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MLB

Q & A with USSSA Pride Catcher Megan Willis

Catching up with former Longhorn softball player Megan Willis who is playing in the Showdown this weekend at The Dell Diamond
By
August 12, 2010

Q: How does it feel to come back to the Austin area after a decorated career at the University of Texas?

MW: It's been three years since I've been able to play in front of our fans and I think their support is outstanding. For the four years that I was there a lot of special things happened. We got to go to the Softball World Series a couple of times so we really got to build great fan support there. To be able to come back and hopefully see a lot of the same people out here, I think it's great for the sport and softball fans here in central Texas and all over the state. I was able to be drafted into this league because of what Texas gave me and I can't wait to get back to Texas.

Q: What are the differences that fans can notice between the college game and the NPF?

MW: At this level you have batters 1-9 that are solid. You're looking at an eight-hole hitter that's batting maybe hitting .350 or has eight home runs and that's hard to do in this league against the best players in the world like Jennie Finch, Monica Abbott, Cat Osterman, Danielle Lawrie, Eileen Canney and Lisa Norris. All of these girls are putting up fantastic numbers and you don't see that in the collegiate atmosphere. In college you see batters that are hitting over .400 and close to .500 consistently, in this league with the pitchers with that we have hitting .270 to .300 is a huge deal.

You're still getting home runs but you're also getting fantastic defense, and you don't see a lot of errors up on the board. You see everyone playing their top-notch game. Players are making diving catches every game you go out to. Not a single game is boring or dull and every person on the field was an All-American. That says it all.

Q: How excited are you to be playing in a ballpark like The Dell Diamond?

The Dell Diamond is an amazing facility and the fans here come out to support the Round Rock Express and it's a great fan base. We're hoping to get them interested in our game. If they love baseball hopefully they will enjoy watching some softball. It's a faster paced game and it's not as long. I think the fans are going to be in for a real treat. Hopefully we get some new fans, maybe some people that have season tickets to the Express games are going to come out tonight to check out something new.

We're here promoting softball and professional softball. When want to get this league to grow. We want to make an opportunity for these girls that are out in clinics to play after college. Since the Olympics are out for 2012, what are they going to do from now till then? Hopefully this is a new path for them.

Q: How has your professional career been since you left Texas?

This is my first year with the USSSA Pride. I played on the Bandits my rookie season and I played with the Rockford Thunder for a year.

Q: How have you seen the NPF league grow?

I have seen it grow. It's interesting because when I first started there were six teams and now there are four. So your first response would be that's not growing. We have grown in the strength of our ownership. We're trying to make everything else better. We're growing in a way that you have to take two steps back in order to take one step forward. We're doing it the right when we are finding new ownership and new sponsors. We're not thinking one year ahead, I think we're thinking 10 years ahead.

Q: How is it catching pitchers like Jennie Finch and Cat Osterman, who are some of the best pitchers in the world?

I started catching when I was younger because I liked getting dirty. As I've gotten older I've realized I love being in the middle of everything. Every play involves the catcher and I like that role. I feel like a leader on the field, a captain on the field.

Being able to catch has given me the opportunity to catch some of the best pitchers in the world. I caught Jennie when I was with the Bandits and Cat at UT and now as a professional.

Q: So you played for the Bandits for a season and now you are playing for the Bandits, does that make this game even more series even more important for you?

Of course, being there that there is only four teams we all know each other really well but once when we get all get on the ball field we all want to win. We want to show who's got the better team. It's very competitive out there and that's why we all play. Some girls our close to 30-years-old out there so you have to be pretty dang competitive to play that long.