Following game three of the Women's College World Series, Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso took questions from the media. Here is what she had to say following a 2-0 loss to Washington:
It looked like on the play in the 6th that she dove and the ball popped out. What did you see from your vantage and what were you told?
"It was hard for me to see from where I was but any time Coach Lombard I goes running out to something, I know that she sees something that I don't, so I jumped in on that. I saw the ball come out after it looked like maybe she made the catch but I don't know. I don't know what -- they said that it was a 100 percent clean catch right to me. That's what the umpire said -- like I'm 100 percent sure that she made the catch, and the transfer is when the ball came out. That was what I was told."
What went into the decision of bringing Paige Parker out of the game and inserting her back in?
"It was a lead-off walk, which wasn't really the necessary -- Paige was already up into the 70s with her pitch count. This is not anything uncommon. We've done it all the time. It was almost expected. So we stand behind the decision and I think both of these pitchers threw well. Quite honestly, our defense did not -- the pitching staff did well enough to win, our defense and our hitters were not there today."
Could you talk about the hitters, because you guys were swinging it so free and easy, scoring runs seemingly at will in the regional and super regional. How do you recapture that heading into the weekend?
"I know this might sound crazy, but this road was meant to be for us and we embrace it. We've been very fortunate to win the first game the last couple years, and it sets you up nicely but this road is a different road this year and we're embracing this.
We are good at learning lessons. When we have had our losses, we've bounced back in a very, very strong way. So maybe this is necessary. And I have to tell you how impressed I was with Washington and their defense. The left side of the field was off the charts. They were outstanding and those are the kind of plays that you need to make to win championships and they did.
Man, they were really, really, really impressive. We learned. We watched. We weren't a victim of it. But we learned and we take it, and when we find, when we lose games, this team bounces back like no one I've ever seen, so this road is different, but it’s welcomed, because this group has it in them to make a run, as long as we have one pitch left, one out left, we're going for it with all we got, which we didn't necessarily look like we were doing today."
You said you had not been in this position much recently. Tomorrow, an off-day, do you grind, go escape at the mall or what do you do to flip the script?
"I'll be checking in with them and see what they want to do. It's a needed day off to refocus, get prepared for what we've got next, and from this point on, it comes at you fast, so you have to be pretty prepared because it comes fast, so we are just going to meet as a group and figure out what it is to help them be their best on Saturday and play as long as we can."
We know Gabbie had a really good game but how did the entrance of Alvelo affect the tone of the game?
"I don't think it affected us at all. We were prepared for both, so it wasn't a surprise. It wasn't, oh, my goodness. It was, let's go, let's find a way to get on. Doesn't matter who you put on the mound. We knew it was late in the game and what we did that was good was we put ourselves in a position to at least tie the game.
There was, in the sixth, with that ball that could have dropped but we were in a position to go ahead in the game. So although I think they will tell you this wasn't one of the better games, they were still putting themselves in the position to at least tie or find a way to go ahead. I don't even know if I answered your question."
