Everything Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso said after Sooners beat Tennessee in WCWS
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Patty Gasso has seen her share of drama over the course of 31 seasons at the helm of the Oklahoma softball program, including 15 trips to the Women's College World Series.
Even she hadn't seen anything like what her Sooners accomplished Thursday.
Oklahoma won with a walk-off, two-out, three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat Tennessee in both teams' WCWS opener, 4-3. It was just their fifth hit of the day off of Vols ace Karlyn Pickens. It was a remarkable win that even had Patty Gasso struggling to find the words.
Here's everything the Gasso had to say in her post-game press conference.
Patty Gasso Opening Statement
"Wow. It’s speechless when you’re down there. When you’re a team that’s just struggling to find a way to get on base. I thought Tennessee pitched outstanding. One thing we noticed - and I’m just going to be really honest - I was watching people leave the game. And it was in the seventh. I kind of shared that with the team. Not that that had anything to do with anything, but people thought we were done. One thing, if you’re watching us through the season, we’re never done. You give us one extra strike, one extra pitch and we’re going to find something out of it. Usually Ella is on the end of that. I’m really proud of her in those big moments of really locking it down, locking in. You could feel we were gaining a little bit of momentum. We started playing really good defense, getting those double plays and shutting them down when they had scoring opportunities. We just needed to stay in the game. As long as we could and give ourselves a chance. Whether it’s in the fifth, the fourth, the seventh or the ninth. As long as we have one swing left, we have life."
On the surprise Thursday provided
"I can hear them out there. Still, everybody is on a high here. This team, this surprised me. So much so that I lost myself for a minute and I’m probably going to regret that. I felt it. We weren’t so great today, I think they’d tell you. We were just kind of letting the early score kind of damper our spirits a bit. We were making uncharacteristic mistakes. Things like that. But once we scored, kind of felt something. We’d get a couple runners in scoring position, it would kind of die out. It was really getting frustrating. But there’s something about this. We’re so blessed on this platform. These guys do have faith and they believe in their abilities. It surprised me today. But sometimes it just makes you smile. Like there’s no way you just did that."
On Parker's ability
"It’s extreme belief in herself and extreme focus in what she’s trying to do. I don’t think she’s up there trying to hit a home run. She’s trying to make solid contact. That’s the good part of it. If she’s trying to hit a home run, she’ll pop it up a mile high. It was just really setting herself up. She had already done it so she kind of knew what she needed or what she was looking for. It was a tough situation to pitch in, as well, because you knew what was at stake. I think Ella kind of took advantage of that. "
On Parker's overcoming adversity this season
"If you knew, and I won’t share all of it, but this is a young lady that still is in pain. You don’t look at it and think ‘oh, she’s swing great.’ She’s really taken a mental turn on how to be there present for her team. When this is done, like right now she feels nothing. None of us. We’re kind of floating around here right now. When we get back to the hotel, she’s going to be hurting extremely. She’s been really handling it like no one I’ve seen. It’s really, really been tough for her. She really, truly says it from her heart. It’s for the team. These guys have become really close. They’ve felt, they’re underdogs, but they never say that. They never say they’re underdogs. They never say they’re underdogs, but they think that people don’t completely believe in them because they’re so new to the program. They just keep proving otherwise.
On defense's big plays to keep OU in the game
"They love, love, love defense so much that my shoulder, my knee, everything is falling apart because we just have to hit them groundballs constantly. They’re all great hitters, but a lot of them, if you ask them what they like better, they’ll say defense. They believe, and I believe, defense wins championships. We had our backs against the wall and we’re rolling double plays to get out of it and keeping ourselves in the game. Coach Roach is coming over and asking ‘I don’t know. I think we might need to make a change.’ A lot of things, just keep us within two runs. The defense did that. Uncharacteristic mistake with (Kasidi Pickering). She’d tell you that. I know she didn’t feel great about that. The infield. Hannah Coor’s play was an absolute momentum changer. That really saved the game for us because they were about ready to go off. Those guys swing really, really well. These primetime defensive plays brought momentum to our dugout."
On the importance of winning the opener
"Absolute bear to try, almost impossible (to lose and keep playing into the title game). I remember that. I don’t remember the year, but it was us and Florida State losing our first games here and playing every game you could possibly play to get to the national championship game together in different brackets. It is very, very difficult. It is exhausting to the point where you’re like ‘I feel uncomfortable with how these players look. They're completely out of gas.’ Thankfully, we’ve added more off days. Winning the first game sets you up. Sets you up. It’s really, really important. I think this team doesn’t even know that. We’ve talked about it and they don’t listen. They just do their thing. Now that they know they get a day off, they’re going to celebrate harder than they did when the ball got hit over the fence. They like their rest. It’s a big blessing for their team."
On how 'clutchness' is found
"I think you witnessed it right there. Again, it’s where your heart is. Your heart wants to do it for your team, for your program, maybe even for your coaches. You’re bought in. You’re bought into what you’re doing and you’re going to do anything you can to do it the right way. That’s what I love about this team is that they’ll sell out for you. They don’t care. They don’t care what the score is. They’ll just keep fighting until they get there and they’ve proven that."
On the difficulty of hitting Tennesse pitcher Karlyn Pickens
"Our preparation is almost ridiculous. We’re putting up the machines at like 80 miles an hour. A machine can’t even pitch that hard. We’re trying a little bit of everything. We were really trying to stay off the ball up, stay off the changeups, and just really try to attack early, early, early in the count. We drew some important walks. I’ve not seen, nor have they seen, speed like this except from her. It’s tough. It’s hard to train for. Ella, I call her a professional hitter. I think she’s got a beautiful, pure swing. She knows how to get there short. She can handle. She’s someone, Pick can handle that speed. A couple others can. And others were trying to. It just timed up perfectly. Timing. That’s just the blessings we continue to get on this platform."
On discussion to not pull Landry in late innings
"There was a little talk between coach Rocha and I about KD because KD had a pretty good go against them. Sam just was falling behind in counts so we were talking a bit. But she kept getting outs. Started getting more groundball outs for us later in the game. Conversations with her is just steady. Steady. Stay steady. Stay with it. ‘How are you feeling?’ ‘Oh, I get so mad at myself.’ ‘Ok, bring it back. Bring it back.’ Again, pitchers don’t want to let down their team. It’s emotions. Pitchers deal with a lot. They deal with a lot of that emotion, high and lows. She gutted it out today."
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This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso's post-game remarks after being Tennessee
