NDSU 1, OU 0 Postgame Quotes

OKLAHOMA HEAD COACH PATTY GASSO

On the Sooner hitting...
"I am a little bit baffled right now. I think we came out a little bit tight yesterday. We had a game plan about midway through the game to make changes and look for certain things. We did that and you could see, and we started hitting the ball harder. We just couldn't get anything to fall. We had chances to win today, we had chances to win late yesterday and at this stage of the game when you are in postseason, championship teams find ways to do that. I don't care if it is a ball that goes off the wall or finds a spot in the outfield. We need to find ways to get it done and we didn't."

On the road ahead in the elimination bracket...
"We have a big chore ahead of us. This team is capable of it. We have to believe we can do it. I am expecting them to come out and just take it to somebody. They have to be able to swing the bats. Our pitchers did a very good job of holding their own for 10 innings. We had two hits in a 10 inning game and still had chances to win."

On North Dakota State...
"I give 100 percent credit to (Andi) Padilla. I thought she threw fantastic. The scouting report on North Dakota State was to a "T". It said they do not beat themselves, you have to beat them. That is exactly what happened. We couldn't beat them. They did their job over and over and they beat us. They were the better team. In those 10 innings they were the better team. We just have to go back to the drawing board and just keep fighting."

On Padilla's change of pace style pitching...
"When you start this tournament there are nerves and that is the last style of pitching you want to see because you really want to tee off on somebody. Her mixing of speeds was really frustrating this team. I think that it was a tough situation and we just couldn't get any momentum. It was me deciding do you lay down a bunt with your best hitters just to get somebody into scoring position or do you hope they hit it over the fence, which hasn't happened in awhile. I was trying to give us opportunities to do anything we could to win. Lindsey (Vandever) hit the ball hard, but we kept putting balls in the air trying to hit that off speed over the second fence versus turning the swing into a base hit style swing, which is what you need to do when you face that kind of style of pitcher. They are frustrated, they are a little discouraged right now, but they will come back ready to play. I trust that."

On loss being a wake-up call...
"It better be. We played pretty well in that role this season and that is of the underdog. We got the host, we got the seed and everything was great and we just didn't do our jobs. So now we are definitely the underdogs. Are we going to be able to step up to that role? We have most of the season so it now or never. Either you do it or you don't. These guys are fighters and I believe they will come through."

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From Friday, May 15 after game was suspended in 10th inning...

OKLAHOMA HEAD COACH PATTY GASSO

On the game...
"It was an intense game. The pitcher did a great job of keeping us off balance, and just really handcuffing us and baffling us. Everything we tried just wasn't quite working. We had our chance there right at the very end and couldn't get a ball hit. If Karolyne's (Long) ball would have gone a foot to the left and gone up the middle we aren't sitting here. But there is a reason this is happening and this team is going to have to come back to fight for this. Coming back gives us a fresh start and allows us to kind of shake this and start all over."

On Amber Flores' bunt in the ninth inning...
"We have capable hitters. I had a chance to do that earlier and I didn't. Now we are in the ninth and we haven't had a runner on second all day. I had to do it. I felt like I had to put somebody on second and I knew also they were going to take the bat out of Sam's (Rickett) hands. With a runner on second and two shots to get a base hit with Katie (Norris) and Lindsey (Vandever) was worth the risk for me because of hindsight. I wasn't doing much bunting and trusting that these guys were going to start hitting the ball hard. I know Amber and I know she can, but in this situation going in to the ninth, we had one hit. It was trying to put us in a position to win just by not counting on Amber to hit one over the fence."

On North Dakota State's pitcher...
"She really did a good job of keeping us guessing. She has us really off balance and throwing a good change up; and we were thinking about it and leaving some good pitches over the plate. We had a better game plan. Probably around the fourth inning we started to change our game plan and started to see our strikeouts cut down and us hit the ball a little but harder. She threw a screwball, curveball, screwball up. We didn't really chase them; it was kind of a waste pitch. She was very deceptive with her speed. She could throw a pitch 45, and then go 51, then 55 and 47. It's all over the place. It was very tough. We haven't seen somebody with so much ability to pull the string on her speeds like that so it was obviously very effective for them."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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