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NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 5, 2012Jennifer FentonKaila HuntAmanda LockePatrick MurphyJackie TrainaOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA Alabama – 8 THE MODERATOR: Joining us from Alabama we have head coach Patrick Murphy, and student‑athletes Jennifer Fenton, Kaila Hunt, Amanda Locke, and Jackie Traina. We'll start with a comment from Coach. COACH MURPHY: Well, I think everybody, 20 players stuck to a plan that we decided to do this morning, and everybody was locked in and ready to go. Couldn't be more proud of the team. This is what we've been working for. Me, for 16 years, but these guys for four years. I'm excited. I wish we could play right now. Q. Coach and Amanda, two‑out hitting today, two of your four hits were with two outs. Can you talk about that? And Amanda, can you talk about your big hit today? COACH MURPHY: One was Jackie. It was the right person at the right time. She was pretty hot. I think she was confident right now as a hitter, and got a really good shot. Then Amanda was the exact opposite. But she never stops believing in herself. I don't. She got a really good pitch and she hammered it for a double as well. That's two hits, six runs. You never know when that's going to happen. You know, they left a ton of people on base yesterday. We come up with two hits to score six runs. So it's a strange game of softball. AMANDA LOCKE: Just go out there and we have the bases loaded. Coach was like just do your thing. We're just working on shoring up and seeing the ball and getting a lot of changes lately, so I've kind of been sitting on that a little bit more. Had my eyes open for that a little more. She gave me one, and I stayed down on my legs and got it. Q. Kaila, can you talk about the hip‑hop pitches, and was that part of the game plan or did that just happen? KAILA HUNT: It wasn't part of the game plan, that's for sure. But, again, I'll take it, I guess. We had the game plan, and I stuck with it. I just she just got a little too tight. Q. Jennifer, even though y'all didn't get a run in the first inning, how important was it to get something going and get people on the bases after last night? JENNIFER FENTON: We just wanted to get the momentum going our way. That's all we wanted to do. In the first inning, we came out and wanted to attack them, set the tone for the rest of the game, even though Kaila and I didn't get it on. We saw a lot of pitches and were able to fight, get a lot of pitches and pitch a lot of pitches in the first inning. You could tell in our face, we were not going to go down easy. Q. Patrick, what was the game plan that you decided to come up with this morning? COACH MURPHY: Nice try, Holly. I will say though that Kaila had the best three out performance at Alabama. If you could see her eyes in the first inning, they looked like AJ McCarron, and the BCS Championship game. She was‑‑ she led us tonight at the plate. Like Jen said, they were 1 for 9, but they saw a lot of pitches, fouled out, a lot of pitches and made her work really hard. Q. Patrick and Jackie, you guys have the finish it wrist bands. Is tomorrow the ultimate of that? COACH MURPHY: Definitely. It's something that the seniors, the girls came up with maybe at the beginning of the semester. When we leave our hitting facility, they've got a sign, and there's basically a hand print. And it says finish it. Everybody slaps that hand print as they walk out into the field every day. That sign also comes with us, another one comes with us in the dugout. If you were on the field side, you could see it in the dugout, but that would be the ultimate finishing it this season. JACKIE TRAINA: Yeah, Jordan Patterson had a bunch made, and that was cool for her to do that. It just means every game‑‑ yesterday it was it's not over yet. Today it's like it's not over yet. So it's the perfect time to finish it right now. So tomorrow's going to be the day. Q. Jackie, can you take us through that seventh inning? Were you worried at any point or were you able to stay calm? JACKIE TRAINA: I was able to stay calm. They just capitalized on a couple of‑‑ I thought the home run was an inside pitch. She was looking for it, but hats off to her, it was a great hit. You've got to stop the bleeding. Cass looks at me like stop it right here. New inning. There is no one on base. Start over right here. And Kendall came out to me, and she always makes me smile and can put a lot of fire in my heart with the stuff that she says. But I knew it was going to happen. I knew we were going to get out of it. I didn't have a doubt in my mind. Q. Did you feel like you got a little bit too comfortable with the 8‑1 lead going in the 7th inning? JACKIE TRAINA: I didn't feel like I was comfortable. I just had to step back, take a breather and finish it. Q. How much of this day was spent on that plan on watching film and talking about the game? How much did you just turn the players loose to be on their own time? COACH MURPHY: Well, we let them sleep in.  It's been a couple of late nights. It will be late one tonight as well. I know both Aly, Steph and I all watched video. We watched the replay probably several times. Then I called a couple buddies, and just asked what they saw, and just get a couple other opinions. Then at batting practice, everybody bought in. I think it was Braud that actually said 20 people need to buy in, and let's do this. I thought definitely everybody bought in. Q. Coach, a follow‑up with Jackie. Really quick question. A few weeks ago you held Jackie out of the batting order, and wanting to rest her. I don't know if it helped with her pitching as well. In retrospect you could say it was a good move. But is there anything tangible you can see with how she's hit here in Oklahoma City, and Jackie, if you could follow up on that? COACH MURPHY: That time when I held her out, she had a little bit of an injury. That was the only reason. I would rather have her pitch right now than hit. That day was the exact same reason. But ever since then, she's been really hitting well, and she's been timely. She's been two outs, no outs. She started off innings. She's done a great job with her bat the last two or three weeks. JACKIE TRAINA: Just with the good pitching that we have here, I'm just thinking about putting the ball in play because good things happen when you put it in play. I've changed a couple of things. Little adjustments that I needed to do, and I'm seeing the ball well now. So I'm making due with what I've got. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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