Oklahoma Press Conference Game 1 Head Coach Patty Gasso Opening statement… “Much anticipated matchup as everybody knows. We came in feeling somewhat of an underdog. [It] was two big pitchers. [It was] two experienced pitchers battling against each other. I’m really proud of Paige Parker. I think this is one of the best games she’s thrown all season. She thrives in these settings. What I really loved was throughout our entire lineup for the most part was everybody contributed with some kind of offense. Sometimes we depend on certain parts of the lineup but Macey Hatfield was clutch for us. So, it was good to see new heroes come forward but tough matchup as usual. I’m really proud of this team in the way they came out and fought.” On challenging the players on the base path… “I’m always thinking about it, we had some big hitters coming up. I just go with what I feel at that time. I just wanted to let us try to find some ways with our backs, to do it. You can tell that they know, they’ve scouted us, they know things that we do. That’s our style, that’s how we roll.” On the balance in their batting lineup this year… “I think that’s one thing that I’m most pleased about, is when I look at the box you can see everybody contributing some way or the other. I also really loved Sydney Romero called a squeeze, didn’t get down. C.C. (Caleigh Clifton) did a great job and tried to stay in the rundown well enough to get Shay (Knighten) all the way to third. So now Syd comes up and gets our back by dropping one into right field and getting that big RBI. That kind of style of play is what I love about this team. They’re gritty that way and we don’t put our heads down and gripe or boo‐
hoo or cry about each other that we’re not getting things done. Another great example is our young, wiry freshman not sliding at second early in the game and she knows it, and no one griped on her. Maybe me a little bit but not too much in these settings, because she’s still learning a lot. We wouldn’t be here without that, hitting the lead offs. We made a few mistakes but what I loved about these guys they stayed in the moment the whole game. They were in the game the whole way and found a way to get it done.” On what was most impressive about Paige’s performance? “Getting out of big innings. We weren’t scoring until the sixth, so they had threatened us more than a few times, and her timely strikeouts or popups, whatever it was. This is a focused competitor right here. A lot of pitchers would shy away from these settings, she thrives in these settings. It was fun to see her really perform today.” On if Paige will start tomorrow? “I don’t know yet. We got a staff, which is new, so we’ll see.” On what to expect out of Auburn tomorrow? “Fight. They’re not going to let up. This is going to fire them up, I’m sure the fans will come out. It’s going to be another battle, I’m expecting that no doubt.” On if she feels like you’ve proved something today, in reference to the seeding? “No, not at all. We are over that, it is what it is. We don’t talk about it anymore, we just go in and we fight our tails off to try and to try to get to the World Series, and for both teams, that’s what’s at stake. I could care less where you seed us because it’s about finding ways to win right now. Paige Parker, LHP, Jr. On where this particular outing ranks in her career… “I don’t know if it is the best day I have ever had. I just came out and was just ready to go and tried execute the game plan. I knew my defense had my back so it’s just coming out and competing.” On not relying all on the rise ball today… “They’re a very good offense so it was just going after them and doing whatever I could to get them out.” On bearing down in tougher situations and coming up successful… “It’s just going out and just being gritty and just doing whatever you can to not let them score. Knowing that my defense has my back and not worrying about having to come up with a big strikeout just letting my defense play behind me and just having a lot trust.” On game plan facing Carlee Wallace after Kasey Cooper is on third with a triple the at‐bat before… “In that last at‐bat, I just wanted to go after her after walking her twice and just not letting her get on again.” On pitching tomorrow… “I have the utmost confidence in our pitching staff, so whatever coach needs is what we’ll come out with.” Shay Knighten, INF, So. On playing with a pitcher that is consistently striking out batters… “As a defense, I think we just keep having her back. We just keep telling her that we got her. Regardless what she does…she could walk a batter, hit a batter, strikeout them out. Whatever she does we have her back. We just keep talking to her and talking to each other out there and just staying in the game allowing her to pitch.” On playing against a full Auburn crowd on the road… “They were loud. Not going to lie. I think we kind of stayed with each other and didn’t really look out and see what was going on in the outfield or in the crowd. It was just more focusing on the team and focusing on the little things and executing our game plan and just getting what we could done.” Nicole Pendley, OF, Jr. On not being able to score early in the game with runners on base… “We had a very good game plan that we worked really hard on, so it was just trusting our game plan and knowing that if we kept executing, balls were going to fall through. We were hitting the ball. We were just hitting them right at people. I felt like just sticking to the game plan and trusting what we had and not veering off if it was big for us.” On hitting an RBI double… “My first two at‐bats, I just wanted to work on staying behind the ball because she was just throwing out to me. Martin challenged me. She’s a great pitcher. My game plan was just to stay behind something and take it the opposite way. It was just amazing to look up at my teammates and just see that I did something for them.” On how close she was to catching Kasey Cooper’s triple… “Well, it hit my glove. It was a misread, I guess.” On what it meant to get another chance after leaving the bases loaded early in the game… “It meant a lot to me just to do things for your teammates, just picking them up. We’re all at one point going to pick each other up, so not one person is doing it every time. We all have a point where we have to pick each other up. Like Paige (Parker), when I missed the double (Kasey) Cooper hit pretty hard, she came back and struck that batter out, and that’s just picking up your teammates. I think one of them picked me up after the first inning and I picked them back up, so it’s a good feeling.” Auburn Quotes Head Coach Clint Myers Opening statement… “Everybody was there, they got to see the game. We clearly didn’t live up to expectations, our own expectations or anybody’s for that matter. We had opportunities to score, we didn’t do it, you know, they outplayed us today and the plan is to outplay them tomorrow.” On if Kasey’s triple had been a homerun would he have put in Kaylee… “There’s a possibility. I mean, we have a pretty good format, and again we had Kaylee (Carlson) and Ashley (Swindle) both ready to go. Mak (Makayla Martin) worked out of it. The last out would have been on and we would’ve had a chance, and, you know, we’ve come back from bigger deficits than what we had, and again it wasn’t – our lack of success had nothing to do with pitching today. It had to do with the box. It’s tough to win when you get three hits.” On his expectations for the team tomorrow… “To win. To win, I mean, there is no tomorrow if we don’t. And the ladies have said it pretty well. Every weekend is a Super Regional and we’ve won seven out of eight, we should’ve won eight. But two times here we lose the first game in the SEC and the weekend after we won the next two. Again, it’s – the expectation is to win, we’ve been in this situation. It’s nothing more than a conference game, and they’re very good opponents. They’re a great team, so, it’s going to be another dog fight. “ On the hitters being in the zone tomorrow… “You know, we’re going to – I’ve got the film being brought up so that we can take a look at everything. I thought we took a lot of good strikes and we left the zone. We’ll find out exactly how many times. But, you have a pitcher that nibbles and we knew that, and we just have to stay stronger with our plan and attack the balls that are over the plate.” Carlee Wallace, C, Jr. On if she did anything different than normal… “Nope. Same old same old, we just didn’t do what we were supposed to do. “ On what they were supposed to do… “Control the zone, swing at strikes, take balls, timely hitting, hit when runners are in scoring position. None of that really happened.” On her message to the team in the next 20 hours… “I mean, there’s really not all that much to say, the coaches pretty much said it all. We’ve been in this spot before. I’m irritated if you can’t tell, I‘m not happy. I think if I’m happy then I’m a loser and we’re not losers around here, so, you can get mad when you lose. I think – we’ve been in this spot before with last year against U of A. We were down the first game, didn’t have good offensive numbers the first game but we fought and we came back. So, it’s nothing new. We just have to come out and just be us.” Makayla Martin, RHP, So. On handling the pressure of post season… “I mean, it’s not really so much pressure because you had all season to be in those kind of situations, and to me, today was just another game. I’ve worked out of many jams before and so I just had to dig deep, trust my defense, trust myself and get them back into the dugout.” On any adjustments she or OU made after four runs in the 7th… “I mean, I think any team if they’re smart will make adjustments throughout the whole game. I didn’t notice it, but I’m sure they did. But, I wasn’t really letting that affect me. I was just trying to make my pitches.” On if she had to calm down after getting frustrated during the 1st… “I mean, not really calm it down. I don’t get myself worked up over it just because every umpire is different and I can’t really do anything about it. So, there’s no point of staying mad when I could just work with what he’s giving me and do my best at it.” On how she approached pitching the top of the lineup with their batting averages… “Usually when batters come up and they have the little average on the board, I don’t really look at that because it doesn’t really matter to me. I still have to pitch against them and they still have to swing the bat. It’s just another batter at this level. Everyone’s good and you can’t really take anyone for granted. So, I just go in there like any other batter, just trying to make my stuff work.” On her opinion of the fan atmosphere… “Always having our crowd is awesome, especially when a team hasn’t gone into our type of environment. And so, that – like the home field is always an advantage having our crowd is awesome, they’re always up and loud.”