Postgame Quotes: OU v. Tennessee

Oklahoma Softball
Super Regional Postgame Quotes
May 25, 2014

Opening Statement:
“I have to start by saying we give God the glory for this win and this opportunity to play on a day of such tough competition. We saw this team come together and give it all they had freely and with determination. I'm very proud of the effort. Also, so pleased with the crowd. I can't even tell you how energized we are by the crowd and what they brought to the table. It was fun to watch them watch us. I congratulate Tennessee. I have the upmost respect for them and the coaches and their program and the way the play the game is first-class. I wasn't fond of the idea of them coming here because I know how tough they are but if we play the game and play it right, it's always going to be against Tennessee. I respect their athletes and think they're just a tremendous program which makes this even more incredible that this team of Sooners who's been kind of broken down throughout this season found a way to salvage it and pull together as a team to become one of the final eight. At one point in the season we were ranked 23rd in the nation and we were afraid that we might be knocked out of the top 25 for the first time since the inception of the top 25. We were living in that place early in February and March and to see this team work to get to the place we are now as one of the final eight and the chance to defend our title, it's just an incredible feat that I will never forget. I'm really having an emotional moment with this team because of what I saw them do.”

On Lauren Chamberlain:
“She's doing this with one leg, literally. I've never seen somebody so in tune and so confident. I don't know even know the words to describe the hitter she is because she can hit anything. Nothing rattles her, nothing makes her uncomfortable. She just thrives on pressure situations. It's very difficult to find athletes who thrive on those situations. She just leads this team by one swing and she'll come back and do it again and again and it's amazing. It's amazing how she can take herself to that place. It's something that is very rare in college or probably in any athlete.”

On the bottom half of the lineup:
“The unsung hero is Erin Miller this weekend. She swung very well. What I really enjoyed about that is we were trying to find the person to takeover for Kady Self. We gave everybody a shot and we just stuck with Erin Miller and she just excelled on the field. She made two big plays yesterday; offensively she's on fire. Moved her up to the sixth spot and she kept doing her thing. We made an adjustment with Javen Henson today and it seemed to really help her quite a bit. For her, being a senior in this environment and really contributing offensively, she was frustrated before this game even started just in BP. Giving her a plan gave her a little hope and she executed it to a T. Callie Parsons is just another performer who loves postseason and will do anything for her team. She didn't have the greatest season up to postseason but it doesn't matter. No one is going to look back and think about that. They're going to remember what she did to help us get to the world series.”

On getting the team to this point:
“It's been tough. It's been an emotional roller coaster really, in a good way because we've seen players like Kady Self. We wouldn't be in this situation without Kady. To see her tear her ACL like that was a blow to us and then Lauren goes down. Destinee Martinez started getting hot and people started stepping up to fill in the gaps until we figured out what we were going to do next. And what happened next was Lauren came back and we slowly got her in the groove of post season. You're seeing a team that it doesn't matter the situation, they just go out and they play. They do it right. They have such great expectations. You don't see them do crazy dogpiles, they just go about their business and say 'Okay we won, let's get the panel off the wall, let's bring it to Coach, let's knock her in the head with the Gatorade jug and soak her and let's get together, pray as a team, thank the fans and be on our way.' It's just very matter of fact, blue-collar. Expectations are through the roof and they stand with those expectations.”

On last night and deciding not to play:
“Both Ralph and Karen Weekly and I talked a little about if we were to go to that 'if' game, how late it would be and how we just felt that we needed to stand united and say we refuse to play for the welfare of our student-athletes who got home the night before at one in the morning and then got up to the field by one in the afternoon and now it's 11:00 and you want them to play a game, the biggest game of your career to go the world series, it's unfair. We stood up for our student-athletes and we both agreed to put rested teams on the field and let them play out the right way. We were in this situation in the College World Series playing in a national championship and I appreciate our administration backing me up on this and standing up for our student-athletes and that really was what it was about was doing what's right for them and for the fans. It's not fair to the fans; they deserve to see what a true, rested, winner-take-all , may the best team win, they deserve to see that and that's what they saw today.

“I think it's an NCAA rule that you play your 'if' game as a doubleheader. As long as you're playing it before midnight, they want you to get the game in. The circumstances of the rain delay and how do we feed these guys, it becomes that and I think when you're talking about the welfare of the athlete you have to listen. They did and I appreciate that.

On Kelsey Stevens' performance:
“I think one of the biggest weekends of her career thus far was the Texas A&M Regional and how she got hit hard and she had to keep fighting back and fighting back. That changed her and I saw that this weekend. No doubt about it, this pitcher has gone to another level; good enough to go the College World Series. I'm really proud of her and honestly this was the hardest part. The hardest part is getting to the World Series. The Super Regional is tense, it's tough. Now I think we'll see Kelsey and the rest of the Sooners just out there having a blast. I don't know that anyone expected us to be there so now we're going to have the freedom to play.”

On this team as whole:
“I have a big heart for this team and what they've done. We lost the best pitcher that probably ever played the game, or one of them, and another one in Michelle Gascoigne, one of the best catchers to ever play in this program and Brianna Turang. We lost a good core group and I think people were thinking okay rebuild, let's see what you've got, you've got no pitching. Well, Kelsey is starting to figure it out, hello Shelby Pendley pitched in high school and is winning games in Division 1 and hasn't pitched in three years. Those kind of things, those stories are just wow factors to me. Moving Georgia (Casey) to shortstop, Brittany Williams playing first base to keep us alive and Whitney Ellis just going above and beyond. It's really been a blast to see these guys just piece things together. I will never forget this group as long as I live. They've left a legacy here for what they've done and how they accomplished it."

Junior Lauren Chamberlain

On her home runs:
“She (Ellen Renfroe) was getting me with her rise ball and getting me to pop up a couple of times last night and then once today so I just knew I had to shorten up my swing and make an adjustment and get into my legs more.”

On being ranked 23rd earlier in the season:
“The start of the season is the start of the season. It's where you work out your kinks and all that stuff. At that time it was still February and coming into March I think we knew what we had to do and we set our minds to it that we weren't going to fall out of the top 25. We were going to make a stand at the end of the season and I think you're seeing that right now.”

On the bottom half of the lineup:
“It was huge. Erin (Miller), Callie (Parsons) and Javen (Henson), the way they find their way on base is just clutch. That fires up the rest of your lineup to see them get it done because you just want to get them in.”

On the chance to defend their title:
“I call it the 'promise land' because that's what it feels like. Personally, and I think the team would say the same, some of my best moments have been on that field and in that environment. It's just a special place and I'm thankful that it's in God's plan that we're going back there. I'm excited for Kelsey (Stevens) and some of our freshman that haven't been there before just to feel those feelings because it's unreal. I can't even explain it. I'm getting goosebumps and I'm really excited to be back.”

On how she's feeling after being injured:
“I think game by game it's getting more comfortable. I'm testing things out and seeing what my body lets me do and what it doesn't. We have a couple days for some good rest and rehab for me but adrenaline takes over for me in the game so I feel it more after.”

Junior Shelby Pendley

On her squeeze bunt:
“My first at-bat I walked and my second I just hit a ground ball so I was just thinking that I wanted to do the squeeze bunt. I told Coach Gasso, let's just do a squeeze right here. I'm very confident in my bunting even though I don't do it that much. That time I was just feeling a squeeze.”

Sophomore Kelsey Stevens

On her pitching:
“Really nothing changed even from yesterday. I felt like I was keeping the hitters off balance and making them work for every out. It was really the same gameplan coming in and just controlling the at-bat. I just felt really confident. I made little adjustments here and there but for the most part it was the same game plan.”

On coming back from last night's loss:
“It was tough. Any time you get a rain delay it hurts the team on both sides. You've just got to come out and be ready for that. Then with the loss, it's hard to come back from that but I think we were all ready to play that night if we had to but getting rest was good and we came back to today and came out hard and I think we did a good job.”

On her performance this weekend compared to the Regional:
“I think I had a little bit more confidence. I just made sure that I came out and on every single pitch I was working my hardest. I felt like if I let up even a little bit, then they're going to jump on you so I was just making sure that I controlled the at-bats. I feel like I've gained more confidence as time has gone on and just working with the team and it's just all coming together at once and I'm finding it at the right time.”

Tennessee Head Coach Ralph Weekly

Opening Statement:
“First of all, I'd like to say thank you to the University of Oklahoma and the NCAA and to the people who ran this tournament. I thought it ran in a fantastic manner and everything went right. I thought the umpiring, from my point of view was very good and I congratulate the University of Oklahoma because they were the best team these three days. They deserve to advance and all the credit goes to them.”

On Lauren Chamberlain:
“I've seen Lauren several summers with Team USA and she's not missing much. She's missing the speed and that takes a little out of her game because as you all know, she's a power hitter but can also drop the bunt and beat it out. She didn't look to me like she was losing much around first base and those two shots she hit today were moon shots. Lauren Chamberlain is not just a great softball player, but she's a really good kid. I knew my wife Karen got to coach her two years ago on the US team and she can't stop talking about her and what a great kid she is. They've got a great lineup, no ifs and or buts about it. I think Ellen Renfroe is a pretty good pitcher but they were too much for her these last three days.”

On the pitching form both teams:
“Kind of what happened is she (Ellen Renfroe) wasn't getting her low-rise to work. On Javen Henson, when she hit that home run, Karen turned to me and said, 'I called a low rise because when I called a fastball she hit her.' I said, 'Well if she had hit her, she'd be on first base and not walking around the bases.' I imagine she was tired. One thing I was thinking in the last inning when I was standing on third was, what a great three days Kelsey Stevens had. We didn't just fall off the tournament truck, because as coaches we went home every night and broke down every one of our batters and brought them into the room and gave them a plan. The big thing is, we told them, 'You've got to lay off the up-pitch because she's got a little hop right there at the last minute' and we still weren't able to lay off as is what happened with all the pop flys. I think she's tough and she threw really well and she deserves a ton of credit too.”

On how next year looks for the team:
“The good thing for us is the only player on the field who graduates besides Ellen, which is a big loss, is Madison Shipman. We've got a very good, highly-ranked recruiting class coming in and we're going to have eight defensive players returning. I think Rainey Gaffin is going to be a really exciting pitcher to watch; we just couldn't get her in here today because we were playing her in another position. We have a five-star caliber pitcher coming in so I think we'll be okay. I just told our kids, we finished second in the SEC, we won six of our nine series, we won our Regional going away. We've got a good team, we just ran into a better team and that's what happens in softball.”

On making the Super Regional a three-day event:
“I joined with Patty (Gasso) last night in talking to the tournament officials because I felt, like Patty did, that our teams were really tired. Some people would say, 'Well Ralph, you're hurting yourself because you've got the momentum right now,' but I've played in those late games before and that momentum lasts about 15 to 20 minutes and then the sleep sets in. I think we did the right thing and we came back today and gave both teams a chance to show what they had. I hope we go to that and I know [NCAA representative] Paula [Young] was instrumental in making that happen. I am not upset that we came back today. I think it was the right move for the athletes. I don't think that we play at 11:00 at night in any of the other sports. We do have legislation in with the NFCA and sometimes it takes a year to get the funding, but as a coach I look for us to go to a three-day series, which I think is fair for the women.”

Players Mentioned

Lauren Chamberlain

Michelle Gascoigne

Javen Henson

Javen Henson

Destinee Martinez

Destinee Martinez

Erin Miller

Erin Miller

Callie Parsons

Callie Parsons

Shelby Pendley

Kady Self

Kady Self

Kelsey Stevens

Brianna Turang

Brittany Williams

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics