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NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESMay 30, 2013Gabby BandaTatum EdwardsEmily LockmanRhonda RevelleBrooke ThomasonOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA NEBRASKA – 3 THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Nebraska. We have head coach, Rhonda Revelle, and student‑athletes, Gabby Banda, Tatum Edwards, Emily Lockman, and Brooke Thomason. We'll start with an opening comment from Coach and open the floor with questions. COACH REVELLE: I have a couple of things to say. You know, today, we didn't have perfect execution, but we had perfect‑‑ what we've had all year‑‑ we've had perfect heart for the game, perfect purpose, perfect in the way that we played hard for each other and that we were all in it together, pitch for pitch. I'm just really proud of these young women sitting next to me that aren't in this room. I think that people got to get a taste of what Nebraska softball is about. We haven't been about the scoreboard all year. We're not going to start being about the scoreboard now. But I'll tell you, we are resilient; we're pesky. We have gigantic hearts, and we love the game and really love one another. I said it last week that I'm a blessed coach to be able to spend my days with this group. Q. Rhonda, in the seventh, Armstrong beats out a grounder to short and is safe, then she tries to steal to second when you have Mattie on deck. Did somebody miss a call for a hit‑and‑run, or did Armstrong just take off? Explain that play to me? COACH REVELLE: You know, I understand the question and I know it's going to happen, and out of respect for our athletes and our coaches, I just don't‑‑ I would rather not‑‑ there was miscommunication, but it was miscommunication in about seven different directions. Seriously, sometimes things like that happen, and our kids are playing hard and coaches are coaching hard. It just happened. Q. Brooke, going back to the flyball in the seventh inning, the line drive, would you play differently, if you could? BROOKE THOMASON: (No Microphone). Q. Did you think you could when you went up there, or did you think about letting it drop and play it safe for a single instead of a triple? How did you think about approaching it when you went to it? BROOKE THOMASON: I wanted to get it. That's all. Q. Emily, you struck out two the first times up, second time, the home run. What was different or what happened? EMILY LOCKMAN: She just adjusted and she won that at‑bat. I mean, I went all out and she went all out, and she just got the win. Q. Coach, can you just talk about Emily? She came in such a difficult situation there, two men on, one out. For a freshman, I mean, she handled the situation awesome. COACH REVELLE: She's actually a sophomore now. Q. Either way, she still handled it pretty well. COACH REVELLE: She was Emily, and Emily‑‑ that's her goal is to go out and be who she is, and she did that. On this stage sometimes that's a challenge, but she did it, and she did it masterfully. Yeah, she came in and got us out of a huge inning right there. Q. Emily, can you just talk about your mindset coming into that situation? EMILY LOCKMAN: Really, I was just trying to hold it down. I knew that Tatum had been doing a good job and I was coming in, so I knew I had to get outs and that's really all I was trying to do. Q. Rhonda, couple of times you walked Inglesby intentionally and got the four or five hitters out. Did you want to avoid her and I guess eventually Souza got it. COACH REVELLE: Yeah, she's a great hitter anyway and she's been hitting well. Not that she's ever not hit well. I just felt like we were going to make somebody else have to do it, because she's kind of that kid on their team. Q. Tatum, you had some early walks and then you got back on track and had the 1, 2, 3 inning and then things were looking good for you then the walks came back. What happened meantime there? TATUM EDWARDS: I found a groove there, and it was just things that happened and things started not really going my way. There wasn't anything that really happened differently. I think it was just they were watching balls go by and they did a good job of adjusting on me. I think I pretty much had no mindset. Nothing had changed on my part. They just did a better job of watching balls go by. Q. Coach, do you worry about the way you lost? Do you worry about the resolve of this team at all moving forward to Saturday? COACH REVELLE: Absolutely not, no. That's never been a question all year. What I said to them in the locker room is we're a team that's still learning every day. I've said that every day. Didn't matter if it was January, February, March or May. And we've used every one of our losses and moved forward and gotten better from it. For this group to be on this stage, all of them for the first time, I thought they handled it well, and I thought they had a good approach going in. I thought they appeared the same in the dugout. Their pre‑game was the same. But now we've got one game under our belt, so it's just time to keep playing ball and do what we do and stay together. Not really changing how we've approached this whole year. Q. Gabby, kind of in the middle innings there, you had a bases out, no loaded jam, and came back with the double‑play. How much was kind of turning the momentum around for you guys a little bit? Was there a lull there prior to that? GABBY BANDA: Yeah, our double‑plays are always momentum changers because that's exciting for us to do on the defense and help our pitchers out that way. But I think throughout the game, I don't think we ever‑‑ obviously, momentum shifts during the game, but I feel like our team stays together and we try to keep momentum within ourselves. So I think any out that we get I feel like is momentum for our defense, so it's good. Q. Gabby, just your thoughts on bouncing back after a frustrating loss? GABBY BANDA: It's always a heartbreaker, but we're not going to be fazed by it. We're going to accept what happened and get past it and our thoughts are on the next game. We're going to not dwell on this. We're not going to forget about it, but we're just going to keep moving forward. Q. Brooke, today you guys kind of had to rely on an error, a passed ball, different things. How do you stream together hits and execute like Coach said? BROOKE THOMASON: I think we're really good on executing on other team's mistakes, and we like to take advantage of that as much as we can. So we were able to do that today at the plate. But also with the hitting, our hitting coach has us work on different things throughout the game with different pitchers. So I think collectively we were able to adjust when we had the new pitcher come in, and we just weren't able to get the last couple runs. Q. So when you go into Saturday, is it just a deal where you'll put the pressure on whoever you'll play? BROOKE THOMASON: Yeah, our offense puts a lot of pressure on the other team's defense. So we're a strong hitting team, and we'll be able to bounce back. COACH REVELLE: I think Inglesby is a first team All‑American. So it's not like you're facing chump change out here in pitching. This is the time, executing a bunt, moving a runner, taking an extra base, scoring on a passed ball. This is what this part of the season is all about because we're down to the final eight. So the fact that we're playing an extra-inning game, a one‑run ballgame in the College World Series and playing and doing some things well, wishing we had some things we could take back, yet we're still playing hard and still invested. I think Eugene Lenti said it a few years ago, there is not a bad day at the College World Series. So we're going to watch this next game and see who we're going to be playing and be ready to go. This team fights. This team fights. My phone has blown up over the last few weeks because this team fights. Q. How much of that execution was on your side and how much was it just facing the best in the country? COACH REVELLE: Well, I don't know how to put percentages to that. I mean, yes, I mean, seriously. It's even like on that squeeze bunt it had some air time, but we were back a little bit with that kid, and it just dropped. They had their fattest runner at third, fastest runner in the game on their team at third. So it's just one of those things. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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