Feb. 9, 2006
Georgia Tech outfielder Amy Hosier led the Yellow Jackets with 39 runs batted in and hit .356 last season, all career highs. Hosier, a senior from Lakewood, Colo., sat down with RamblinWreck.com and talked about the upcoming season.
Ramblinwreck.com: What are the team strengths heading into the 2006 season?
Hosier: Right now one of our biggest strengths is our power hitters. We have a lot of power and we have a lot of speed on the bases.
Ramblinwreck.com: Last year Tech led the nation with 159 stolen bases, this year the team’s strength seams to be power, will that change the way Coach Ehren Earleywine runs the offense?
Hosier: I think he’s still going to be aggressive. His philosophy is conservative on defense and reckless on offense. I don’t think he’ll cut down on that [stolen bases] at all.
Ramblinwreck.com: You surpassed career-highs in almost every offensive category and were in the Top 10 in the ACC in several offensive categories. What allowed you to have that type of turnaround?
Hosier: Every at bat I went up to the plate knowing what pitch I wanted to hit. That helped me a ton. When you swing at bad pitches, you take the bat out of your hands, and I wasn’t doing that last year.
Ramblinwreck.com: Do you feel that defense will play a bigger role in winning this year?
Hosier: Last year it got pretty boring in the outfield because she [Jessica Sallinger] struck out a lot of people. This year we know that we’re going to get more chances on defense and we’re pretty excited about it.
Ramblinwreck.com: What do you think about how difficult the schedule is with five top 11 opponents according to the preseason Top 25 Polls?
Hosier: It’s exciting, especially starting off with Missouri. Playing at home against a nationally ranked team will be fun.
Ramblinwreck.com: What do you think about the ACC this year and how difficult is it going to be defending the ACC title?
Hosier: I think it will be much more difficult. Especially without Jessie [Jessica Sallinger], she was such a dominating pitcher. Now we have to step up our defense and offense. The teams have gotten a lot better too, so we know that we have our work cut out for us.
