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NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 2, 2016Kaylee CarlsonEmily CarosoneClint MyersJade RhodesOklahoma City, Oklahoma Auburn - 10, UCLA - 3 THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. Coach, we'll open up with general comments from you about the game. CLINT MYERS: I thought we played very well. I thought this young lady to my right did an outstanding job. We had one little hiccup there in the middle, but again, it's about how you finish. She composed herself, went out there, and threw zeros the rest of the way. I thought we followed the Auburn plan. We played great defense, no errors, minimal amount of walks and good pitching. We certainly had timely hitting. So again, those are the things that we talk about and we preach about every day. We're very excited about where we are, and we played a very good UCLA ballclub, and to come out on top, we're real excited. Q. Coach, have you ever seen a first inning like that, and then Emily, did you feel left out that you weren't getting hit by the pitches? CLINT MYERS: Let Emily go first. EMILY CAROSONE: No. (Laughter). CLINT MYERS: It was an unusual inning, but again, it is what we do; we take advantage of what they give us. If they're going to throw it in the box, we're going to get it. I mean, it's pretty simple. We did what we needed to do in that first inning, and it was a very good first inning for us because of the fact that we executed timely hitting and taking advantage of what they gave us. Q. Coach, I wanted to ask about the sixth inning with Howard tracking down the fly ball. Had that gotten away from her, that could have been a rallying point for UCLA. How big do you feel that was? CLINT MYERS: Well, we work daily on trying to make things exciting (laughter). We tried to explain, she wants to be a vet, and so we talk to her daily that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. But again, the wind took the ball a lot more than what she'd anticipated. But when you've got Tiffany Howard in left field, she's going to catch most of the things. She almost made a phenomenal catch on that dive that she was charging in on. Though it was unusual, the out still was recorded, and that's usually what happens with Tiffany out there. Q. Jade, does a hit-by-pitch hurt a little bit less when it brings in a run? JADE RHODES: Yes and no. I mean, it was a changeup that I got hit on, but it was my only hit-by-pitch all year, so I haven't felt a ball hit my body all year, so I really didn't know what it felt like. Q. How different does it feel to come out with a win as opposed to last year where you lost your first game and kind of had your backs against the wall right away? KASEY COOPER: Think it's definitely different because we came in with experience this year, and I was talking to Jade in the middle of the game, I said how different is it this year because we were here last year and we were playing a little nervous, and this year none of our hearts were racing. We've been here before, and we're excited. We came in with a plan. We came in with a goal, and we executed that plan, so we're excited that we're four games away. We're four wins away from winning the national championship. Q. Kaylee, they've all been here before and you haven't. Was it different for you when you went out there than usual? KAYLEE CARLSON: I wouldn't say it was different than usual. I'm usually pretty nervous before every game, and that has nothing to do with where we are or the fans in the stands. That's just in myself. So I think that going out in the first inning and having to be such a good inning and ending with a double play just to start the game off relaxed me and made me depend on my team. Q. Coach, Auburn, two appearances in the Women's College World Series. Both years you take down UCLA, one of the most storied programs in softball. Is that kind of a microcosm or symbolism of what you're trying to achieve at Auburn? CLINT MYERS: Yes. What we're trying to do is establish a legacy that Auburn University belongs at the College World Series every year. It's just like what you were talking about with UCLA, with Arizona, with Alabama, with Florida, with all of the other teams that are here, Oklahoma, that are here year in, year out. We want people to believe that Auburn is the team that's going to be here, as well. Even though we're in the infancy of our legacy, these young ladies to my right have clearly started something very special that we plan to continue in the future. Q. Jade, this is the second time in a very short time span that you have made a probably single turn into a double. How are you looking and how are you able to see that you're able to stretch a play like that and ended up being a big one because you ended up scoring and you probably wouldn't have if you would have been on first? JADE RHODES: I mean, we work on it every day, and when we work on it with our defense they push us and they make it harder for us to get to second. It's kind of our read ourselves and the coaches saying, open wider. But I mean, we've just got to go for it. Either you make it or you don't, you've just got to make the read yourself. It's pretty exciting when you can get into scoring position on a single. Q. Clint, you swept Georgia at home, a couple close games. How big is it to play somebody that you're that familiar with in this event? CLINT MYERS: Again, it's about us going out and taking care of what we do. I tell the girls -- in fact, we just finished visiting in the locker room, and we've got to play the game. We've got to play the game. The coaches will take care of the strategy about Georgia and the matchups and things like that, but what you've got to do is have your quality at-bats. You've got to take care of things that you have complete control over. We beat them three times. We swept them at home, and so it's -- we know what we need to do, and again, on those days, in those games, we did exactly what we had planned going into it. So it's about execution. It's about playing Auburn softball and making it happen. We know what our strengths are. We know what we need to do in order to win. I'm feeling pretty good about these young ladies to my right. Q. Back to the first inning, for Jade and Kasey, they say hitting is contagious. Is getting hit contagious, and what was that like watching that unfold? KASEY COOPER: Quality at-bats are contagious, so when we started off the game and Tiff started it off. We got her to first base. The next goal was to get her to second. How can we do that? Well, to have a quality at-bat. We wanted to force the pitchers to make the pitches in the strike zone. Our goal was to get a pitch that we could handle and that we could drive. So ultimately it's have a quality at-bat, and quality at-bats are contagious because when you see people in front of you having success, you feel more confident and you go to the bat more confident. JADE RHODES: I mean, we always say just find a way on, whether it's bases loaded or runners at first or even no one on. Find a way on. If that means getting hit by a pitches and getting bruises or putting the ball in play and making them make plays, that's really what our motto is, it's just find a way on. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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