2025 WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

May 29, 2025

Jamie Trachsel

Angelina DeLeon

Aliyah Binford

Ole Miss Rebels

Postgame Press Conference

Texas Tech 1, Ole Miss 0

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from Coach Trachsel.

JAMIE TRACHSEL: Yeah, proud of our fight today. I thought Aliyah did an incredible job in the circle. Got our defense involved right away, especially sometimes that helps, just moving around in the big environment for the first time being out here. So I thought she gave us a lot of balls that we can make early, and really throughout the game. Had some big pitches in big moments.

And obviously NiJa is tough. She's done that to a lot of people. She'll probably continue to do that. She'll do that to some other teams here. So give her some credit for throwing a great game.

I was proud of the battle. We had our chance in that sixth inning. Couldn't quite get one, but obviously it's double-elimination so we'll flip this page pretty quick, like we have done in the past, and get ready for our opponent tomorrow.

NiJa threw a great game, and I thought Aliyah was incredible. Defense played great, and it came down to one miscue and not getting that one run across the board.

But we'll be ready tomorrow and excited that we get a short -- not real long that we have to sit on it and can come back tomorrow.

Q. Just wanted to ask, facing a pitcher like NiJa, how do you try to, you know -- when she's pitching the way she is, how do you try to deal with that and try to generate any sort of offense?

ANGELINA DeLEON: Just keeping it simple. We know she's got real stuff going in there. True up and a lot of us chase. So what? We told ourselves we're not going to go out without a fight.

That last at-bat I told myself battle, battle for my teammates, get on. Find a way. Unfortunately we didn't get the job done, but we'll come back.

Q. Not many people expected you guys to even be here, beat Arkansas in supers. How are you going to try to use that same mindset coming back from the odds and turn this into a deep run here?

ALIYAH BINFORD: I think we're going to do the same thing we have done all season. This team, I mean, we've won the same amount of games as every team has here. So I don't know why that's something that continues to be said.

I think we deserve to be here. We beat Arkansas four out of six times. But we're going to keep playing. The moment is not going to be too big for us. We have a short memory. We're going to come back tomorrow and do the same thing. We're going to play.

ANGELINA DeLEON: I agree. It's a big stage. It's the Women's College World Series. Everybody wants to be here, but I think we deserve it and same thing. We're going to come back and play the softball we know how and give it to them tomorrow.

Q. Just for both the players, obviously not the outcome that you wanted this evening, but can you describe what it was like just to be in the stadium and what that means to both of you?

ALIYAH BINFORD: Yeah, obviously I've played here before. Not in this environment, obviously, but it felt really good to be with my team, worked really hard. We were having fun the entire time. We just enjoyed being able doing what we love the most and what we worked so hard for.

ANGELINA DeLEON: It's truly a blessing and a dream come true just to be in this stadium and compete. We're going to fight together. So just amazing. There's really no words to describe it.

THE MODERATOR: Any more questions for players? Thank you, players. You're dismissed.

Questions for Coach?

Q. I just wanted to ask, Aliyah, again, pound for pound was competing with NiJa. Kept you guys in the game the entire time. What can you say about her performance, especially on a stage like this that she had never been on before, the team had not been on before?

JAMIE TRACHSEL: I don't know that she's competing against NiJa. Obviously we're trying to keep the game close because she doesn't give up a lot of runs. The big thing about Aliyah is she just has a warrior's mentality. So kind of that saying ignore the noise, surrender to everything you can't control and what other people are thinking or what the script is supposed to say.

She just has an elite mentality. I think that allows her to stay in her space. She did an incredible job. We thought it was a great match-up. She came off a tremendous performance against Arkansas in that championship game. I mean, we ran into an elite pitcher if not the best pitcher in our game.

And our lineup has been, our offense has been potent the last few weeks too. And that's obviously the stymy of it, is to go against an elite pitcher. But I was proud of how we played. Just didn't get one run. I love how we warmed up, how we had plays. It could have been that they scored two or three, and it was still one, which was just one swing away from tying that game up.

But our kids are really relaxed right now, and playing that way, and they're playing fearless. And obviously we're fortunate it's not single elimination, get an opportunity to come back tomorrow and play against a great team and put it on the line.

But I'm proud of our kids for handling this. We'll watch film and make adjustments on some of the chase that we probably had, but I think that had as much to do with NiJa as maybe just the environment too.

Q. And then just having a quick turnaround, I think you said wash this out, how much does that help? And then how do you go about Oregon or UCLA, different conference, other side of the country? How do you go about preparing for a team like that you're not as familiar with?

JAMIE TRACHSEL: Probably the same we did Arizona, you know? Watch film, look at some of the data that we have, if we have any of that. Watch them tonight. So probably same thing as Arizona.

And I think drawing on our experience. We had to go out West for post-season and go to players we haven't played all year. So drawing on that too, just someone we haven't seen.

As coaches, obviously, our preparation will be the same, too, and then just get ready to keep it a game of execution. I think our kids do a really good job with that.

THE MODERATOR: Any more questions?

Q. There's that obstruction call. Did you get any clarification from the umpire on what they saw on that obstruction call?

JAMIE TRACHSEL: I didn't. Maybe it looked like her toes might have been in there. I don't know. Maybe a little bit more. I wasn't sure, but I thought she was out, regardless, and that she was behind her. There was enough space where it didn't really come into play on that, but I didn't hear any explanation.

I was fortunate that we got out of it in that circumstance. I think she might have creeped in there, but I didn't think that had a bearing on the outcome of her being out or safe. But I know they got a tough job to do.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Coach, do you have anything else?

JAMIE TRACHSEL: No. We're excited. We'll be ready for tomorrow. It'll be a great opportunity. So thank you, guys.