|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESMay 30, 2019Kenny GajewskiKiley NaomiMichaela RichbourgSamantha ShowMadi Sue MontgomeryOklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma State-2, Florida-1 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Oklahoma State. We'll take questions for the student-athletes. Q. The first one, that's the one that kind of triggered everything, made everybody more comfortable in the ballgame, even your pitching? SAMANTHA SHOW: Right, yes. Scoring first is always nice on a pitcher. I know it takes the pressure off the defense. But we knew that they were going to score runs. I mean, they're a really good team. So when they tied it up, I don't think any of us thought, like, that was it. We knew we were going to keep having some good at-bats. But definitely scoring first helps relax everyone. Q. Kiley, we talked so many times this year as a freshman all the defensive plays you make. When you missed the ball, what do you feel about that play? KILEY NAOMI: You have to get past it, be behind your pitcher and team, move on to the next one. You got to be ready for the ball all the time. I was ready for the next one, made the play. Q. Samantha, just talk about the bottom of the seventh, what is going through your mind? SAMANTHA SHOW: Yeah, so I knew that if I worked ahead and threw some quality pitches, my defense would make the plays for me. It's exactly what they did. Some really good plays made behind me. Never in my mind did I think we were out of it. They had runners in scoring position, but I knew even if they did score, it wouldn't be over. We would go back, have good at-bats, hopefully score again. But there was no doubts in my mind. Q. Samantha, was the hammer throw premeditated? Have you ever practiced that before? SAMANTHA SHOW: No, no, no, no. So anything that happens after a home run of mine, I don't plan out. Just whatever emotion I have inside me. Normally I have so much that's why the dramatic bat flips happen because it just needs to come out. I'm very emotional. I actually hit one of our managers. I said sorry. But after I threw it, I was like, Oh, crap. It just kept going. No, it wasn't planned. Just whatever comes out comes out. Q. Any of your teammates in the way? Concerned at any point? SAMANTHA SHOW: I don't think any of them were. Mady Lohman, when I got in, You almost hit me. I'm like, Sorry. Q. Samantha, obviously a lot has been talked about with your offense for good reason. Could you just talk about how you've changed as a pitcher over this year. A year ago you're at A&M, you played Florida in supers, you didn't pitch a single pitch. Tonight you beat them in the World Series. How have you changed over the last year? SAMANTHA SHOW: I think having a coaching staff that really believes in me and the pitches that I'm throwing, it helps me go out there and be as confident as I can be. Knowing that if I put a ball, a quality pitch, my defense behind me is going to make those plays. I have a lot of trust in them and the pitch calling that's getting called. I think that's what allowed me to be successful this year. Q. Michaela, I know you're going to tell me it's a play you make every day. The snag at first base to end the third inning looked like a pretty important play. In the World Series everything is turned up. Also talk about being the one to get the squeeze on the last out. MICHAELA RICHBOURG: Obviously I'm not able to catch the ball at first unless the other infielders make the play. I give it to them. They make the plays. I'm just over there catching the ball. They make the throws. I'm just there for them. The snag in the third inning, it was a big out. If it would have gotten by me, they would have scored. You always just got to be ready, expect the ball at all times. Q. Madi, it's been a case this year where you talk about breaking through barriers. How important was it to break through this time, get the first win? MADI SUE MONTGOMERY: Right, I mean, I think it's a big deal for us. We can finally just kind of relax and not have to worry about pushing that first win. I think we came out pretty relaxed and normal. Having fun, playing the game that we love. It's nice to break down the next barrier. We just want to keep going. We're not done. Q. Madi, what was the key to keeping composed on the infield after a couple close calls that didn't go your way? MADI SUE MONTGOMERY: We just look around at each other, we know whoever is getting the ball next, we're making that play, doesn't matter who it is. I tell Show all the time, get us a groundball. I think we have a lot of trust in our infield and outfield that they're going to make plays for us. Q. Madi, you're the iron woman of this team. You have had a lot of teammates. What has this season been like with Sam? MADI SUE MONTGOMERY: Show is awesome. I love her. I think she brings a lot of competitiveness and grittiness that we needed to this team. We feed off her. Her bat flips are for us. We feed off that. Then when she's getting an out, clapping her hands, that's for us. She's trying to win the game for us. It has nothing to do with anything else. We have a motto of: For the girls. She really is for the girls. Q. Earlier today you went to see the baseball team. They came and watched the game tonight. How much have you been feeding off of each other during this post-season? MICHAELA RICHBOURG: It means a lot that we really support each other. If we're able to go to their game, when they're able to come to ours. At OSU, we support each other no matter what game we play. I'm glad to be part of a family like that. MADI SUE MONTGOMERY: I think what Josh Holiday put out on social media, getting everyone around to rally around everyone. It shows you how much OSU loves their athletes, loves to support OSU no matter what's going on. KILEY NAOMI: Being here with the boys is just painting the town orange even brighter. It's good that they're here with us. They're able to support us like they do. SAMANTHA SHOW: It means a lot. It's a family here. That's a really cool environment to be in, knowing you have more people in the stands, you have more people behind us. He kind of says when you're in that box, you should feel almost weightless because you have so many people rooting for you. We enjoy supporting one another. I hope we get to go watch one of their games and give them that same feeling of being weightless in the box. KENNY GAJEWSKI: Madi is a big fan, too, because her boyfriend is pretty good. MADI SUE MONTGOMERY: He is good (smiling). Q. Madi, talk a little bit about Sam as a pitcher, how you've seen her evolve. MADI SUE MONTGOMERY: Yeah, I think she's done a really good job of just preparing herself for the season. She's a girl that just wants to learn, no matter even if it's pitching or hitting. She wants to learn. Take as much information in as possible. I think that's what made her who she is today. You can talk to her about what you see, that kind of stuff. She's not going to get down. She wants that criticism, constructive criticism. That way she can build off that, get better each day. Q. We have another game tonight, but what do you think the atmosphere would be like against OU? SAMANTHA SHOW: Crazy. I mean, it's what we dream of. One, playing in front of a crowd like that. Two, beating OU. KILEY NAOMI: Just being here, with two Oklahoma teams, the crowd would be crazy. But that's what we're here for, so... MADI SUE MONTGOMERY: I mean, it puts us in a great spot. It's the best field to play in college softball, best spot you want to be. You're going to have crazy fans on both sides going at it the whole game. It's where you want to be. MICHAELA RICHBOURG: It's going to be a great atmosphere. Really excited to get another shot at them. Just being here, fans from both sides, it's going to be really crowded. Q. I saw yesterday you got the 'for the girls' tattoos. Was that a spur-of-the-moment thing or something you've been planning? MICHAELA RICHBOURG: It's something we made a deal on, if we ever made it to the World Series, when we make it to the World Series, we'd all get it. Some got it a week ago. Then we went and got it the other day. We've planned this. MADI SUE MONTGOMERY: I still don't have mine, but I'm going to get mine. I'm going to wait till we're done to get it, but I'm for sure going to get it. It's just something we planned on. Thank you, ladies. We will continue with questions for coach. (Interruption in audio.) KENNY GAJEWSKI: -- going to be a grind. The farther you go in these things, the harder it gets, the more it kind of wears you down. When Roberts hit that home run, I was just like, Huh. It's crazy the way this game works. She's just really bought in. She's really kind of made herself vulnerable here. She's let us coach her. She lets me coach her in so many ways, hard, soft. You know what I mean? Some days I can kind of jump her. There's some days I know this is a bad day, you just need to kind of hug her. I'll be honest, Jeff has done a heck of a job. He's got her to buy in. He's got her just figured out that she doesn't have to strike every hitter out. It's really not who we are. We are a team that tries to pitch to contact. We try to keep the pitch counts down. She didn't like that at first when she got here. She's kind of bought in. That's why she's able to finish games. I mean, she's a finisher here. I don't know her stats at A&M, but I know here she's a horse. Q. Talk about the second home run. What was going through your mind? Are you in the tattoo club, too? KENNY GAJEWSKI: Oh, geez. Well, when she hit the second home run, things weren't going so hot. Our at-bats were really going cold. I think we had 17 strike-out or fly ball outs, which you can't do that against these type of teams. We worked really hard this week to prepare to put the ball in play hard, through the middle, on the dirt. As good as Florida's defense is, still you got to make them play catch. We didn't. I told them in our BP was not good today. I was concerned. The way we hit, I mean, it wasn't good. This morning we went and hit, we were incredible. We came back and hit here on the field, on the backfield, we were terrible. So when she hit that home run, it was big. When she hit the second one, I'll be honest, I wasn't thinking home run. I just wanted a good at-bat. Right when it left her bat, I just felt the crowd, it went through me. I mean, it was crazy. Kind of a surreal experience. But it was big. Those are big. I think those were our only two hits. I don't know that we hit another ball hard. It was a Sam Show day. Yes, I think I'm wrangled into the tattoo deal. But it will be on my foot (smiling). Q. It's soon after the game. When you look down at that box score and see Sam throw a complete game win, get the only two hits, the making of a star, what do you think about that? KENNY GAJEWSKI: I mean, I'm super excited for her. But I'll be honest, she doesn't care. She wants this team and this program that gave her kind of the second chance. She was a star when she got here. Her first year at A&M, she was unreal. She was a bona fide star. She's a bona fide All-American. She's one of the best players in the country. She's also polarizing. She's either loved or she's hated. She's brought a little bit of that on herself. She wears that. She doesn't want that. She really does, like everyone, wants everyone to love her. But she knows she brings that stuff on. I'm proud of the way she's handled that. There's some people that are very critical of her, some people she's looked up to for a long time that have been very critical on social media and stuff like that. Some of them kind of swayed back, some continue that. I mean, when you bat flip, you pump your fist, it's going to happen. It's just not normal in our game. It may become that way in years to come, it may not. But you have to make a choice in life in who you want to be. What I told her is, Just be you, don't change for anyone. Don't let anybody sway you. Don't be disrespectful. People in this game act like there's some kind of softball code. If you can find that code book, tell me, I'll read the book. I love to read and grow. There is no code. She loves to play. She loves this school. She loves these girls that are on our team. Sometimes her emotion gets the best of her. I cry. She throws bats. I don't know what else. We all have our own ways of letting things out, right? She is a star. She's done evening we've asked her to do here and more. She leads. Our young kids follow her around like little ducks. She treats them well. They love her. She coaches them up. She's also willing to take coaching from them. I think that's what great players do. Q. The potential playing OU tomorrow, what are the thoughts? KENNY GAJEWSKI: I think it would be disrespectful to Alabama to be talking about playing a team that hasn't won yet. I'd rather just leave that alone. There's two really good teams that are going to play now. We're going to go back and we're going to enjoy ours for a bit, then we'll figure out who we're going to play. I'm not trying to not answer that. I don't think it's fair to Alabama. I think they've got a really good chance to win this game. They're really dang good. So is OU. If we get to that point, you can call me in the morning time and I'll talk to you about that. Q. They had first and second, nobody out, surprised they didn't bunt? KENNY GAJEWSKI: No, I wasn't. I felt like you probably thought, we may think they're going to bunt, you know what I mean? I really didn't know what they'd try to do. I just told our kids, Hey, let's do everything we can to get the leadout. That was the most important thing. Q. What was your defensive setup for the bunt? KENNY GAJEWSKI: We were in a safe mode. We were just kind of in a safe spot just in case. I felt like they'd try to put the ball down because she can run. Even though she's banged up, that foot is banged up, I felt they had enough good runners on they could make stuff happen. Tim (Walton), he's not scared. He's aggressive. He's going to play like that. I didn't think he'd give in and just try to bunt. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|