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NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESMay 30, 2018Lonni AlamedaLu Champer-HarrisKelly Inouye-PerezTim WaltonOklahoma City, Oklahoma THE MODERATOR: We thank you very much for your attendance. I will introduce each of the coaches, and we'll have an opening statement from them and then I'll open it up to you guys. To my right is Mr. Tim Walton, of the Florida Gators. The Gators are the No. 2 seed. They are currently 55-9. This is their ninth Women's College World Series appearance and their second straight. TIM WALTON: Thankful to be here and appreciate the Hall of Fame, NCAA, Oklahoma City Sports Association for just putting on a wonderful event for not only the teams, but for also the fans. It’s a great place to end your season every year. Only going to be able to crown one champion, but it's an honor to be sitting up here with these three coaches, and the four coaches on the other side of the pool and congratulations to Rachel Garcia on an outstanding year being the National Player of the Year and really, all eight seeded teams, not something that you get to see very often that you have one through eight make it to Oklahoma City. It's always a challenge being bulls-eyed with the number, but thankful for this opportunity and just happy to represent Gator Nation and looking forward to a great week of competition and fun watching everybody participate and really play our hearts out. Excited to see what our team has to offer here on this stage, really thankful to be back. THE MODERATOR: Lu Harris-Champer from the University of Georgia. She is in her 18th year at Georgia. This is her fourth Women's College World Series appearance, first since 2016. The Bulldogs are the No. 7 feed, 48-11 thus far. They went undefeated in the regional and super regional. Beat Harvard, beat Northwestern twice in the regional, and then beat Tennessee in a pair of really good games, 4-3, 2-1, to advance. So, Coach, if you want to talk a little about your season or the super regional or whatever strikes you. LU HARRIS-CHAMPER: Echo what Tim said. Thankful to be here, just so proud of the team but again the venue here is amazing. Just the amazing coverage that we get on ESPN to grow our sport is phenomenal, so I would like to thank everybody who makes this type of event happen. It's special and amazing for all the participants that get to be here. As far as our team goes, I'm just super proud of our team. I think we play with a lot of heart and grit and they play hard for each other and I'm very thankful to be their coach. THE MODERATOR: To her right is Kelly Inouye-Perez, UCLA. The Bruins are the No. 3 seed, 56-5. Kelly is in her 12th year at UCLA. This is their 28th College World Series appearance and their fourth straight. They went 4-1 at regionals, beat Fullerton twice and Arizona 7-1 and 3-2 in the super regionals. KELLY INOUYE-PEREZ: To echo exactly what the coaches have said, to the city of Oklahoma City, this is a wonderful venue and it’s outstanding to go see how it's continued to grow and expand and it's just a beautiful facility for us to end our season. Also, to the NCAA, for being such a wonderful entity, to be able to let us have this opportunity, the NFCA, as well, there are so many people; and USA Softball, very excited to be able to have the opportunity for Rachel Garcia to be named the NCAA Softball Collegiate Athlete of the Year. It's always great to be recognized as an individual but our goal and her goal is to be able to help her team. So we're excited. I congratulate all the teams, the coaches, the players, it is an accomplishment to get to this point and be a top eight seed here, last team standing. It's a tough road, and as Tim said, to be able to have the eight seeds represented in a time where anybody can win, regionals and supers, it is a grind and anything can happen. So to be able to have this opportunity is something that we can all value and appreciate. As far as my team, very excited. We're a good mix of youth and experience. Yes, we've had great College World Series experience and we want to have the opportunity to finish some unfinished business. We're excited about being back. We respect the game. But our goal is to be able to settle in and play our game and we look forward to getting out there tomorrow night and just playing a good game of softball. We wish everybody luck and I look forward to getting out there on the field. THE MODERATOR: To her right is Lonni Alameda from Florida State, in her 10th season at Florida State. This is their 10th appearance, first since 2016. The Seminoles are the No. 6 seed and they are 52-11. They went 3-0 at the regionals, beat Jacksonville State, Auburn and Jacksonville State, went 2-1 at the supers, lost to LSU in the first game and then came back and beat LSU twice, 8-5 and 3-1. LONNI ALAMEDA: Yeah, again, so excited to be here. I would like to thank everybody that everybody thanked already. Being an OU graduate, I get to experience a little bit of the growth of softball in the state of Oklahoma, the World Series, the biggest stage, and it's just so cool when we get the opportunity to come back here to see the growth and ESPN and everything they’ve done for this sport is amazing. We as a coaching staff and a program are so honored to be able to represent the ACC. I think that's one of the biggest things, being a little bit a part of the pack when I was at Stanford, and watching the SEC blossom and take off, and now the ACC, carrying the flag. It's amazing for people to see so many levels of softball and ways to get here and it's just an honor to be able to do that. As for our season, we went old school. We decided to do a doubleheader, it was kind of fun. Being down there with the rain, Tim dealt with it a little bit, too. We had the doubleheader with an amazing program with LSU on Saturday night, and the last out was made at 12:33 A.M. We were out there for a long time. A little bit of grit and heart with this team and fight. It was so cool to be a part of, and two pitchers for LSU that were tough and very hard to beat. We've had knock-downs and drag-outs to get here, and we're ready to keep going with that same mentality. Q. Kelly, you referenced the unfinished business. Any lessons from the last three appearances that you think can help you get over the hump this time around coming back? KELLY INOUYE-PEREZ: I think the lessons are there's a lot of things that are out of your control, and you know, to do everything you can to separate that gap. Be able to execute between the white lines. I truly believe being able to settle into your game as quickly as possible is the key, and not rely on, once again, things to be taken out of your control. So unfinished business in that we have been fortunate to be able to be here consistently and we want to be able to go further in the tournament. So we've got to take it one day at a time. Like I said, we respect our opponent, but it's really about us being able to settle in, play our game, understand things are out of our control but ultimately, we have to enjoy it. It's an honor to be here. We celebrate that and now it's time to be able to just truly enjoy being able to play. Q. Lonni, Sydney Sherrill is coming back. You understand that, being from OU yourself, a couple questions about her. What do you think it means for a player to come back so early in her career, and what's impressed you the most about her? I know she's had a breakout season. LONNI ALAMEDA: Yeah, Sydney Sherrill's been tremendous at being who she is. I think it's hard sometimes as a freshman to come in and you hear from the graduates that have gone on, and we had a pretty amazing class that graduated, and some shoes to fill and some things and Syd just settled down. She was just really comfortable with who she is and brought her style of game. A little bit of that, too, is the returners helped her along. Being from here, I think that that is something that we're going to find that she's going to bring to us -- she's grown up with an amazing level of softball love. The state of Oklahoma has a lot of love for softball in general. I don't think she realizes it yet. We were talking, if we can win the third game, let's-take-you-home, kind of thing, and she's like, "I need to play softball at the highest level but that's really been down the road, it's been 30 minutes from me for my life." I think at some point that's really going to help us out too, and she's going to give that to us. Yeah, she's been a blessing in the sense of her athleticism but her corny sun nature fits right into our culture and she's really blossomed as a freshman. Q. For Lu and Tim, what was your takeaway from the series you played against each other in March? LU CHAMPER-HARRIS: Florida is a great program and we respect them and every time we get to play, it's a great opportunity for both programs. TIM WALTON: I think the same, what Georgia does year-in and year-out and what they do one through nine in their lineup and one through nine in their pitching staff, they do a great job -- I was referencing your nine pitchers. They do a great job of preparation and are tremendous athletes. Q. Kelly, four Pac 12 teams. Do you like the familiarity? Does that help with scouting and things like that? KELLY INOUYE-PEREZ: What I like is that I think the Pac-12 has done a great job of representing this year. You know, it's been the strongest Pac-12 in a while and I think a big part of that has been the pitching in the conference. So yes, I love that we're representing. I believe that the Pac-12 deserves to be here because they have played well in the regular season but we all know that it's a new season now as we get here to the College World Series, and ultimately, you know, we do have the history of championships and our goal is to bring it back to the Pac-12. So, I'm excited for that, not to be disrespectful of anyone else, but I am biased, but ultimately when it comes to scouting and all of that, like I say, we all have a familiarity in this day and age of each other. There is the opportunity for us to have more games played against the Pac-12, and we look forward to that. But we also know that it's a new season, so anything can happen. Proud to be a part of it. THE MODERATOR: If you don't mind going off script a little bit, as you've seen -- could you talk a little bit about the health of the state of college softball, where you've seen it grow, to a point now where we come to this, all your regionals were sold out, they are all on ESPN. You've got great players running around all over the place. Can you talk about the health of college softball? TIM WALTON: I think the first thing that's noticeable is only 64 teams make it to the NCAA postseason for regionals, and there's probably about 78 of them that are worthy of making that trip to postseason. So the depth of college softball is at its best. The depth of the athletes, the depth of the pitching and heck, even the umpiring. The umpiring is as good as I've seen it in a long, long time. Better athletes, youth, experience. We have got some great coaches that are still coaching this game and have done a great job of taking it to another level and the first -- I think the final point is our administration and what our administrations are doing to really put into our programs just the resources that we have at Florida and a lot of places that we've been throughout the season, and Louisiana Lafayette, out to California. I'm really proud of the growth and the levels that we have taken. I've been in the game now 20 years, and you know, it's night and day from the level that it was when I first got into the game, not only the competition, the athletes, the fans, the attendance. Heck, the financials that are finally hopefully one day we can break even as a sport and get some actual big-time revenue sponsors on commercials and the NCAA. We're close, really close, and really proud to be part of it. LU CHAMPER-HARRIS: Same thing he said. For me, I feel like I can remember only the Final Four being televised and now it seems like you've got to have a million different subscriptions to get all the games you want to get across the country. It's amazing that you can find video on anybody and everybody if you're willing to dig, and all the coverage we get on all the different platforms is amazing and I think that's been huge in the growth of the sport. KELLY INOUYE-PEREZ: Just being able to be a part of, we talked about the facility. I can remember the stands and rolling grass hills and not a whole lot of bleachers in the outfield, and there was great support but only the championship game was televised, even tape-delayed at some times. But your ability to see where we are now and this facility, how its grown, how there are so many people that come from all over the country, and a big part of that I credit ESPN and the networks for being able to televise and get into the living rooms of all these families and players, and spread, you know, the love and growth at the grassroots for the kids to want to play and strive to be on that College World Series stage. I think TV has really added to the growth of our sport and its really increased the viewership. The charts continue to just grow. Our ability to fill the stands here at the stadium is a direct reflection of the love of the game. I think there's a lot of things that have definitely added to the sport, and I think we are in a great place. It is the highest platform currently. We're going to be an Olympic sport again here shortly, which I think is ultimately the goal, to represent the Red, White and Blue, but for now the College World Series is the stage. The Women's College World Series is the goal; for those young kids to want to strive to be like these athletes and a big part of that, once again is a credit to ESPN and all the networks to provide that roadmap to let these kids have role models, and ultimately, I think that's the best part of our sport. LONNI ALAMEDA: I'm going to go back to just the athletes in general. I think the state of softball is incredible right now with the athleticism in our game. I can think about, you know, a couple years ago, maybe ten or 15, just the plays, the athletic plays. We have this amazing television sponsorship that's getting after it, and we're seeing these incredible plays and athleticism, and not just one pitcher anymore, but two or three pitchers and different styles of pitching. It's really awesome to see that part of it and that's what gets people to draw in is something exciting. These players are growing up seeing this on TV, so they want to be that. They come in as a freshman and they are doing incredible things as a freshman and they get a few more years to grow. We take pride in it as coaches. We work really hard because we know college is the stage that we can keep growing international and pro leagues, and there's kids from other countries playing in the collegiate rounds, so it's just growing. I think that softball is in a good spot because we all as coaches get along so well, and we care for the game, and that's a big thing about growing the game that we care for it and I really appreciate all the coaches for doing that. There's probably some organizations that don't, and we don't; we let our guard down for the kids and let it grow and we get to see that daily. This week and weekend is going to be huge because they are going to see some amazing athletic plays that gets people coming back and watching the game. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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