|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESMay 31, 2019Rylee BaylessKenny GajewskiMichaela RichbourgSamantha ShowOklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma-6, Oklahoma State-1 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by the Oklahoma State Cowgirls. Rylee, talk about what it was like, a record crowd tonight, fans came out and supported you, what was it like to play in that environment tonight. RYLEE BAYLESS: I mean, it was something like I feel I've always dreamed of as a little girl. I felt like I was just floating out there, to be honest. I don't really know how to explain it other than that it was really electrifying. It makes you realize that you are playing on the biggest stage. You kind of get slapped with the reality that we made it to the end game. Next week there's not going to be any softball playing, no matter what. This is it. I felt like that really hit me hard tonight with everybody in the crowd. It was awesome playing OU. A Bedlam matchup that felt like it was the Big 12 tournament times 50. It was amazing. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Rylee, walk and the double, seems like it's been a tough couple weeks for you at the plate. How was it to get back to your old ways? RYLEE BAYLESS: I trust my teammates. Every time something happens, We got you. Every time I swing and miss or whatever, I'm walking to the dugout, I have three or five people coming up to you, We got you. Started in Tallahassee. I told everybody -- I want to obviously come through for my team, but I was like, I don't care what happens because one through nine has my back no matter what. They're going to step up and, like, they're going to pick me up. That's what we do. It's for the girls. We're here for each other, playing for each other. They just told me to keep swinging. That's what I did. I'm still seeing the ball good. I was getting deep in count, swinging at pitches that I don't want to swing at but I have to. It was really awesome getting on base finally, to get on base for the girls, hit the ball for the girls. I'm willing to do anything on base for the girls. That's all I want to do, get on base for Sam (Show), whoever, to hit me in. Q. Samantha, talk about what the first inning was like. SAMANTHA SHOW: It was just an unlucky inning for us. I felt like I was making some good pitches. They were putting balls where we weren't. I was happy that we only held them to three. I felt like that didn't really put us out of the game. I knew if we stayed there and put zeros up the rest of the game, we had a chance to win. It was just an unlucky inning for us. Q. Micaela, what is it like to have the two big hits? MICHAELA RICHBOURG: It was a big at-bat for me. We talked about staying short, hitting the ball hard today. I got behind in the count very fast. I was seeing the ball a little bit better today. Rylee scoring was a big moment. I was happy that her walk, if she wouldn't have walked, it wouldn't have been there. I stayed short. Coach told me to stay short right before that pitch. I hit the ball hard. Rylee scored. That's how it happened. Q. Samantha, after the game you had last night, did you see OU pitching you any different? Like you took on a new persona. SAMANTHA SHOW: No, I don't think I took on a new persona. That's what I expect of myself. I don't think OU -- Q. I don't mean you took on a new persona. I meant you got a national reputation. One of the best games in World Series history. That's what I meant. SAMANTHA SHOW: Yeah, the coaches kind of mentioned to me that maybe they wouldn't throw to me. I think with them putting three up in the first inning, that made them feel comfortable. I mean, people know what I throw. There's film out there. I've been around, this is my fourth year. They know what I throw. I knew if I went out there and made quality pitches, tried to get my team off the field as quick as possible, it was going to be a good game. I think after that first inning, I got better each time I went out there. But it was a good game. They did what they were supposed to do. Q. During the whole 17-minute light delay, what was the talk or feeling? RYLEE BAYLESS: We were just trying to be ourselves, like our swag-tastic selves, get our fans to get rowdy. They were getting their place rowdy over there. We were just trying to keep the momentum high, our energy high in that moment. I don't know. Just trying to get our fans into the game. MICHAELA RICHBOURG: We were just staying together, as you can see. We stayed as a team right there, did some cheers with the crowd. Got them involved. Just stayed together throughout the time. SAMANTHA SHOW: I was really thinking that break was going to be kind of like a flipping moment for us, that that would kind of knock the wind out of OU, stop their momentum. I was having a good time over there dancing, having a good time with us and the fans trying to get them as involved as possible. It kind of sucked seeing people leave at that point. We had fun trying to get the momentum back on our side. Q. Sam, you're the leader of this team. How do you go about leading this team back tomorrow? SAMANTHA SHOW: Just letting them know that we're good and there's a reason why we're here. This game, it happened, it's done. We can't think about it again. We just have to focus on the game ahead of us because that's the most important one. Just reminding them we're really good. I don't think our bats have been as hot the past two games. Putting hits together, hitting the ball hard, making the plays on defense like we have been, just attacking every inning. Q. Sam, did you see the shirts that OSU fans made, what that means to you? SAMANTHA SHOW: That's crazy. To think there's a shirt with my chunk of a bat on it, it's funny. It's pure humor. It's fun to see that people are supporting what I'm doing. I'm just having fun playing the game. If they want to put it on a shirt, more power to them. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. We'll continue with questions for coach. Q. You usually get off to good starts. Tonight Oklahoma puts up a three spot. What were you thinking at that point? KENNY GAJEWSKI: That wasn't the start that I dreamed up, to be honest. That's what OU does. It's what Florida State does. It's what these top offense do. They kind of make their money by scoring fast. I honestly didn't think that Sam was that bad in the first. I thought she made a really good pitch to Alo. Was way inside. Off the plate in. She somehow got the barrel, stayed inside. It's what really good hitters do. But I didn't feel like we were out of it. I really didn't. We came back and we got that run, which we've struggled to score runs against them. Frankly, we struggled to score runs against elite arms. That's their growing process and growing pains we're in right now. We have to be in these games to figure this stuff out. It wasn't a great start. Little unlucky. Little bit of them being really good. Put us behind quickly. But I didn't feel our energy change. I felt like it was really good. I felt like we stayed good the whole game. Q. Rylee getting the walk, the double, is that something she can build on after a rough post-season? KENNY GAJEWSKI: We need her. We tend to put up crooked numbers when she's on base. When she's not on base, we put a lot more ones up. Her getting on base, it was a big out when they got Show out in the first. I felt like there was a lot of kind of took the wind out of the fans, out of the crowd, after her night last night. I think there were some OU fans waiting to see what may happen next. You know what I mean? That was a big moment. I think she was trying a little too hard tonight. Can't try too hard in this game. You're going to get eaten up. Yeah, that's all I have. Q. What can you say about the sixth inning, Syd playing after the hard hit at third? KENNY GAJEWSKI: As I look at the box score, I mean, what did us in is seven free passes, eight hits I think. They struck us out 13 times, walked us once. We threw 143 pitches, which is a ton for us. We usually live in the 90 to 100 range. They threw 92 and struck out 13. They were pounding the zone. We weren't. Logan wasn't very sharp, obviously. I didn't like the look in her eye, but I need her to be good. I got to stay with her. I'm here to be here for a long time. I need these kids to perform, get out in this moment in front of this crowd in this atmosphere here. I needed her to work through that. Didn't turn out for us. I'll be running her right back out there tomorrow. I know what she's capable of. Really happy for Clakley and the way she came in. I thought she was really sharp. Q. Did this game feel different since it was Bedlam? KENNY GAJEWSKI: I think as we were preparing, I was feeling like it was going to be more. I don't know that it felt crazy. It just felt like a winner's bracket game here in OKC, which is a big deal. I don't think anybody expected us to be here, to be very honest. I felt like we were playing with house money. Walking in, seeing the crowd, I was like, This is going to be awesome. I think we played OU enough, I don't think we're caught up in the jersey, it's taken us a little bit of time to that point in my time here. I felt like we would play well. Thought there were some moments where we played well. But I don't know. It didn't feel anything too crazy. It felt pretty normal out there. Just happened to be them. They're pretty dang good. Q. What do you do for this point till first pitch tomorrow? KENNY GAJEWSKI: Eat is the first thing I'm going to do. See my family. Kind of regroup with the staff. The hard part about this thing is we got to switch sides now. We've put a lot of our time and energy into our side. We're going to have to go get on it and break down some film. We've seen all these teams play a bunch, but we put a lot of our time into OU, Florida, 'Bama. That's kind of where you're at. Like I said, we'll go back. We lost last week, so this isn't anything new. The great thing is we don't have to turn around at noon and play. We had to do that last week. We'll sleep in, get breakfast. Staff will be up working. It's what we do. It's why we get paid well to work, put our kids in the best spot to win. We'll get to face a good team. That's why they're still here. They will have already played once. Hopefully that's an advantage to us. I think we'll go into fight mode good. I do. I think we'll be fine. Win or lose, we'll play well. We'll play our best. That's the bottom line. I'm excited to see how we respond in my fourth year. We're in it than fancy of us, who we are. This is another laboratory for us, how we're going to continue our growth. 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
|