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NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 2, 2018Lonni AlamedaKylee HansonSydney SherrillJessie WarrenOklahoma City, Oklahoma Florida State - 4, Oregon - 1 THE MODERATOR: This is the Game 10 press conference, featuring the Seminoles of Florida State. We're joined by head coach Lonni Alameda, student-athletes Jessie Warren, Sydney Sherill, and Kylee Hanson. Coach Alameda, let's talk a little bit about Kylee Hanson, Game 1 of the College World Series -- Kylee, cover your ears for just a second -- one inning, five hits, six runs, five earned, and tonight she comes out and really dominates. What's that say about her and your program in general that you would hand her the ball? LONNI ALAMEDA: Yeah, definitely. I first want to congratulate The University of Oregon for an amazing season. These games are always tough at the end seeing seniors ending their year, and they have a special group. It was a well-fought game, and really was an honor to play them. So, yes, as for Kylee, and our program, Kylee transferred here for the opportunity for this right here. Sometimes when you get the chance for something you dreamed of and wished for, that kind of gets a lump in your throat. I think every level we've been to, the reality hits and the lump is there. Then when she settles in, she's outstanding. So we've seen that at every level. We've had a good little chit-chat last night, which is awesome and relaxed. The whole entire team was excited. They knew what was coming today, and I bet she's so thrilled for this opportunity that Megan gave her today to be able to come out and get after Oregon. So Kylee's glad to be behind her and her comeback and come-around. Q. Kylee, can you just talk about the emotions of playing in this tournament and going from that last game to this game and the performance that you gave? KYLEE HANSON: I feel like I felt this at Super Regionals. Honestly, I feel like the same thing happened. It was literally a repeat. I had been at regionals before at FAU, so it wasn't somewhat new to me. But I was so excited to be here. I never wanted anything more. This is literally a dream come true to come here, but then you realize you have to go out and compete and play teams like UCLA, which is incredible. Like Coach said, it puts a lump in your throat. I know how good I am and I know what I'm capable of. And I know I had to come out here today and do that, and it was a lot easier today. Q. Coach, how important was it or is it to get that first run early, and then put it on your person in the circle to finish it out? LONNI ALAMEDA: Yeah, definitely. When you're in the circle and you have run support, that's awesome. Scoring first is big. Especially in elimination games as the pressure goes big-time. So you get to those elimination games and you start pressing a little bit, and the strike zone gets a little bit bigger as you're trying to score some runs. We could see that a little bit with Oregon, they were pressing a bit. We really expanded the zone. Kylee knew that. She kept telling me every time she's going out there, I'm going to expand the zone, expand the zone. It was neat to see her do that. But our offense today was locked in. They saw three really good pitchers at The University of Oregon. They made adjustments. Even Jessie's, you know, the snag by the shortstop. But she hammered that ball. I mean, it's just the momentum we were gaining from loud outs was awesome. It was just really neat to see the energy stay in the dugout the whole time. Q. Sydney, I know you played in this stadium so many times, but this one had to feel different, right? How different is it from what you've experienced back in high school? SYDNEY SHERILL: It's definitely a lot different. I mean, looking up in the stands and just seeing tons and tons of people, but then also looking and seeing like my whole family, my whole town, it's so cool. It's so cool. I just -- it's overwhelming, so I know I have to kind of bring it down. I just get so happy when I think about it, but I go back to playing my game, and I think that that helps. Q. Kylee, can you share anything that Coach told you last night to help settle your nerves a little bit? KYLEE HANSON: She reassured me a lot. She told me I had a pattern, even though I obviously didn't want that pattern. We have confidence in you, we know what we're going to get out of you tomorrow. You know, just go in there, we need you to -- I'm young in this postseason. I've only been this far once, obviously. It takes -- experience helps you, clearly. So we talked about that a little bit, just how I have to grow up in one tournament, and I have to get over and let go of what happened and not hold on to it. I was lucky it happened the first game and not today, because it would have ended my season. So honestly, I'm thankful for the experience to learn from. Q. If you can, once again, when you wake up and you get out on the field, are you game time situations where your plans change and then you adjust and move on? LONNI ALAMEDA: Yeah, you definitely get a game plan, you know, you have plan A, and there is always plan B. If plan B isn't working, you go to plan C if you've got that chance to. But by this time of year your program knows -- like honestly, as a coaching staff, half the time we could leave and these kids could do it. Kylee and Anna are calling their own game most of the time. I think when you get pretty proud of the coaching staff is when they know what they're doing on the field, and we're starting to roll as a team. That really came together today. So, yes, there's moments we knew that Megan was going to go in at some point to face some lefties today, that was going to happen. Kylee did a great job, so it was awesome to be able to come in in the 7th and not have to go early or before that. So just having that 1-1 punch is great for our team in the circle. But our offense is clicking today. They were really doing exactly what we needed to do, and it's going to be a big momentum for us going into UCLA tomorrow. Q. Jessie, as a No. 6 seed facing a No. 1 seed entering this game, do you feel like you guys really had nothing to lose in that sense, where you could just do what you do? JESSIE WARREN: I mean, we had a team meeting yesterday with just the girls, and we just talked about just going out there and having fun and playing for each other, and not worrying about who we were playing. Doing what we can do best and what we can do individually to succeed to help the girls to our left and to our right. So the rankings weren't anything for us, because, like I said, we weren't worried about what we were ranked, what they were ranked, who they were. We were just focusing on ourselves and what we could do to help Florida State and help our teammates. Q. Coach and either player if they want to jump in, did Sydney enter this program as well or as ready to play as she seems? Because she seems like she's ready to take on a leadership role and be an offensive catalyst already? LONNI ALAMEDA: Yeah, definitely. She's still growing. I think we're growing in that, we're growing in the game. I can't describe the limit for her. She's so talented and she does have leadership skills. But part of that is growing up as a person too. That's just being a student-athlete. Having the academic lifestyle and the athlete lifestyle, they help you grow so much. She's still embracing all of that and having fun with it. But, you know, I think that Jessie and some of her upperclassmen have been so good for her to tell stories and experiences, and she's been so open minded to listen to them that that's helped her to where she is now. She's going to be able to give that to freshmen coming in next year and town the road. Kylee and I talked about it last night, this experience right here is going to make Syd so great for us two, three, four years down the road because of what we're given the opportunity for our freshmen to do. So still growing and having fun. Q. Jessie, could you also answer that and talk about what you've seen from Syd? JESSIE WARREN: As a teammate, Syd came in and she bonded in the program quick. We had a lot of talks during fall. She left for winter break and came back a completely different player. It's crazy. But she's a competitor. She's -- like she's a fighter and she's one of the best players I've seen. I tell her all the time that she's going to be better than I am, and I truly believe that. It's just been so cool to play with her and have her as a teammate. Q. All right, you guys get another crack at UCLA tomorrow. What kind of adjustments do you guys have to make in order to prevent what happened? LONNI ALAMEDA: Rachel Garcia, she's got a rise ball. We know that now and we've seen it live firsthand. It's a good one. She's a competitor. She's got a day of rest and probably went to some ice clinic or something to get her body going, I'm sure. She's going to be a competitor. They've got some kids that can swing it, we know that. It's going to be a dog fight. We're in a boxing match, and this is the 13th round, and we've got to go punch for punch. So we had a great showing. We were there, and I think that I like our chances right now. Just like Jessie says, it's not the World Series and everyone else we're playing, we're literally playing Florida State softball right now. That showed up today, and they bought into it and they're having fun with it. I think it's going to be an awesome match tomorrow for us. Q. Sydney, take the home run out, is there anything you're going to remember the most from that play? Then also, what's it felt like to be so welcome at Florida State? Because it seems like you guys are best friends already. SYDNEY SHERILL: First, that home run was great. I told Jessie earlier, man, she's getting me, but I'm going to get her, and I got her. Playing with Jessie, I mean, it's awesome. I don't even know how to describe it. They've taught me so much. As Coach was saying, I came in young, very young, and Coach and Jessie and everyone just helped me out so much. I just couldn't be more thankful to be here and be in such a great program. I've grown so much. I've seen that. It's been awesome to like watch myself grow. It's weird, but I'm still growing. I don't know how far this team can go, but I feel like we can go far, and I'm so excited for it. I'm so excited. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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