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NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESMay 31, 2012Kayla BraudPatrick MurphyCassie Reilly-BocciaJackie TrainaOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA ALABAMA – 5 THE MODERATOR: From Alabama, we have Head Coach Patrick Murphy, student‑athletes Kayla Braud, Cassie Reilly‑Boccia and Jackie Traina. Opening comment. COACH MURPHY: Well, I thought the first inning was the key. I thought all of us in here would love to pitch with a 4‑0 lead after the first inning. And our batters did a great job, took advantage of some walks. And then Cassie Reilly‑Boccia came through with a huge hit, bases loaded, double, and cleared them. And just a good way to start this year's World Series for us. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. Coach, you've had a lot of teams here. Is this one as quick as any to make a good long run, and tonight's an indication of that, find a way to score, get in jams, get out of jams, and just the different makeup of this team? COACH MURPHY: I hope so. Jackie is very resilient as a pitcher, and you need that at the World Series. You have to have a very short‑term memory, and she has that, as probably witnessed in the seventh inning. And with six seniors, they've been here three times. They know the field. They know the crowd. They know you guys. Q. Patrick, first of all, up until this year, up until last year, it was, can you win a first‑round game? Does that feel like that's just a long time ago for this team? COACH MURPHY: Now that you brought it up, maybe not. But, no, I mean, it does, really. I mean, it's the eighth year, now, the second time in a row. But you need to‑‑ you get here, you want to play well. You want to do it. You want to just take it home. You get here enough times it's like, okay, let's do this. Q. And both of the hitters here, you've got this real aggressive approach, this yes, yes, yes, no thing. How do you balance that when a pitcher is struggling like she was in the first inning, to say let's not swing at anything, give her any help? KAYLA BRAUD: Yeah, I think definitely, especially with pitchers like the Renfroes that are pretty different. You know, Ivy throws very hard, and then you have Ellen that comes and throws it a little bit off speed and mixes it up. Especially with Ivy, you want to have a good eye, but at the same time, you can't overthink it and you can't be a second late because it's going to blow by you. I thought we did a great job of swinging at good pitches. We made adjustments. We didn't do as good as we would have liked, but I think we tried to balance it very well, like you said, between taking and swinging at strikes. And I think Kendall Dawson was on it all night. A couple of forced balls, a whole different ballgame. And I thought overall, we did a pretty good job of doing that, but we've still got work to do still. CASSIE REILLY‑BOCCIA: Definitely. I think the preparation we had this week going into the game, you know, anytime you face someone who's throwing in the upper 60s, lower 70s like Ivy was, like Braud said, you need to make a quick decision. And I think when we prepared this week, we weren't overwhelmed by her speed, and I think we were able to make better decisions at the plate as far as swinging at her pitches we wanted to swing at versus swing at balls off the plate or that were too low or too high. Q. Jackie, could you talk about the seventh inning. They threw a couple of freshmen out there. I don't know if there was a book on them or if you just lost control, but can you just talk about getting through that seventh inning? JACKIE TRAINA: Yeah. You just get to the last inning, you're kind of fired up and stuff. And I've had to look back at my fundamentals. You know, I walked two, which shouldn't have happened, but I got to the next two and I just kept my composure, and I talked to‑‑ (indiscernible) came out and we just talked real quick. And just I have to go back to my fundamentals and throw good pitches and throw the pitches that I wanted to throw, and I wanted to make more movement, less speed, on the last couple. Q. Kayla and Cassie, talk about the first seven batters, reach safely, get some walks. And then specifically your bat, break the game open with a three‑run double. KAYLA BRAUD: It's been pretty clear this postseason that if Jen and I get on, things happen. And that's our goal every single game is we set the table. You have speed on base, and literally you can hit it anywhere and Jen and I are going to score. And I thought we did a great job of sticking to our game plan. We've been preparing all week for Tennessee pitchers, and we stuck to our approach and came on top and Cassie comes through with a huge clutch hit and base‑clearing double, and that's huge because if you're Tennessee, you have to dig out of a hole and nobody wants to do that. You want to start out with‑‑ I thought that was just great momentum. We wanted to come out on fire and we did. CASSIE REILLY‑BOCCIA: Definitely. Every time we play, we say we want to keep the momentum on our side. And a great way to do that is to get runs in the first inning, and Kaila Hunt has been a huge asset to our team and getting RBIs. And when I got up to the plate with the bases loaded and Ivy was pitching, honestly, I was trying to be short to the ball because I knew she would supply the power for me. I just needed to get my barrel there. And fortunately, it was able to work out and find a hole. Q. Patrick, you look at Amanda Locke's swing right now, where is she? How close is she to being where she wants to be? How far is she from where she wants to be? COACH MURPHY: I think she's close to where she wants to be a couple of weeks ago. She just missed onetonight. It seemed like a hurricane wind came up when the ball went in the air and it just went straight down to the ground. But I thought she had one there. But she's very close. She had really good at‑bats, missed one I think maybe her second at‑bat this close, and then‑‑ she's very, very close to being where she was. Q. Jackie, same question for you. Your last couple of outings you probably weren't at your best, didn't have quite the velocity. How much better did you feel you were tonight than maybe last weekend? JACKIE TRAINA: I mean, I felt good tonight. I haven't‑‑ obviously I haven't thrown in a while. So it was the first game, and you're just excited. I just gotta work on finishing it and make sure that I don't overthink on the mound. And I just think back to fundamentals and what I need to do and just throw my pitches that I have. Q. Coach, obviously you've seen plenty of the Renfroes. How much of an advantage was that? And as you look at Tennessee moving forward, does it get easier for them, do you think, having seen those pitchers? COACH MURPHY: I think so. When we were down with the SEC Tournament, it was like everybody took a deep breath and said thank God. Hopefully for the next two weekends, we won't have to see any SEC schools and end up with Georgia in Super Regionals. And nobody wants to do that. Cal and Washington had to do the same thing. But I think it's a benefit for everybody in the SEC to get away from the SEC teams. And you're right, we had a lot of film on both of them. And we were preparing for either one. And I think it is an advantage. But they know us, too. Q. (Question off microphone)? COACH MURPHY: (Indiscernible) pretty much that tonight. But you know, like, let's say it's a catcher that she can run on, teams are going to expose it quickly, and you hope that you have all your bases covered, whatever position it might be or whatever facet of the game it is. You hope that it's‑‑ here, it's‑‑ pretty much everybody's pretty good. And they're here for a reason. And they probably don't have many holes to begin with. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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