2022 WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 9, 2022

Patty Gasso

Kinzie Hansen

Jocelyn Alo

Jayda Coleman

Jordy Bahl

Oklahoma Sooners

Postgame Press Conference

Oklahoma - 10, Texas - 5

THE MODERATOR: This is the Championship Final Game 2 conference featuring the national champion, Oklahoma Sooners. We are joined by student-athletes Jordy Bahl, Jayda Coleman, Jocelyn Alo, and Kinzie Hansen.

Q. First question for Jayda and then the other players. Jayda, got to ask you about the first inning catches. Especially the second one. Have you ever had an opportunity to make two plays like that back-to-back? Just what was your perspective on that second catch that you went up and got over the wall? And for Jordy, Jocelyn, and Kinzie, what were your perspectives on that play, and just how much momentum did that give you? Obviously, you are down 2-0 there, but obviously, it was a pretty energizing moment.

JAYDA COLEMAN: Yeah. What's crazy is that we practice that all the time. There's Brito in practice that robs home runs, Boone will rob a home run. And we do that all the time. It's crazy that it actually showed up in a game when we really needed it.

The best part of it is looking at Jo, and she's just, like, "Let's go." That's the best part of making the whole play is seeing your teammates really excited for you. It felt great. It was awesome.

THE MODERATOR: Jordy.

JORDY BAHL: I have seen Jayda do that over and over and over in practice, but when it's in a game and she has your back as well as everyone else on our defense, that stuff fires me up more than any strike-out every will. It gives us momentum and really just lets me take a deep breath because they got me, so ...

JOCELYN ALO: Definitely just fires us up and kind of takes the momentum away from them, I would say, and brings it back into our dugout. She's robbed me a lot at practice too, so it's just a normal thing for her.

THE MODERATOR: Kinzie.

KINZIE HANSEN: I was about to say the same thing. She's robbing all of our home runs at practice all the time.

When she does it in the game, it's almost like routine. We're, like, oh. Not that we are like -- she obviously grabbed the momentum for all of us, but we were, like, yeah, we expected that from her. Tip our hat. Jayda is an animal. We all know that. When she does it, it's pretty unreal.

Q. This question is for Jocelyn, and I have another one for Kinzie. Jocelyn, Patty put you in at left field there in the seventh inning. Just kind of walk me through what that moment was like. And then for Kinzie, you've been through your ups and downs this season, and then you finally were able to hit that home run. Kind of talk about that moment if you can.

THE MODERATOR: Jocelyn.

JOCELYN ALO: I do practice defense, by the way. I don't just hit. So, I mean, just going in there and getting the job done.

They made some really good pitches, so it was just a matter of me just going out and catching the ball.

KINZIE HANSEN: I had went through some ups and downs this year. I had a tough year. I got injured a couple of times. And then coming back mentally, it was really tough on me.

But it's not about me. That's something that I really learned throughout this year is coming up and hitting that home run, these girls have been doing it all year when I wasn't able to.

When I came up, my mindset was just do it for them. It's a tie ball game, and we're up by one run at the time. I have Jordy's back. I have Hope's back. I have Nicole May's back, all these pitchers. And my teammates that are up there giving everything every at every at-bat, it's about them, and it's about our God-given abilities, and it was -- it all came through.

Q. This is for all the players. Given how you just won the trophy, all the numbers involved, there's going to be strong arguments made that this might be the best college softball team ever. I was wondering if you guys want to chime in on that one.

THE MODERATOR: Start with Jordy, please.

JORDY BAHL: I would say there's been chatter all season, but one thing that we did is just stayed focused on ourselves, and we weren't trying to be better than anything in the past, but we were just trying to be the best version of ourselves and show up every day, work as hard as we can, and leave it all out there and have no doubt in our mind that we didn't go all in.

I think we were just trying to maximize every day and just be focused on ourselves and being the best that we can be.

THE MODERATOR: Jayda.

JAYDA COLEMAN: I agree 100% with Jordy. We were just doing us. It just happened to fall.

Honestly, I think it's because we play for an audience of one. We play so free. We already know the story is written, so we can just go out there and have a blast because we already know that it's all in God's hands.

Just having that in your mind, just going up to bat, like it doesn't matter what happens. God is going to Love me no matter what, even if I strike out, regardless. But just playing so free. It comes naturally when you are just being who you want to be.

THE MODERATOR: Jocelyn.

JOCELYN ALO: I would say with me being a senior, I think this is the best team. (Laughing.)

But one thing about Sooner softball, and I've seen it year in and year out, is they just continue to get better. I don't know what holds next year, but I know that they could be a run for the best team too and years to come.

I just think Sooner softball will continually climb and keep climbing the ladder. I think you should be excited for what's being to.

THE MODERATOR: Kinzie.

KINZIE HANSEN: They all hit the nail on the head. I don't really have much else to say, but when we found how to be our true authentic selves on the field -- because we don't need to do too much. When you try to do too much, that's when you get in over your head.

When you can trust your training and be yourself, that's when you know we really started to peak at the perfect time. Truthfully, this probably is one of the best teams I've ever been a part of. We'll see how that statement holds up next year and the years after that, but so far this is it.

Q. This is for all four of you. For three of you, you have won back-to-back national titles. That has to be incredible. Jordy, you just won your first. I'm curious, what do you think about winning the Natty again? And for your run, you've won two in a row for three of you.

THE MODERATOR: Start with Kinzie, please.

KINZIE HANSEN: It's funny that you ask that question because I was hugging Tiare and Jayda and a couple of other girls that are around my age, and Jordy, and we were, like, We're going again next year. That was the next -- for us we're enjoying this moment and living in this moment, but our eyes are on next season already and we're ready to get back to the drawing board.

THE MODERATOR: Jocelyn.

JOCELYN ALO: Going back-to-back, no better way to finish your career. I've had a lovely five years here, and it's been hard at times, but I wouldn't change it any other way. I've enjoyed my journey here, and sad that it's coming to an end. Well, it is ending, so ...

THE MODERATOR: Jayda.

JAYDA COLEMAN: Like you said, the next one is going to be the best one, but for me personally I'm going to enjoy it all right now. I'm not even thinking about next year yet. I'm going to -- this week I'm going to enjoy. I'm going to celebrate. I'm not going to lift. I'm not going to touch a ball.

I'm just going to celebrate because you never know. You never know if you're going to be back here again. You never know if you're going to win that trophy again. Why not celebrate it and just take a step away for a little bit? Then when that week is over, then it's right back to the grind. We're going right back at it next year.

THE MODERATOR: Jordy.

JORDY BAHL: With this being the first one, just like Jayda said, I'm really going to sit in it for a little bit, but then as far as our team's future, we're all competitors, and when you are a competitor, if there's something else out there you can go get, you're going to want to go get it. So I don't ever worry about us ever losing our hunger to win more national championships. I'm going to enjoy this one.

Q. Jocelyn, you go the curtain call when you finished up down in Norman, but you got a different kind of curtain call today getting to hug teammates. You were emotional. Can you just walk us through what that walk back to the dugout was like for you?

JOCELYN ALO: Yeah. It's been a minute since I've been out on defense, so I was just enjoying it while I was out there.

I don't think the moment could have been any better, and I just enjoyed my time with these girls, and I'm sad that it is ending, but I'm going to just enjoy it. These are the moments that I'll remember forever, but I'm just happy to be going out top and to just know that all the hard work we put in paid off.

Yeah, I couldn't have scripted a moment any better for me to just exit out of the field.

Q. Kinzie, this one is for you. Nicole May just her bouncing back from Monday, coming out and just being excellent for you guys. What did you kind of see from her and her mentality coming into this game as well?

KINZIE HANSEN: Even last year Nicole May has been lights-out in postseason. When we played Washington last year, we won the game 2-1, and I saw that fire in her today.

Everybody has bad games. We can't all be perfect, but when she came out on that mound today after Jordy, I just -- the look in her eyes, when I had gotten that first squat, I was, like, yeah, she's going to do it. Just the vibe that she gave off and just the fire that she had and kind of vengeance a little bit from her last outing. She knew she was going to do it, and everybody else knew too.

Q. This is for the girls who will be here next year. What have you learned from those seniors that are leaving, the five? What influence have they had on your lives?

THE MODERATOR: Start with Jordy, please.

JORDY BAHL: I'm just going to talk about Jocelyn Alo and one of the biggest things that I've learned from her is to just really just leave it all out there. You're never going to regret putting in the extra work when you don't want to. She's one of the hardest workers, and for her it's all paid off.

Also, with all the spotlight she's gotten, she is still the most humble teammate ever. She's out there working for us, not for herself, but just to continue to be a selfless person, and she handles everything with grace. So just all that from her.

THE MODERATOR: Jayda.

JAYDA COLEMAN: I think what I've learned the most is finding your why. Our super seniors, they know their why. When we were in Hawaii and I saw Joce talking to the little girls in Hawaii, I just broke down crying because she knows her why, and that's why she has pushed way past anyone else.

My freshman year I came here just to play softball. I wasn't even thinking about why I'm doing it, and now I know my why. It gets me through the day when there's tough times. It gets me through. That's the biggest thing I've learned from them, is understanding my why, pushing me every day.

THE MODERATOR: Kinzie.

KINZIE HANSEN: For me the super seniors taught me the power of being a good teammate. And when I was a freshman, I struggled a little bit my fall, and everybody has that super senior that takes them under their wing, and mine was Joce. To see her go, she's going to pass the baton down. It's just something that I have always had here, so I hope that, as my class gets older, that we make her proud and the super seniors that have taught us that being a good teammate is the most important thing.

Q. This is for Kinzie, Joce, and Jayda. Can you talk about the crowd tonight? It was another record-breaking attendance. Seemed like the fourth and the fifth inning they were really getting behind you when you were starting to string some runs together. Can you talk about that?

THE MODERATOR: Let's start with Kinzie, please.

KINZIE HANSEN: This field really feels like home field advantage for us a lot of the time, so when we're up getting the crown, it's like a sea of red out there. When they're behind us, it just kind of feels like a tidal wave. Like the wave builds and builds and builds and we score runs, and it gets huge. It's kind of like there's no escaping us at that point.

Our goal was to be suffocating today, and when the crowd gets behind us, it's kind of -- it's just a tidal wave, and it comes crashing down.

THE MODERATOR: Jocelyn.

JOCELYN ALO: Yeah, there's no better crowd like Sooner Nation, and I almost felt like I was at a football game for a little bit because of the Boomer and Sooner. It's just crazy to see. And I have obviously been to OU football games, and I had that same feel here playing. There's no fans like Sooner fans.

THE MODERATOR: Jayda.

JAYDA COLEMAN: Sooner Nation is great. They've given me chills multiple times. Just crazy to see how much the game has grown. We appreciate it. We love that people are really investing in our sport and having our backs, and we love to hear them.

Q. Jayda, one of the early innings you got on base, and it looked like you were making a rowing motion. What is the significance? I've seen a few of your other teammates do that as well. What's the significance behind that?

JORDY BAHL: We have Sarah Roberts. She comes and talks to our chapel. It's a story. I don't know if I really want to share it out. That's --

(Teammates say "do it." )

JAYDA COLEMAN: I really don't want to talk about it. Jo, you want to --

JORDY BAHL: In the Bible it talks about when Peter walks on water, and he is in the boat, and it's nighttime, and there's a storm, and they see Jesus walking on the water towards them. They think it's a ghost at first, but then He says, "don't fear, it's Me." Then Peter says, "Lord, if that's really You, then tell me to get out of the boat and start walking towards You."

Jesus says, "All right, Peter, get out of the boat." So he gets out of the boat, and his eyes are fixed on Jesus, and he starts walking towards him. Then he looks around, and he sees the storm, and he sees the waves and the wind and everything, and he starts to sink because he took his eyes off Jesus for a second and started looking at all the distractions and the dangers around him.

We say "get out of the boat" because we just want to go out there, be free, and eyes on Jesus the entire time. Everything we do is for Him and the gifts that He has given us.

Once you're out of the boat, the next part is, okay, now don't take your eyes off Jesus. You're out of the boat, so continue to get out of the boat and continue to keep your eyes fixed on Him and our play. That's where the row comes from.

THE MODERATOR: We're going to finish up with the student-athletes. A couple of questions on Zoom.

Q. I had a question for Jocelyn. I saw an interview you did earlier this week where you talked about hoping that you leave the game of softball better than you found it. Now that you're at the end of your collegiate career, you know, how do you reflect back on that sentiment in hindsight, and can you say confidently now that you have done that?

JOCELYN ALO: Yeah. I've enjoyed my five years through the ups and through the downs. I feel like something good always came out of it.

I came into this game very stubborn and thought that it was all about me, and I came in as a girl, and now I'm leaving as a woman. I'm just happy to be having that mentality going out into the real world. I'll still be playing softball, though, so it's all good. But I'm happy that just this coaching staff continues to trust in me and have molded me into the person and player that I am. I think that I've definitely left my mark.

I've definitely enjoyed my five years, and I'm excited to see what the Sooner softball team does. I'm just excited to see what little girl is going to work hard out there to come and break my record.

Q. Two-part question. One for Jayda. Can you just -- your second catch you made, the one that you robbed the home run on, would you say that's a game-changer that led to you guys eventually coming back to win the whole thing? Then, secondly, for all the athletes, as we know, the mentality is to try -- how hard it is to win a championship back-to-back years. Can you talk about how hard it was to go back-to-back?

THE MODERATOR: Start with Jayda, please.

JAYDA COLEMAN: I think the catch got us a lot of momentum, but I don't think it changed the game to that's the reason why we won.

I think there was a lot of really big defensive plays that were getting us momentum. We had big-time hits. We had Brito come in and be our new hero for this game.

I think it was just a combination of everything. We just had to get the ball rolling. We kind of started a little slow. I was just one of the little pieces that got the snowball going.

THE MODERATOR: Jocelyn. He asked about winning back-to-back championships and what that took and what it was like.

JOCELYN ALO: Yeah, to go back-to-back is super hard, but I think one thing that the Sooners do really well is after they win one, they never look back. Oh, we did this last year. Oh, I did this last year. It's a whole new journey.

This year was a whole new journey for us with many ups and downs, different adversities, and we've overcome them. I know the Sooner team well, and I know that they're not going to look back on this year's, and they're just going to continue to strive forward for the next.

Yeah, it's super hard, and I'm very, very proud of this team.

THE MODERATOR: Kinzie.

KINZIE HANSEN: Greatness doesn't come without its difficulties, and that will always be a statement going forward knowing the kind of competitors that we are on this team and that Coach Gasso recruits. It's just there will always be difficulties. There will always be expectations and pressure, but pressure also breeds champions. And I think that that's a piece of championship mindset that will run in the DNA at OU forever.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much for your time. Congratulations. Questions for Coach Gasso, please.

Q. I want to start off asking about Jayda and those catches that she had in the first inning. Especially that second one. What was your perspective on that play? What are you thinking as that ball is going in the air, and just how important was that at that time to keep the damage down and to keep y'all within striking distance?

PATTY GASSO: I was a little sick to my stomach for a second as I saw it getting some distance. If Jayda could get up on the wall and reach, she's going to catch it, and I know that about her. She is an incredible, incredible athlete.

Not just the catches she's made, but she picked up a ball and threw somebody out at second also. That was big for us.

That was a big momentum turn for us because easily the score could have looked a lot different than 2-0. I was really proud of her efforts and trying to make some things happen defensively.

I told the team before we even started in this tournament defense plays a huge role. Now, hitting, timely hitting, pitching, but defense can make or break you.

This tournament, our defense made us.

Q. A quick follow-up to that. How much do you feel like that helped Jordy settle in after Texas was hitting the ball really hard there early?

PATTY GASSO: I think it helped her quite a bit, to be honest. Jordy was maybe at 60%, so she's just trying to use some smoke and mirrors a little bit just to get us as far as we could go with her. It definitely helped.

Q. There's going to be a lot of talk about this being the greatest team ever. In your eyes, where do you rate the team where they are in terms of Oklahoma, in college softball history? How do they handle all these expectations? Because they've been hearing that all season long.

PATTY GASSO: I'm going to let you decide. You guys all have the stats and all that stuff. I could rank them very, very high, if not the highest, because everything they do looks so easy to me, and they do it so fast.

So it could be 6-0 within one minute of a game, so the expectations have been off the charts from the start. As soon as you -- here's what's going to happen. When we walk out and we go celebrate tonight, the things we're going to hear is you're going to do it again next year, right? You're going to do it next year. It's been going on since we were sitting here a year ago.

So the expectations are always there. The pressure is there. We just really worked hard to try to keep it within our circle.

Social media has a lot to say. They read a lot of it. Try to get that out of their minds and just focusing on our team practicing hard on our field and allowing us as coaches to push them to the place we need to in order to make these kind of dreams come true.

They never wavered. They never backed off. They never came to practice saying, I don't want to do this. It's just who we are. It's how we train.

Q. Patty, you mentioned Jordy was about 60%. I'm curious what the conversations were like with her, Coach Rocha, kind of going in and giving her the opportunity to start for the first time in over a month?

PATTY GASSO: First thing I'll say is our doctors have been incredible helping us get to this point. So there's been a lot of conversation, a lot of talk with Jordy, conversation and communication with her parents to make sure that everybody is on the same page.

Jordy just didn't have the velocity, so we were trying to use what she had with movement and spin, and Jordy was ready to go as long as we needed her to, knowing that Jordy was throwing probably 6 miles an hour slower, which is significant.

So giving her that opportunity, Jordy helped get us here, and you haven't seen her in five weeks, so people start to forget about her. The other pitchers did a great job, but we wouldn't be here without Jordy.

So to give her that moment was big for all of us and big for her, for her future as well.

Q. I was wondering if you could shed some light on the chemistry of this team and what makes it special? The play the other day where Tiare flips to Grace, and she doesn't get the out, but the thought -- the thing I thought is that's next-level chemistry. They team up for a double play today. Every hitter is always talking to the hitter behind them about what they're seeing and everything. What makes the chemistry about this team so special?

PATTY GASSO: They're very competitive. They're very athletic. They all have the same things in common, the same traits, and that's hard work. They're very blue collar style.

They don't take pitches off. They don't take days off. They like to win. They want to win. They love to win.

And they get around each other, and they want to see how good they can be. It's not in a cocky way. You see them celebrate things because we work on it; and when they get it done, they celebrate it.

It's fun to watch them play, and their passion and exuberance and love for playing is really what kind of brings them together. They don't practice doing showy -- I've never seen those guys do that before. So, of course, I was looking down when they were trying -- and I missed what happened. I missed Joce's two catches. I was looking down. I don't know what happened.

I don't know. They just love to win. They love to play hard, and they love to win.

Q. Where do you guys rank as a team, best-ever, whatever? We can debate that, but dynasty, I think, is a pretty safe word to use with what you guys have done over the last six championships, winning four of them. When you hear this program talked about in the same sentence, like UConn women's basketball, Alabama football, those sorts of other programs, what does that do in your head?

PATTY GASSO: I guess I don't believe it. I don't know how to answer. I don't think that way.

Q. You've seen the final out five times. When this one happens, what's going through your mind? What feels different? What feels the same? What's that moment like?

PATTY GASSO: First I'm like: What a fool. I just blew it. Here comes Texas coming back, and I'm trying to give Joce a hurrah, and I was like: I shouldn't have listened JT Gasso who told me to do that.

It's just kind of holding the -- it's surreal. The game goes by fast, and there's highs, and there's lows. You just watch. I sit back like a fan. That's what I do. I sit and watch, and it's just prideful to see these guys do that, to see them get emotional like I am right now.

They don't realize how good they are. Maybe I don't realize how good they are. Everybody asks us, and we just play. We just play. We love to have fun and love to play.

You ask me to compare, you ask me what it feels like. It feels like something we do every day at practice.

Q. It was great listening to Jocelyn and see how far she's come in your program. You have all of your super seniors, all your seniors, play a huge role on your team this year. Even Elam is a captain for the second straight year, and she's playing. Talk about great leaders for you. Wouldn't you agree that they did a great job for you this year? I didn't mean to make you cry again.

PATTY GASSO: You did not make me cry. I should be the only coach in the country that's not crying right now, right, because every other coach sits up here and listens to their story of their kids, but I know what I'm losing. I'm losing five superior super seniors. All have different traits. All have done different things, but they all stepped up in this tournament like crazy.

Jana Johns got hot. Taylon Snow got hot at the right time. Hope took the reins and carried us for a while. Joce is Joce. Lynnsie Elam is our captain and has been our captain and is the glue that makes this team stick. She absolutely is the glue. And what I love about her, she's not always in the game, but she is still our captain in the dugout. What she's done for this program, I don't know how I could ever repay her, but she is one of those players that will be associated with greatness forever.

Q. It's been 50 years since Title IX was passed, and I'm sure you've gotten used to the stands being packed and the ratings being through the roof, but where do you see the growth of this game going in the next 50 years?

PATTY GASSO: I think you're going to see more elite, elite players coming on the scene. As long as we can continue to play in these big events with lots of fans, you're going to see the passion, you're going to see the energy, you're going to see the excellence.

I think what makes softball so fun to watch is just kind of the innocence of it, that no one is trying to be a ham or hot dog or there's no super egos that you see out there. It's just still kind of the innocence of the game that people love, the passion, the excitement, and the fact that these are elite female athletes that we're watching.

Q. You mentioned yesterday you guys got the hot start that you were looking for. It was a slower start today. Can you just talk about your team's response after kind of that slow start and to be able to win -- to find a different way to win today, especially compared to yesterday?

PATTY GASSO: Their lefty, Czech, was really, really good and moving in and out and mixing speeds on us. It was something we hadn't seen in a while. We knew it was going to take us a little bit of time, but really what created momentum was our defense.

You could feel that all around, and that was the only thing besides our pitching with Jordy was hanging on, but the defense is what really created this momentum for us over and over until we could find a way to get on the board.

Once we did, it just started to open up. Just timely hitting, clutch hitting when we needed it.

Q. You mentioned Jordy's pitching, but Nicole, what did she give you tonight, and Hope's moment there to come in and finish that off for you guys?

PATTY GASSO: Yeah, really important. I wanted Nicole May to come in and walk out of this tournament feeling very good about what she was doing. I felt she did a great job of holding that down.

For Hope it was thank you. It was a thank you. Thank you for choosing OU. Thank you for leading us to this place, and I wanted her to get that last final out.

Q. Can you talk about Jocelyn in particular, just what she's brought to this program in the last -- I mean, every day for the last five years and why she's become the best hitter in college?

PATTY GASSO: For me to answer that, I think I probably need to do this. (Laughing).

She came in here, like I said, raw and kind of very young. She kind of said it herself. Didn't know a lot. Okay. Joce won't say I'm wrong. Joce came to Oklahoma to play softball, not to go to school. She does have her degree, so that is probably her biggest accomplishment. She will tell you that.

But she had some highs and lows. She wasn't really the hardest worker. I had to push her a lot. She was tired of me pushing her.

There were times when she didn't feel like she wanted to play softball. I had her take a hiatus from softball. That woke her up. Her and I have had some tough moments together, but all of those moments and her trusting me has revolved around surrendering who she was to us to help get her to where she is now.

I attribute JT. Big props to JT for helping Joce understand what kind of hitter she could be. Then, once she kind of figured out how she could do this, she just kept going. Watching her celebrate that moment in Hawaii was one of the greatest things I've ever seen.

And then after that, just watching where she's gone since then. It was just so freeing for her. Man, she loves the Sooners. She loves the state. She loves everything about OU, and she just wanted to feed the OU fan base everything that she had. She left it. She left it on that field, and she left it in the history books forever.

Thank you, guys.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Appreciate your time all week.