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NCAA WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES


June 2, 2014


Kaila Hunt

Haylie McCleney

Patrick Murphy

Jackie Traina


OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA

Florida: 5
Alabama: 0


THE MODERATOR:  Here with Alabama we have Coach Murphy, Haylie McCleney, Kaila Hunt and Jaclyn Traina.  We will start with an opening statement from Coach Murphy.
COACH MURPHY:  I thought Hannah was terrific tonight, probably one of the best games she's pitched against us, but I think it's just continuation of her postseason.  You know, there are three things that you need to win a high‑caliber softball game:  Great starting pitching, great team defense and you need to get the timely hits.  They were 3 for 3 and we were 0 for 3, and I think that's the story of the game.

Q.  Kaila, you had three solid contacts when you went up to the plate against her.  One bounced off her leg and to the first baseman.  What did you see in that at‑bat?
KAILA HUNT:  With Hannah, I feel like you have to see the ball.  She works down and she hits her spots very well, so I think my approach was to see the ball in the strike zone and just to see it up, and put good swings on it.  She was attacking the strike zone, so my approach was to be aggressive especially early in the count.  She did throw me some balls but I think my approach was just to try to see it up, because that's what you have to do against her.  She pitched a great game against us, but I thought I had good at‑bats against her.

Q.  Jacqueline, how much of that was you not having your best stuff and how much of that was them and their bats?
JACLYN TRAINA:  They're a great team, and just like Murph said, we have to have those three, great timely hitting, pitching and defense.  So tomorrow, we're going to make quicker adjustments and work from there.

Q.  Coach Murphy, for a guy that's been here before and won here before, obviously you want to take this one, but how important is it for a team's confidence to get that first game and what is your team feeling like right now?
COACH MURPHY:  Two years ago this is exactly what happened, too, so we're not too worried.  Obviously we would not like to win the first one but since we lost the first one last time, it's not a big deal to us.  We haven't played them since the middle of March, so it's been a long time.  This game we kind of feel out Hannah and their hitters and see what they were looking for and Steph, Aly and Adam and I will go back to the hotel and watch the game again and come up with a better game plan for tomorrow.

Q.  Haylie, the last time you guys played these guys you got to Hannah pretty well.  Got some good hits on her.  What was different about are her this time?
HAYLIE MCCLENEY:  I think she was in the zone tonight.  She was spotting the ball really well; she got ahead of us.  That's Hannah Rogers being Hannah Rogers, and I think like Jack and Kaila said, we will make quicker adjustments.  We have to have a short‑term are memory tonight, make quicker adjustments and see the ball more.  Whatever we need to do to win is what we're going to do.

Q.  For Jackie and Kaila, what were your memories of two years ago when you were in this similar situation?  What was that next day like in preparing for that Game 2?
JACLYN TRAINA:  We definitely came back relentless and we were winning the little things, and we were very aggressive and we had a plan and we bought into it.
I think tomorrow we all need to come to a plan, each and every one of us, what we decide, and then go with that plan.
KAILA HUNT:  I agree with Jack.  Two years ago I think the biggest difference between the game 1 and Game 2 was we had a game plan going into Game 2.  We took what we learned from what happened in game 1 and we learned from our previous at‑bats and we watched film and we had a game plan going into what we were going to do to make that adjustment.  Because in game 1 of two years ago we didn't make good adjustments just like we didn't tonight.
I think our biggest thing is to go back to the hotel and see, you know, what the patterns were, what we need to do, whatever that plan is, and to buy into it and stick to it.

Q.  Patrick, when you go from 1‑0 to 3 to 0 and 3 to 5, how much does the that change the complexion of everything?  I guess down 1‑0 it's a whole different matter, isn't it?
COACH MURPHY:  Definitely, and 3 is manageable but 5 is tougher, and the thing that killed us was the double play.  I thought we had a good rally going because obviously Jadyn got it and Kaila hit it, I think if we had bases loaded and no outs it would have been a different story.
But we had the rally busters, two double plays, and we just didn't continue an inning and that's not like us.
That's the one thing we really tried to work on this year.  Last year that was my number one negative in our offense was, we just didn't continue innings, and tonight it came back again.  But you got to credit the pitcher.  She hit her spots, too.  I think, you know, she is throwing anywhere from 66 to 58 but she is hitting spots and it makes it difficult.

Q.  For Haylie and Kayla, the 7th inning, is there anything you take from that, that you got to her consecutively rather than one spot, that you can carry into tomorrow?  Is there any momentum you expect to carry into the game?
HAYLIE MCCLENEY:  Definitely I think we finished the game fairly strong.  We didn't score any runs but we did get to her, we proved that we can hit her.  She didn't no‑hit us, she didn't 1‑hit us, so I think going into tomorrow, that's something that we're all going to look at, kinda visualize that 7th inning again.  We have to do that tomorrow.
KAILA HUNT:  You saw that we did make an adjustment.  It did take us 7 innings, but we did get to her and that's big for us, to see that, especially in the bottom of the 7th, to see that from the top of our lineup and to pass it down.
That means we learned from our previous at‑bats which is what we need to do to have success tomorrow.  To look at our at‑bats and see what she did and what our adjustment needs to be against her.

Q.  Jackie, couple years ago you were in the batting lineup, the entire series and you've been in the lineup the last two games, if I'm correct.  Does it make any difference to you?  Does it make it easier to focus on the circle?  Harder?  How do you approach it?  I'm guessing that you would prefer to be batting because it's one more way you can help the team.  Give us a sense of what's that like for you playing both roles.
JACLYN TRAINA:  I don't look at it any different than I was just pitching.  It's just another way to help the team out.  I really don't look at it any different way.
THE MODERATOR:  Thank you guys.

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