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NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 4, 2016Lonni AlamedaJessica BurroughsAlex PowersJessie WarrenOklahoma City, Oklahoma Florida State - 8, UCLA - 4 THE MODERATOR: We'll get started. Coach, general comments about the game and then open it up for questions. LONNI ALAMEDA: Yeah, I just, first of all, just want to congratulate UCLA on an amazing season. That's a pretty storied program and they're a class act, so always enjoy playing a true competitor in UCLA. Very proud of our team today. Obviously, excited about the win. But I think as a coaching staff I'm more proud of the process that they took today, pitch by pitch. And to have come from behind, rallies there is huge. That's just belief. And then we talked about, yesterday, difference of us being able to come out and believe in our culture and the character of our program and it really showed today. So, obviously, some good people to my right that really made an impact. But it's a true team effort and just so proud of our program and being able to get a victory today. THE MODERATOR: We will open it up for questions. State your name, your affiliation, and who the question is directed at, please. Q. Talk about the decision to start Meghan King in the circle. And then watching Jessica Burroughs come in, settle the team down, and lead this team to a win, how huge was that? LONNI ALAMEDA: It's huge. All season long we have been a one-two punch. I don't know many other pitching staffs are as tight as ours. Megan and Jess have been there for each other through thick and thin. The team knows how to play behind both of them. When one's not being successful, the other one picks them up. So, give a credit for a lot of ground balls for us. She elevated a little bit in the zone which is something that we had to come in and make a change. And then Jess came in there. She threw well against them at UCLA. So, strategically, I thought we would be looking for a little bit more of what Jess threw against them, so we thought we could get a little more for dropped balls with Megan. But she came in and did a great job for us. Q. Describe the scene in your dugout after that first inning grand slam and what took place to get you guys back on the right track after that? LONNI ALAMEDA: Yeah, well, we had very good game plans offensively and we have been good with that all season whether up or down. So if you're going to give up runs, you want to give them up early and let your hitters go to work and stop the bleeding. Honestly, the more impressive part was when I went out there to talk to Megan on the infield and entire infield was like we're fine, we'll swing the bat, we'll be okay. So there was instant confidence that it didn't matter what just happened, they would be able to get back in there and start swinging. I think that goes back to the culture and what they believe and that was pretty big. Q. How important was it for you guys to give yourselves a chance this time and not commit all the errors? And just what was the mindset after having a game like that and then being able to come through and play a pretty clean game today? LONNI ALAMEDA: Yeah, yesterday was really uncharacteristic of us. I think what happened is it just -- usually the wheels start falling off the bus, you can kind of get it going again on the right track, and we couldn't. We couldn't figure it out. As a coaching staff you've just got let the kids figure it out, and they got frustrated with it and it just rolled. But what a greater stage to learn about yourselves and about your team and be able to turn that around. So we had a good little pow wow yesterday morning and laughed about it and then what else can you do? It was totally uncharacteristic of us. And so you could just see in each other's eyes that it's just not going to happen again and it didn't and they did great. Q. For Alex and for Jessica. Another game you guys both had home runs. Are you guys kind of the best one-two punch here at the Women's College World Series right now? ALEX POWERS: Maybe we're a dynamic duo, I don't know. We're very comfortable, and we have a lot of confidence in each other. And I think that Jess and I do pretty good job of eyeing each other up and saying, we can get this started for the team right now. And we know we were down four, but still one swing of the bat at a time can change the game. I think that's what it was, just knowing that each pitch was really important to our success and knowing that we weren't going to sit there and fold, that we were going to keep competing. JESSICA BURROUGHS: I think we did a good job of getting some good at bats and getting a plan together and just sticking to the plan leading up to that and things just seemed to go our way, so. Q. Jessica, can you talk about your mindset, you come in to pitch, you guys are down, bases are loaded. The game had a chance to really get out of hand, and you settled the team down. JESSICA BURROUGHS: I think the whole thing is in any game me and Meg can both go at any time, and I knew if I came out it would be a big situation. But just stayed calm and know that get the job done, there's no need to come in and rush things, to take a breath, spin it, and let's get back in the dugout and just scratch out some runs. To be able to pick up Meg was huge, and she will do the same for me at any time. And just to let her know that she's got to learn from that really quickly, and we're going to need her the rest of the time. And the team did great fighting back in that game. The energy, we never gave up, and I think it was huge. Q. Coach, the bats struggled a little bit through the early part of the post-season. Is this kind of what you wanted to see from your offense, I think, it was 10 plus hits and two homers from your two best bats? LONNI ALAMEDA: Yeah, we have been pretty consistent all season long swinging it. A 60-game marathon of softball, you're going to have some lulls. So, what has been impressive is even in those lulls we won ball games. So you're going to have to rely on pitching at times, you rely on hitting at times, and you got to have trust in each other, and we did. So even though maybe they didn't have the hits on the board, we got the win, so we scratched it out and it gives you confidence in that part of it. Q. One hit away from the cycle. Is that something that was on your mind when you were going up to bat today? ALEX POWERS: Not really. I was just trying to put the ball in play and put it somewhere hard where they weren't. So just like with home runs, stuff like that, you don't really try and go out there and hit a home run as much as get your barrel out and hit a ball hard somewhere. The rest just kind of falls into place. If you do it, cool, if not, my team still wins, so that's what's important. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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