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NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 7, 2016Emily CarosoneKasey CooperTiffany HowardWhitney JordanMakayla MartinClint MyersRachael WaltersOklahoma City, Oklahoma Auburn - 11, Oklahoma - 7 THE MODERATOR: Good evening. At this time we have Auburn on the dais. Coach, general comments about the game? CLINT MYERS: We're very excited. Here last night we talked about what we needed to do. We started a little rocky, but we kind of got together out there in the circle and recommitted, refocused, and from that point on you saw nothing but zeros. You can't count us out. We have a very, very good offense. Yeah, they're going to swing the bats, and if you've noticed, they like to do it late and make everything very exciting. But I'm extremely proud of them, to have this opportunity. Again, we're playing a very talented, very well-coached Oklahoma. The people that watched the game tonight truly saw some great softball, and again, I couldn't be prouder of these young ladies for what they've accomplished, and we have one more game. Q. Emily, if last night was a warm-up, what was tonight and what will tomorrow be? EMILY CAROSONE: Oh, that's a hard question. Tonight was a game, a war, and tomorrow will be a war again. I mean, we're going to come out firing. Q. Whitney, just wanted to ask you about obviously the two errors early on and then overcoming that. How big was that for you hitting that home run and then obviously you're the one that started the rally in the comeback pretty much. WHITNEY JORDAN: Ultimately it was my team having my back and letting me know that you've got this, make up for it. That was the first thing they said right before I went up to bat, hey, make up for it right here. I'm just so happy I got to contribute and help my team because I hurt them ultimately but ended up helping them, so that was a good feeling. Q. Can you just talk about what you saw on the pitch when you hit the grand slam? EMILY CAROSONE: Really right before I got in the box I was thinking, hit it hard, because if I hit it hard and it went somewhere, Victoria was going to score no matter what. But I don't know, that pitch was just there. It was -- softball is a game of inches, and my bat was there. It's amazing. God is good. God is good. Q. Tiffany, could you just talk about what you saw, and did you think you could catch the ball all the way on the home run? TIFFANY HOWARD: Yeah, I've literally dreamed that my entire life. I'm not even kidding I dreamed that exact picture and everything. We've worked on it so much. I'm talking about we would have bruises on our arms working on the wall in practice, so we've done it a gazillion times, so I knew if I could find the wall and get up and put a glove on it, I knew I could catch it. Q. Clint, you use a variety of pitchers, so changing arms out there is nothing for you, but obviously Patty goes a lot with Paige. Did you think at some point you'd see Parker tonight and were you a little surprised you didn't? CLINT MYERS: Patty is a great coach, so I'm never going to second-guess her. I mean, they had the hammer, so if she wanted to make sure that Paige had the full-day's rest, then she went with what she was thinking. But I mean, you don't win 31 straight games not pushing the right buttons, so Patty did a great job. Q. Kasey, you had a great view of Tiff's catch and you were pretty excited when she came down with it. Just talk us through you watching that and also, too, were you a little surprised that they walked you to load the bases for Emily there in the last inning? KASEY COOPER: Okay, for the first one, like Tiffany said, we get to see that every day in practice, and when we saw she fell into the wall and she went up for it, all of Oklahoma's fans started cheering because they thought it was over and I see her put a glove on it, and so I'm jumping up and down going she just robbed this. This is our game and this was meant to be. We were so proud of Tiffany because she's a senior, just like nine other people on the team, and tomorrow is it. What a moment to leave with because that's a moment she'll never forget, and we could not be more proud. Two, I don't think they were pitching around me. I think they were being careful. So if they were going to make a mistake they were going to make it to their advantage. With Emily coming up there's no question you're picking your fire. You're picking your poison. With us, it's okay because I know that if I have a quality at-bat, Emily is going to come and get the job done, and she did. That's what Auburn softball is; it's about trust. Q. Coach, what do you tell your team when you're down 7-0 and basically your season is on the line? CLINT MYERS: Well, okay, it was 7-0 and we've only hit once. Basically we just -- we went out there in the circle and we had some words of encouragement, and we just said basically there's so much of this game left. We can score bunches. But we've got to play defense. We've got to get the people in the circle back trusting that we're going to make plays, and we know what we're doing, and we've got to communicate the little things. The little things go a long way, and they just give pitchers so much confidence when they're out there making the plays behind them. It wasn't difficult to go out there and just tell them to be Auburn and be proud, because I mean, we've had a hell of a season, and we've got one more game to play. Q. Emily, you talked about yesterday wanting a chance at Parker. You're likely going to get that chance tomorrow. How are you all feeling about that challenge and opportunity? EMILY CAROSONE: I mean, I don't expect anyone else but Parker. We're excited. Like we said yesterday, we were on her that last inning, and I don't think it will take us that long to get on them. I think what it's going to come down to is the defense and taking away the bunts that they were getting on, but I'm excited. I'm excited for tomorrow. Q. You guys have had a mantra all year, three more days, and a loss tonight in this elimination game, it would have only been two more days. How has that mantra fueled you and what kept you going tonight? KASEY COOPER: Well, see, we like to make things interesting at Auburn, so we knew when we lost yesterday we said three more days, so that means obviously we'd have to win tonight and play tomorrow. When we saw we were down 7-0 I looked at 'em and I said, good thing there's no run rule because we have seven at-bats to be able to score these runs. We are confident in our offensive ability to come back no matter what. We have always been known for never quitting and having that relentless attitude. When we came in and we said, hey, let's play Auburn softball, we're going to get a few runs at a time and we're going to play great defense because we can do this, and we didn't want it to be over. We knew that we are a championship team, and we wanted to prove it, not only to everyone else but to ourselves. Q. Rachael, what did it mean to you to have a game like that being a senior in your last go-around, and Makayla, was it kind of scary being a freshman going out there in the College World Series? RACHAEL WALTERS: Well, warming up in the bullpen and seeing the runs coming in, I knew I wasn't ready to be done today. I mean, I'm not ready for my season to be over, so going in I had the mindset of getting out of that inning and then keeping my team in the game and not letting them get any more runs on the board to give us the best chance that we could have to win that game. But yeah, I mean, ultimately it came down to not giving in and not wanting to go home. I left it all out there, and if today was my last day, then I would honestly say that I was proud of my performance. I owe Tiffany like a million steak dinners, and I've already told her that. She has pet rats. I've said they can stay in my room. (Laughter). Yeah, that was pretty much it. MAKAYLA MARTIN: I wasn't really scared because Coach says if you're scared you're not prepared. We've been prepared for this moment the whole year, and I mean, facing those batters, I mean, yeah, they're really good, but like the pitching staff pitches to our hitters at practice, so I believe if we can pitch to them, we can pitch to anyone in the nation. I mean, I was ready to be put in that situation, so that was fine. Q. Clint, how has Whitney's season fit as a part of this team season overall? You obviously had lost some people at that spot and needed her, I guess. CLINT MYERS: She'll be on the lineup at shortstop tomorrow. I mean, she was a shortstop last year, and we were going to make her into an outfielder, then we lose one, then we lose two, and hey, Whit, you're back in at short. She jumped in there and she's worked extremely hard. She's a very good competitor, and she works on her skills. I'll tell you what, I'm very proud of her play this entire season because of the type of person that she is. She competes. She does the best she can every single day. Q. Kasey, can you take us through that game-tying home run? What did you see and feel heading up to the plate? KASEY COOPER: Well, the whole game plan was just to stay on top of the ball. Last night we hit too many fly balls, and fly balls are easy outs, so today the real focus was staying on top of the ball, and ultimately when you stay on top of the ball, if you miss at all, it's going to be a line drive. Just a quality at-bat. A home run is a byproduct of a good swing. My goal was to hit the ball hard on the ground, and she threw me an off-speed curve, and I was in a good position to handle it, so when I'm out a little bit in front, you just keep going with it, and that's what happened. I'm happy I missed above a little bit, and I'm happy and proud of this team. Q. Tiffany, has Victoria told you how to handle the Twitter mentions you're going to get when you're a top play on SportsCenter tomorrow morning? TIFFANY HOWARD: We'll cover that later. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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