. We just need to concentrate on how we play. If we take care of our business, everything else will take care of itself.

In that last game, (the Lady Chaps) kind of got comfortable. That's why we took Sunday off and then got back to work on Monday. (On Tuesday), we only worked on our hitting and I think we'll be ready.

I had her throw some against Clarendon (on Friday) to get her rhythm going. I let her start today and she threw well. She faced 16 batters. That one hit was early in the game. After that it was pretty much ground balls or strikeouts.