Oklahoma Quotes Head Coach Patty Gasso Opening statement I always preface this by saying we did this by the glory of God through victory or defeat. The journey that we led on, these guys have attacked it and it s been high and it s been low. They never let go of each other and that s a testimony to their belief in this journey and in each other. I also want to thank Auburn for its hospitality and everyone treated us very well. We love having the amount of fans out here whether it s home or away. They love to play in front of a big crowd. It was a fun atmosphere. I can t tell you how proud I am of this group coming on the road and fighting hard to get to the College World Series. We came in as underdogs. We had everything to gain and nothing to lose and they laid it out there and I couldn t be anymore excited and proud of this team. On the strategy on bringing Paige Lowary in the third inning Paige Lowary has waited her entire life for an opportunity like this. I wanted to really allow her to challenge and come in and set a tone. Mariah Lopez did a great job of what we asked her to do. It s important to put Paige in those tough situations because that s become a role for her to come in and stop the bleeding. It became kind of a no brainer for us. We wanted to see that matchup and it was inches one way or the other. On if there was any thought of going to Paige Parker later in the game She was ready. We were in a part of the lineup that we thought Paige Lowary could handle, so we were just going to see how it played out. We were starting to get close to that place, but I really wanted to see Paige Lowary finish that. She was extremely emotional after the game. It was great to see that. It was like she has arrived and she has waited a long time for that. On if Kasey Cooper came to the plate would she have brought in Paige Parker to pitch Potentially, yeah. We were talking throughout it. On what it s been like coaching the past two seasons I have enjoyed coaching more than I have in a long time because these athletes are eager to learn. They want to be good. They love to play every day. Practice is a joy. I look forward to it. I would like to say they look forward to it. It s really been special, this journey we have gone on. We make mistakes. We made some mental mistakes today that could ve really hurt us. They keep picking each other up and that s something that becomes almost bigger than the game to see them work for each other that way. I have really enjoyed this team, especially when overcoming some of the internal things we had to overcome. Seeing them shine right now there s nothing better. On removing the defending champions tag from this team and just playing softball We let that go. That was part of our problem at the beginning of the season. Everybody was like do it again, do it again. That whole defending the title thing was in our way and we finally figured out how to let that go and just play. We did that about midseason and since that time, these guys have played well. We knew what we were walking into and they really accepted the challenge against a very outstanding Auburn team. It was a tough deal but I m proud of these guys.
Nicole Pendley, OF, Jr. On her home run I was just trying to work something through the infield to score a run to get my team on the board. I was trying to stick to the game plan that we worked with J.T. (Gasso). I was just trying to work something through the infield. On the work this offseason of becoming more of a power hitter with 16 home runs Everything the coaches have us do from the mental game to physical and everything they put us through in practice by enhancing our strength and our speed and anything in that area. They did great with all of us. On the Oklahoma underclassmen I honestly didn t see them as freshmen when they were freshmen. They came in as sophomores and they played a huge leadership role because we had a small senior class. I am so proud of them. You would have never known they were freshmen last year and would never have known they are sophomores this year. Every single one of them played a leadership role and it s really cool to see. On playing for Patty Gasso (Pendley s sister also played under her) She s an amazing coach. She s the best coach in the world. She cares about us more as people and making us grow as people. My sister can vouch for that. She teaches you so much, not just in softball, but also out of softball as in life lessons. Whether winning or losing, we re going to learn from it. I say she s the best coach there is. Paige Lowary, LHP, Jr. On coming into the game with a 3 2 count It s a good feeling knowing that I am trusted in that situation. I just wanted to come in and get the job done and keep our team in the game. On the deep ball to the outfield that Macey Hatfield caught to save an extra base hit If it was meant to happen, it was meant to happen. I am really happy that Macey Hatfield got under it and caught the ball. On the pressure when the shift is in play I don t really notice it at this point. I m just pretty used to it. It s worked in our favor so many times and it s only burned us a couple times. I have a lot trust in it and 99 percent of the time it pays off. I don t really think about it. On pressure situations during the fifth inning of the game when Auburn was threatening The pitching staff talks about stopping the bleeding as soon as possible. After that one run, I thought, I need to stop the bleeding here. We came back the next inning and got a couple more runs, so I was really happy about that. Sydney Romero, INF, So. On the leadership role she and her classmates established the past couple seasons We use the term (phrase) of passing the torch. It s just a matter of starting things off and just having confidence in the people behind us. It s nice knowing it s not all on one person. It s all on the team.
Auburn Quotes Head Coach Clint Myers Opening Statement I have no real words to say other than the fact that I felt that we were a better team than what we played. I think we underachieved. I m disappointed as the girls are too because I thought our season would be prolonged. We got beat by a very good Oklahoma team. They didn t make mistakes and we did, and when you re playing good teams you can t make mistakes. For the seniors that are leaving I feel bad. Personally, I wanted the season to end for the seniors in Oklahoma City. When we get out here in August and we start working out, that s the goal. You can t play for a championship unless you re at Oklahoma City that first week of June. So, for them I feel bad that we did not achieve that part of it. I still believe that this is a good team. It s just that we did not execute like a good team, and that s on the coaches. We ve got to make them better so they understand, so they re in better positions to be successful. On Auburn s defense today It shows you the importance of practice. Those are the benefits. The last out at first and third was not a double steal, it was a squeeze. We were hollering squeeze, and because Carlee (Wallace) was locked in on the play we had put in. The squeeze did not register, because all she had to do was hold the ball and she would have run right at her. That s being young and we all make mistakes. Those are things that have to be corrected. You don t win games doing the things we did today. That s why we came here, to win championships. We did not make those mistakes last year. We, as coaches, have already talked about it. We re going to put them in a much better frame of mind and we re going to put them in a much better position to be successful. On what you can do differently on offense Recruit better hitters. Next year s team and the year after that and the year after that, we ve got some of the best hitters coming in in the country. We knew we were going to be offensively challenged. We probably should have changed a little bit, more small ball, with pick runs. We were swinging and missing a lot and we do not have great speed. It could have been better. On what Kasey Cooper has meant to this team and university She s a potential Rhodes Scholar and a three time All American and I give her a chance at four time All American, her numbers are still pretty darn good. Kasey said it best, when we started four years ago we said we have to start a tradition. We have to create a legacy and if you saw a sign on the press box that says, Road to OKC goes through Jane B. Moore Field. That s how we believe it. We ve been able to host three Super Regionals. We ve been to OKC two out of four years and there s a reason. Do we expect to be there next year? You bet. Do we expect to host another Super Regional? Yes. In order to win, we ve got to play better, we ve got to perform better, we ve got to execute better. That s the legacy of all the seniors that are leaving. On replacing spots in the batting lineup next year We ve got some kids that we believe, we ve got three or four, maybe as many as five freshmen that can be playing. Freshman year, playing for us is tough, because there s so much learning. We break the game down to the finest detail, we ve got to see how they progress. We re excited about the kids are coming in.
On making decisions involving staff Hunter (Veach) is on board through June, and so we re going to take our time to get the right person, it might be Hunter. It s going to be all of us sitting down to decide how we want to go about it. We ve had great support from the administration, we re getting a lot of people inquiring. A lot of good people. We ll take our time to make sure we get the right person. Kasey Cooper, 3B, Sr. On her emotions after the game I m proud I came to Auburn. That s all I got. On her hitting It felt good. I was seeing her (Lowary) well and it s funny because the last few years she s gotten the best of me. I knew what was coming and with two strikes, you should shorten it up and put the ball in play. It was pretty nerve racking when she came in 3 2, not going to lie. But, I saw her they didn t show the speedometer and how fast she was throwing, but I was assuming it was 72. So, my goal was to just get my foot down as quick as possible and, if it was there, swing because I knew she was going to pipe it. She didn t want to walk me, and they made a good play. On if she thought her hit into left field was out I thought it was going to be iffy. I was hoping by the grace of God that something was going to happen. That she could tip it over. But, I had that feeling I had just missed a little under, and I was just proud that I had a quality at bat. That my timing was there, it was millimeters. On the legacy she and the seniors left I think we built our legacy and we re leaving a legacy for sure. I remember the first time the coaches came in and they said, we re going to the College World Series, and we all laughed. Everybody s like, you re crazy, you guys are all psycho, which probably a lot of people still say they re psycho. But they got us to where we are. We expect to be great. I believe in Kaylee (Carlson). We knew we had to hit and it didn t happen. Yesterday they had the two out hits when they needed to and we didn t, and today they out hit us. They won in every column so shout out to them, they beat us. On where the program is now compared to when she came in Well, we have very young girls now coming on visits and when I grew up, the biggest program in Alabama was Alabama. Everybody wanted to go to Bama. And now, girls are starting to come to Auburn. They re like, I want to come to Auburn, I want to play under Clint. I m very proud of where this program has gone, its grown a lot. Kaylee Carlson, RHP, Jr. On her pitch that lead to a three run homer I can always hit a better spot so I think that I should ve gotten more in. She did a great job. She knew it was coming inside and turned on it, but you ve got to come back from that and we just didn t play Auburn softball.
On the defense in the last inning I think that just comes down to the fact that we haven t hit. We ve relied on defense so much so it was only an amount of time where our bats needed to step up, and we weren t capable of doing that. And there s going to be times where the defense is going to make mental errors, which we did a lot of this game, including me. There are three elements in softball: pitching, defense and offense, and pitching and defense have held us in it all year and they re going to make mistakes. I make mistakes and our defense makes mistakes. So, we just have to do a better job on all three parts. On the loss pushing them into next season I think we ve worked hard all year and we ve worked hard every past year. Our goal is always to go to the World Series, so we re going to work hard because we re not going to get the chance this year. But I think as long as everyone kind of sees how this game went and works hard over summer that we ll be ready for next year.