Coaches and players from Texas A&M and Texas Southern met the media Thursday at the Aggie Softball Complex as the teams prepared for Friday's matchup at the NCAA College Station Regional.
Quotes and video are posted below.
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JO EVANS, HEAD COACH
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"We're obviously excited to be hosting. It's something we've worked hard at all year long. When we had our first team meeting, we talked about how our responsibility to this program is to put ourselves in a position to host regionals and super regionals and although we've fell short on super regionals right now, the only thing that's on our mind is that we're hosting regionals. We're at home and it's a chance for us to gain some momentum. The field is a great field with all the Texas teams. There's lots of familiarity for us. We played Texas last year in postseason and we played Texas State already this season and Texas Southern we haven't seen in many years but they're excited to get the opportunity to play ball."
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On the atmosphere this weekend…
"We expect it to be a great atmosphere. We also know that because everybody is so close, within a couple hours, they're going to travel well so we expect to have some burnt orange in the stands and some black and red and some maroon from Texas State so we're looking forward to it. It's really important to us that we get a good crowd out because we know that there's going to be opposing fans in the stands. I think the atmosphere is going to be great. I don't know another regional in the country, I don't know that there's ever been teams all from just that state and all so close to each other so it lends itself to being a really great atmosphere."
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On key differences between this year's team and last year's team…
"We're just more solid all the way around. We've played great defense all year and we've had a couple of games where we weren't our best but you look at our fielding percentage and it's one of the best in the country so we've improved on that. We worked really hard at it in the offseason to do that. Our pitching staff is deeper and better. We have more tools. We have four pitchers who are very different from each other so we are able to give different looks depending on different matchups which wasn't always the case for us before. Those things really stand out to me as being improved areas that we've worked really hard on to get ourselves to be in the position we are in right now, to be one of the top seeds."
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On the team's postseason experience…
"It's important for us to remember who we are, for us to remember our history. The expectation is that this is where it's supposed to be. You're supposed to win it. We're supposed to be playing in the College World Series. We're still a young team. I don't know if people really recognize that. We're starting four sophomores in our lineup, one freshman and the rest juniors so we still have room to grow but my hope is that our maturity level is such that we understand this stage and what it's like and what's expected. This is a year where we worked really hard to make a turn and we've done that in the SEC. It's our best SEC season to this date and it is an opportunity to get out and take that experience with us into regionals."
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On Riley's development as a hitter…
"Riley's always been a really hard worker. There's nobody who will outwork Riley. She's here at night when no one else is around, under the lights hitting. She worked hard last year. What's different, I think, is that she's been able to relax a bit and not overthink. Riley is really smart. She's one of those high IQ kids and a thinker. Sometimes those kids can think too much. This year what I've seen from her is she's been able to relax and trust her hard work and be more instinctual in how she plays the game instead of calculating exactly what this is going to look like and how these things are going to play out. Now I think she's gotten a lot better at just relaxing and playing the game and trusting all her hard work."
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On if the offense struggling has been due to overthinking at the plate…
"Last year I felt like we were a lot more consistent at the plate. Our pitchers gave up a bunch of runs and our mentality offensively was, "Okay we'll score one more run than the other team. If they score 12 we're going to score 13." This year, that kind of flipped on us. Consistency is the key for us and I do think that our team was pressing a bit offensively. You can see that throughout our season. At times we're relaxed and we're aggressive and we're scoring a bunch of runs and other times we're a little more tentative. It's really important for us, if we're going to make a run in this postseason, which we feel like we have the talent to do it, we're going to need to see our offense relax and attack. It's not a matter of do they work hard enough, do we spend enough time getting reps, do we want it, do we have a great attitude, we have all of that. We just don't want to be the try-too-hard hitters. We don't want to get up to the plate, too tight, pressing, wringing our hands, and frustrated when things don't go our way."
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On if this will help clear the team's minds of what has happened the past couple of weeks…
"Yeah, it's nice to be done with school. We kind of joke about being paid to play right now. So that's fun. They can be focused on having some fun with their teammates. We're out of the SEC, which is a grind week in and week out but that prepares us for the new grind that we're about to face. It's nice because it feels like a mini-season, like a completely different season than what we've been a part of and that's good. We needed a fresh look and we needed some time to be on the practice field to really break some things down and feel better about ourselves. I'm really pleased that we've had that opportunity. The silver lining about losing to Alabama early in that tournament is that we got to come back and have some really tough, challenging practices. We got to pay attention to some details that when you're in the middle of SEC conference play, you really don't get to do so we used that to our advantage."
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RILEY SARTAIN, SOPHOMORE 3B
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On work the hitters have done to get ready for regionals …
"When we came back from the SEC tournament, Coach Glasco was very adamant about not trying to reinvent the wheel. Really, to just be sharper and pick pitches we could drive hard. We've been preparing for any option this weekend, whoever we face. Of course our first plan of attack is to go get those Texas Southern pitchers."
Â
On work to change her swing in relation to the video released working with baseball coaches…
"I worked with Dan Ortmeier, he played for the Giants, over the summer and we just tweaked some things. I wasn't really happy with my overall performance from my freshman year. We didn't really change too much and when that video came out it was pretty cool. It was funny because we were actually trying to make my swing look like Josh Donaldson's so it was cool to get that comparison. But that's not really the swing I use anymore. Coach Glasco and I worked really hard this fall on getting more of a softball-based swing and really attacking the rise ball and being able to hit all kinds of pitches."
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SAMANTHA SHOW, SOPHOMORE RHP
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On friends on other teams in this regional…
"I have a close friend that plays for Texas Southern. We went to high school together. Actually, when it was announced that we were playing them, my first thought was, "I get to see Heaven (Benavidez)." That was really cool and we've communicated. It just goes back to playing summer ball and it's almost comfortable to know that we've faced each other before and it's going to be a battle no matter who we're playing."
Â
On if this is a fresh start after the way the end of the season went…
"Oh definitely, I think that right now we have a lot of fire under us and we have that determination to come out swinging and we're swinging hard."
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TEXAS SOUTHERN PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
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TEXAS SOUTHERN HEAD COACH WORLEY BARKER
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"Thanks to everybody for giving us the opportunity to be here. We are excited about playing back in the NCAA Regionals. (We are) also excited about being here in College Station and here at Texas A&M University. We are looking forward to competing to the best of our abilities and looking forward to a few good days of the softball."
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On the advantages his team has…
"I think the one thing about our kids is that we don't ever quit. We continue to fight. It's a huge challenge. We know that in order for us to compete with the teams that are here we have to play the best possible softball that we've played all year. We feel like we've prepared over the last couple weeks to do that. With our schedule, we've played some pretty high-caliber teams. We've played Texas and Houston and we've gone down to Sam Houston who has a pretty good program. We aren't trying to fool anybody. We know we have a huge challenge ahead of us, but I know our kids our up to the challenge. This is our third time here in the last four years and I think that anybody who's playing softball this late in the season has to be happy. I've tried to keep (the atmosphere) light. We've continued to play around because I don't want them to think about Texas A&M being ranked number nine or as high as number two in the country. Because when they start thinking about that and the batting averages we are going to face it might take away from the fact that the game is still the game. You still get three outs and three strikes. You've got to hit the ball and you've got to throw the ball. That's what I want our kids to focus one and not everything else."
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On the All-Texas Regional…
"We are looking for a great atmosphere. There were rumors that we were going to be sent back to Louisiana. I was praying that it would be Texas. I tell people that as I get older, the less I want to travel. I know my kids were probably hoping that we would go all across the country, but I was hoping that a couple of these Texas teams would host because the last few years none of them have hosted and we had to make the trip. We are looking forward to a great atmosphere. Softball is big here in Texas and you've got four schools all within driving distance. We are expecting a big showing from our fans and from the other fans. More than anything we want people to see us. A lot of people look at us as a small program or a small college. That may be the case but we want them to see that we are capable at playing at the highest level possible. We are exciting about it being All-Texas because it helps with recruiting. I tell people all the time that not everybody can go to UT, (Texas) A&M or Texas State. We want all those kids who can't go to those three programs to come to Texas Southern."
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LAUREN RODIRGUEZ, JUNIOR P
On playing Texas again…
"I think it helped us. They are a high-caliber team just like these teams. It for sure gave us a preview of what we have to come tomorrow."
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JAZMIN FULMORE, JUNIOR P
On playing opponents again…
"We just have to go out and fight like we did there and fight even harder. The other trips set us up so we know what we have to bring to the table. We need to bring more intensity. We have each other back more now but we are going to keep pushing."
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MADILYNN MAREK, FRESHMAN INF
On playing in the environment of a NCAA Regional…
"I'm excited knowing that I've never been in this situation before. (My teammates) are going to help me through it."
Quotes and video are posted below.
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TEXAS A&M PRE-TOURNAMENT PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
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JO EVANS, HEAD COACH
Â
"We're obviously excited to be hosting. It's something we've worked hard at all year long. When we had our first team meeting, we talked about how our responsibility to this program is to put ourselves in a position to host regionals and super regionals and although we've fell short on super regionals right now, the only thing that's on our mind is that we're hosting regionals. We're at home and it's a chance for us to gain some momentum. The field is a great field with all the Texas teams. There's lots of familiarity for us. We played Texas last year in postseason and we played Texas State already this season and Texas Southern we haven't seen in many years but they're excited to get the opportunity to play ball."
Â
On the atmosphere this weekend…
"We expect it to be a great atmosphere. We also know that because everybody is so close, within a couple hours, they're going to travel well so we expect to have some burnt orange in the stands and some black and red and some maroon from Texas State so we're looking forward to it. It's really important to us that we get a good crowd out because we know that there's going to be opposing fans in the stands. I think the atmosphere is going to be great. I don't know another regional in the country, I don't know that there's ever been teams all from just that state and all so close to each other so it lends itself to being a really great atmosphere."
Â
On key differences between this year's team and last year's team…
"We're just more solid all the way around. We've played great defense all year and we've had a couple of games where we weren't our best but you look at our fielding percentage and it's one of the best in the country so we've improved on that. We worked really hard at it in the offseason to do that. Our pitching staff is deeper and better. We have more tools. We have four pitchers who are very different from each other so we are able to give different looks depending on different matchups which wasn't always the case for us before. Those things really stand out to me as being improved areas that we've worked really hard on to get ourselves to be in the position we are in right now, to be one of the top seeds."
Â
On the team's postseason experience…
"It's important for us to remember who we are, for us to remember our history. The expectation is that this is where it's supposed to be. You're supposed to win it. We're supposed to be playing in the College World Series. We're still a young team. I don't know if people really recognize that. We're starting four sophomores in our lineup, one freshman and the rest juniors so we still have room to grow but my hope is that our maturity level is such that we understand this stage and what it's like and what's expected. This is a year where we worked really hard to make a turn and we've done that in the SEC. It's our best SEC season to this date and it is an opportunity to get out and take that experience with us into regionals."
Â
On Riley's development as a hitter…
"Riley's always been a really hard worker. There's nobody who will outwork Riley. She's here at night when no one else is around, under the lights hitting. She worked hard last year. What's different, I think, is that she's been able to relax a bit and not overthink. Riley is really smart. She's one of those high IQ kids and a thinker. Sometimes those kids can think too much. This year what I've seen from her is she's been able to relax and trust her hard work and be more instinctual in how she plays the game instead of calculating exactly what this is going to look like and how these things are going to play out. Now I think she's gotten a lot better at just relaxing and playing the game and trusting all her hard work."
Â
On if the offense struggling has been due to overthinking at the plate…
"Last year I felt like we were a lot more consistent at the plate. Our pitchers gave up a bunch of runs and our mentality offensively was, "Okay we'll score one more run than the other team. If they score 12 we're going to score 13." This year, that kind of flipped on us. Consistency is the key for us and I do think that our team was pressing a bit offensively. You can see that throughout our season. At times we're relaxed and we're aggressive and we're scoring a bunch of runs and other times we're a little more tentative. It's really important for us, if we're going to make a run in this postseason, which we feel like we have the talent to do it, we're going to need to see our offense relax and attack. It's not a matter of do they work hard enough, do we spend enough time getting reps, do we want it, do we have a great attitude, we have all of that. We just don't want to be the try-too-hard hitters. We don't want to get up to the plate, too tight, pressing, wringing our hands, and frustrated when things don't go our way."
Â
On if this will help clear the team's minds of what has happened the past couple of weeks…
"Yeah, it's nice to be done with school. We kind of joke about being paid to play right now. So that's fun. They can be focused on having some fun with their teammates. We're out of the SEC, which is a grind week in and week out but that prepares us for the new grind that we're about to face. It's nice because it feels like a mini-season, like a completely different season than what we've been a part of and that's good. We needed a fresh look and we needed some time to be on the practice field to really break some things down and feel better about ourselves. I'm really pleased that we've had that opportunity. The silver lining about losing to Alabama early in that tournament is that we got to come back and have some really tough, challenging practices. We got to pay attention to some details that when you're in the middle of SEC conference play, you really don't get to do so we used that to our advantage."
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RILEY SARTAIN, SOPHOMORE 3B
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On work the hitters have done to get ready for regionals …
"When we came back from the SEC tournament, Coach Glasco was very adamant about not trying to reinvent the wheel. Really, to just be sharper and pick pitches we could drive hard. We've been preparing for any option this weekend, whoever we face. Of course our first plan of attack is to go get those Texas Southern pitchers."
Â
On work to change her swing in relation to the video released working with baseball coaches…
"I worked with Dan Ortmeier, he played for the Giants, over the summer and we just tweaked some things. I wasn't really happy with my overall performance from my freshman year. We didn't really change too much and when that video came out it was pretty cool. It was funny because we were actually trying to make my swing look like Josh Donaldson's so it was cool to get that comparison. But that's not really the swing I use anymore. Coach Glasco and I worked really hard this fall on getting more of a softball-based swing and really attacking the rise ball and being able to hit all kinds of pitches."
Â
Â
SAMANTHA SHOW, SOPHOMORE RHP
Â
On friends on other teams in this regional…
"I have a close friend that plays for Texas Southern. We went to high school together. Actually, when it was announced that we were playing them, my first thought was, "I get to see Heaven (Benavidez)." That was really cool and we've communicated. It just goes back to playing summer ball and it's almost comfortable to know that we've faced each other before and it's going to be a battle no matter who we're playing."
Â
On if this is a fresh start after the way the end of the season went…
"Oh definitely, I think that right now we have a lot of fire under us and we have that determination to come out swinging and we're swinging hard."
Â
TEXAS SOUTHERN PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
Â
TEXAS SOUTHERN HEAD COACH WORLEY BARKER
Â
"Thanks to everybody for giving us the opportunity to be here. We are excited about playing back in the NCAA Regionals. (We are) also excited about being here in College Station and here at Texas A&M University. We are looking forward to competing to the best of our abilities and looking forward to a few good days of the softball."
Â
On the advantages his team has…
"I think the one thing about our kids is that we don't ever quit. We continue to fight. It's a huge challenge. We know that in order for us to compete with the teams that are here we have to play the best possible softball that we've played all year. We feel like we've prepared over the last couple weeks to do that. With our schedule, we've played some pretty high-caliber teams. We've played Texas and Houston and we've gone down to Sam Houston who has a pretty good program. We aren't trying to fool anybody. We know we have a huge challenge ahead of us, but I know our kids our up to the challenge. This is our third time here in the last four years and I think that anybody who's playing softball this late in the season has to be happy. I've tried to keep (the atmosphere) light. We've continued to play around because I don't want them to think about Texas A&M being ranked number nine or as high as number two in the country. Because when they start thinking about that and the batting averages we are going to face it might take away from the fact that the game is still the game. You still get three outs and three strikes. You've got to hit the ball and you've got to throw the ball. That's what I want our kids to focus one and not everything else."
Â
On the All-Texas Regional…
"We are looking for a great atmosphere. There were rumors that we were going to be sent back to Louisiana. I was praying that it would be Texas. I tell people that as I get older, the less I want to travel. I know my kids were probably hoping that we would go all across the country, but I was hoping that a couple of these Texas teams would host because the last few years none of them have hosted and we had to make the trip. We are looking forward to a great atmosphere. Softball is big here in Texas and you've got four schools all within driving distance. We are expecting a big showing from our fans and from the other fans. More than anything we want people to see us. A lot of people look at us as a small program or a small college. That may be the case but we want them to see that we are capable at playing at the highest level possible. We are exciting about it being All-Texas because it helps with recruiting. I tell people all the time that not everybody can go to UT, (Texas) A&M or Texas State. We want all those kids who can't go to those three programs to come to Texas Southern."
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LAUREN RODIRGUEZ, JUNIOR P
On playing Texas again…
"I think it helped us. They are a high-caliber team just like these teams. It for sure gave us a preview of what we have to come tomorrow."
Â
JAZMIN FULMORE, JUNIOR P
On playing opponents again…
"We just have to go out and fight like we did there and fight even harder. The other trips set us up so we know what we have to bring to the table. We need to bring more intensity. We have each other back more now but we are going to keep pushing."
Â
MADILYNN MAREK, FRESHMAN INF
On playing in the environment of a NCAA Regional…
"I'm excited knowing that I've never been in this situation before. (My teammates) are going to help me through it."