Oklahoma vs. Louisiana-Lafayette Postgame Quotes

Oklahoma Head Coach Patty Gasso

Opening Statement:
“I'm very proud of this team. I thought we came out ready to play against an outstanding Lafayette team. We knew we were going to have our hands full, so we really felt like we needed to send a message early in the game, and I think they did a really good job of execution. I think all parts of our game are working tonight, and when that happens, we're really good. Paige [Parker] did a good job of containing one of the best and most powerful offenses in the country. Our defense made great plays. Specifically, a game changer for us was Nicole Pendley's play in the outfield that squashed a potential big rally. And offensively, throughout the lineup, these guys did a really fantastic job with execution. I think late in the game those big home runs for insurance was extremely crucial for us. With ULL, you're never out of the woods because of what they can do offensively. I'm very proud of the way they came out and attacked early in the game specifically.”

On her thoughts after the first homerun:
“Nothing. You almost wait and inspect it and not let it overtake you or bother you. When you look at their numbers, they almost have double the amount of home runs than they do doubles. Personally, it's something I've never seen. You just be patient. It happens. Just trust your team can answer it. Our team does a really good job when somebody else scores. They scored in the first, we scored three. They scored in the sixth, we scored three. They know how to do that. They take pride in that. We just can't get caught up in that. We can't. Not with this team because they're going to do those things.”

On the offensive game plan early on in the game:
“I think each hitter had a different idea of what they wanted to do. I think that [Alex] Stewart does a good job of moving the ball around, obviously, and has got a very good changeup. Each hitter had her own plan. It's hard for me to say in general because they're all so different. It's not one big team plan, every player has their own style of what they want to do when they're at the plate.”

On coming back after they scored:
“I think it was very important. The hardest thing to do when you're in this setting is be the first pitcher on the mound. It's just not easy. I'm almost not even surprised that they scored just because you have a pitcher who's got to try to set the tone early, has a little bit of nerves and so forth. The way this team came back to answer. Our attitude is just that they are going to throw punches and we've just got to keep throwing punches back. It's like a heavyweight fighter and we're kind of the one that jabs and moves and jabs and moves and they just want to catch us and knock us out with their heavy punches. That's kind of what it feels like. I think just continuing to apply pressure with elements of surprises and different areas and things we were trying to do. We have everything to gain and nothing to lose right now. We don't look at the seed and thing 'we should be winning, we expect to be winning.' We expect to win, they expect to win. Just because we're the three seed, doesn't mean we're going to. You've really got to go to work on these things. This team, throughout the whole season, has been impeccable with their execution of things that I'm calling. That's really the difference.”

On the defense:
“I think I'm kind of awestruck because they're young, more than anything. They're doing this and they're freshmen and they're doing this as sophomores. It's not like a super veteran team. These are just young athletes that love to play and have learned a lot and they're just laying everything, and this is what we talked about, you lay everything you have on the field after every game. There will be no regrets, no looking back. They were very focused tonight on defense. They looked real smooth.”

On the personality of the team:
“I think I've learned, personally, a lot as a coach this year specifically. I've not such a young group in a long time. They respond to less from a coach. I'll give them the information and if ever there's not a lot of effort, you'll hear from me, but mistakes you don't hear me say a lot about because I know they're prideful enough to want to fix them. So when you see them dancing, I'm standing in the corner of the dugout looking down and doing something different. They want to have fun. This game is about fun. It keeps them loose. As long as it is appropriate and the team enjoys doing it, I'm not going to stop it.”

On ULL's Coach Michael Lotief:
“We've been around each other for a long time. There is absolutely mutual respect. He does a phenomenal job. He brings the fans. He's really created something special down in Lafayette. I've been around that program. I'm a very good friend of Yvette Girouard when she was there. Seeing what Michael and Stefni have created and maintained. That's the hardest thing about softball at this level is to maintain excellence and he does that. He has a different style of swing that everybody sees and it works for him. His players love the game and they're intense and he's intense. We love each other off the field. On the field, there's gamesmanship going on for sure because we're both competitors. In the end, there's always a hug and a 'congrats.' We truly respect each other that way.”

Senior Erin Miller

On the offense at beginning of the game:
“I think what's really important about the small ball is that when you have a big home run in the first inning, you don't want to try to do too much as an offense. I think we just tried to put some pressure on their defense. We came out pretty confident and strong in the bottom of the first.”

On whether or not she thinks they caught them by surprise:
“I do. I think we didn't want to try to do too much. We didn't try to swing for the big bomb. We just tried to stick to our game plan that we've had the entire year, which is put pressure on the infield, put pressure on the outfield, and just run. Run, run, run. I think we did a good job of it. Leah [Wodach]'s bump, I think of specifically, was super clutch. Yeah, I think it worked for us.”

On Nicole Pendley's catch:
“I think it's about getting big jumps. I think we work really hard as an outfield to get early reads, so we can cover as much ground as possible, especially with a team like this that hits the ball hard in play and gives the outfield a lot of balls. Nicole did a great job in just getting a really early jump and just being quick to the ball.”

On the light-hearted attitude that the team has:
“We try to not let our personalities dissolve in pressure situations because I think that's what makes our team fun and allows us to stay loose in big games like that. I think just allowing our personalities to shine no matter what the situation is really important for this team. I think it's something that's going to carry us a long way.”

Freshman Fale Aviu

On her early at bats:
“I think it was just not getting too big with it. Knowing my plan, sticking to my plan, and knowing not to do too much: just getting a base hit.”

On her double:
“I think it just gave us more momentum. It helped us push more and just really helped, yeah.”

Sophomore Pitcher Paige Parker

On her thoughts after the first home run:
“Just answer after that homerun and just try to limit anything else happening in that inning. I know my defense would be there to back me up behind me. So, just kind of settling in after that first batter and going after them.”

On how she refocuses after a home run:
“I mostly stay within myself. Leah [Wodach] comes out and just told me to refocus and start over. I get frustrated with myself after a home run, so it's kind of answering myself and saying 'Well, answer that and don't let them do it again.'”

On knowing the defense will back her up and how it affects her:
“That was a fantastic catch by Nicole [Pendley] in a really big and crucial situation. Another defensive play I can think about was the double play that Kelsey Arnold turned. That was really a big turning point in our game. I think defense was just outstanding tonight and they were awesome.”

On ULL's offense:
“I have a lot of respect for their offense. They are all very, very tough outs. It's just trying to keep them off balance the best I can, but I definitely respect their offense a lot.”

On her changeup pitch tonight:
“I thought my changeup was a very important pitch for me tonight. It was just going after them with that pitch. Like you said, with the soft hit balls our defense did a great job of making really great plays on those balls as well.”

ULL HEAD COACH MICHAEL LOTIEF

Opening statement:
“Congratulations to the Sooners in game one. Hopefully now our kids can get some rest and start thinking about what adjustments we need to make. [It was a] great environment and a good team on the other side, and we know tomorrow we have to be at our very best, and that's what we need to do. We need to lock in, set our resolve and fight as hard as we can fight. It's going to take everybody, every pitch for 14 innings. We've got to be ready for 14 innings tomorrow, and we have to lock in and we have to be ready to go. At this stage of the game, that's what it's about. It's about whose resolve is stronger. I trust my kids. They've been resilient all year. I look forward to a great challenge in front of us tomorrow.”

On what he was thinking when they were down 5-1:
“We've been down before during the year, but it's not the situation you want to be in, but you can't change your mindset, and you can't change your approach. I mean, you heard what [Haley Hayden and Kara Gremillion] said, and I think that's the right mindset—that you just continue to battle hoping for some traffic and the right person in the right situation coming through. I thought our kids had some good at-bats today.”

On how pitcher Alex Stewart needs to prepare for tomorrow:
“They've got a good offense and some really good hitters. It's not so much what [Stewart] has to do… We wanted to play better defense, obviously. I know y'all realize y'all have the best coach in the world, in the country. She's the best coach in the game. She's so smart, and that offense is so diversified. She can prep them from day No. 1 with her short game, hit and run, power. This team has shown—she's got a young team—Patty's the best coach in the country to me. What do we have to do? Maybe we hijack her, lock her in her car or something, bring her some étouffée, and maybe she'll have a little mercy on us. Maybe you can tell me, what should we do? You watch her more than me. You know that they're good. We've got to show up and compete. Hopefully, Alex, our team, our defense rises to that level that they don't just sit here. You ask about the environment, it's a great environment. It's a great college environment. It's what this kid [Haley Hayden] says they dream about since they were 12, so take advantage of it. They'll come out here tomorrow and have some fun and compete. Let's see what happens. I don't like losing. I hate to lose. This team has only lost seven games all year. It stings. It stings when you lose this late in the season, but we've got to find a way to just keep competing and keep fighting, and sometimes it's OK to tip your hat to your opponent.”

On if this Super Regional matchup is similar to past games they've competed in:
“It's a three-game series now. You can't write the script. We're going to have to have some better at-bats, obviously. We've talked about that already. We have to play some better defense. I thought our kids played relaxed. I thought our kids played with some edge. I thought we had some good at-bats. I thought we made some good adjustments as the game went. Obviously, we need to make some better adjustments, but we can play with them. We can play with this team. We're going to have to be at our best. We're going to have to be at our best tomorrow. We're going to have to be at our very best tomorrow. That's why this bracket is set up the way that it is. They want the best eight teams in Oklahoma City. If we're going to be there, we're going to have to be at our best tomorrow, so let's see if we can do it.”

JUNIOR SECOND BASEMAN HALEY HAYDEN

On her lead-off homerun at the start of the game:
“I guess I was just going up there. I was looking for a pitch to hit. I was trying to get on base, lead the game off with a base hit and let the people behind me hit me in. I saw a pitch I like and I took a hack, I guess.”

On the challenge of facing OU pitcher Paige Parker:
“I think we just have to stay true to our plan. We have to go up there and attack the pitches that we want and then leave some other stuff away, but we just have to go up there, trust our plan and trust our coaches and execute.”

On facing Paige Parker's changeup:
“It's the same thing. We just have to go up there and trust our plan. We can't think about what she's doing, worry about what she's doing. We have to go up there, trust ourselves, execute how we know how to execute and just go up there and take it pitch by pitch.”

On the environment:
“It was exciting. We're used to that. Back home, we have a pretty big, crazy fan base. It was exciting. You grow up as a 12-year-old little girl wanting to play in these kind of environments, go out there with the crowd cheering for you or cheering against you. It was exciting to take field and see everybody out there, and it just made it a fun game to play.”

FRESHMAN THIRD BASEMAN KARA GREMILLION

On what the team was thinking when they were down 5-1:
“We definitely never thought we were out of it. We just were trying to make adjustments and keep focusing on our plan and take it pitch by pitch rather than looking at the whole game, and we always believed that we were still in the game.”

On if they were surprised by OU's bunting in the first inning:
“No, we weren't surprised. We knew that they were just going to put the ball in play and make us make the plays.”

On staying focused in big games:
“I just listen to all of my teammates and all the older girls. They've really helped in preparing me for these big games and just telling me to play against the ball, not focus on who we're playing.”