May 11, 2013
Florida Head Coach Tim Walton
Opening statement …
“Well first of all congratulations to Georgia, obviously they’re a really talented team. I know they’re going to do great things. They’ve got a good coaching staff and a good team, so I just send my congratulations to them and safe travels as we all get ready for Regionals. Obviously it’s easy on the ‘W’ side, but again thanks to ESPN for the coverage for how they portray not only our team but the SEC as well. I’m happy with the way our team swung the bat today. I’ve talked about the difference of this team being a good team and a great team and it’s being able to score runs. We played great defense, pitching and throwing the ball well and now we can add the third component to it and I think it’s huge as you start to move towards elimination type games.”
On good hitting from the freshmen and the total team effort …
“Not only Taylor (Schwarz) but our team in general- just scoring runs today with two outs and a lot of good hits. I’m proud of the fight in the at bats and the confidence that they have. I thought it was really good. Taylor Schwarz obviously just missed hitting the third home run to the third field of the day, so that was huge. Good at bats. But I’m proud of our whole team. We had a lot of nice things out there today. A clutch triple, we got some doubles, some good singles. Again, I thought we really swung the bat well against two good pitchers.”
On Florida’s play so far this post-season …
“Bailey (Castro) smelled the funnel cake the first inning and wanted it. I said that the only way to get the funnel cake is to get a hit. She gets a hit and comes into the dugout and tells me that I owe her a funnel cake. We will have to take care of that for Bailey. We are getting some pinch hits and those are hard to do. Bailey gets a walk the other day and Ensley Gammel gets hit by a pitch and a sacrifice bunt. Today Bailey gets a single and Jessica Daminco gets a double. The five pinch at bats have been good and you can’t script anything like that. It is nice for a team to have eleven players that can play for them.”
On winning the regular season and now having the chance to win the tournament …
“It is humbling and a little surreal. We have definitely backed up our regular season. I am proud of our team. We only got 55 minutes of practice time. If you would have told me that we were going to throw up nine runs after that practice we would have done that more often. I am proud of the way we play and how they just roll with it. They don’t get overwhelmed by anything. We have had to readjust the schedule because of weather and I am just proud of them.”
On shutting down Georgia …
“We did not really shut them down it was more like slow them down. They are a very emotional team and very contagious. They were very contagious today both good and bad. I have to give credit to Hannah (Rogers). I thought she did a great job. Georgia doesn’t strike out a lot and I was really impressed with her stuff.”
#13, Hannah Rogers, P
On her pitching performance …
“I was just mixing it up and being confident with every pitch. I was trusting the calls and letting my defense work for me behind me.”
On the chance of winning the regular season title and tournament title …
“I am excited. We are playing well right now and our team is going out there and hitting well and putting runs on the board early, and it’s easy to go out there and pitch when they do that for you.”
#49, Taylor Schwarz, 1B
On her offensive performance against Georgia …
“I was seeing the ball really well today. I was just getting my foot down on time and seeing the ball really well. Things happen.”
On getting off to a good start …
“I don’t think early games are hard for this team. From the start we were hyped, especially with our coaching staff and managers getting hyped with music before the game. We were ready when we stepped on that field.”
Georgia Head Coach Lu Harris-Champer
Opening statement …
“I really liked the way we played the second half of the game. Super proud of Paige (Wilson) for adjusting her game and really having great at bats, as the game went on she got tougher and tougher. I can’t say enough about (Morgan) Montemayor, I thought she settled in and did a great job as well.”
On the difference between facing LSU’s Rachelle Fico on Thursday compared to Hannah Rogers today …
“I thought that Rogers did a good job today mixing her pitches and keeping us off balance. I was proud of the way we responded halfway through the game and made adjustments.”
On improving over the next week preparing for regionals …
“We have to continue to grow as a team. We’ve got the parts, we have to put all the parts together and when we put them together we are a great team.”
#9, Paige Wilson, IF
On her thoughts on the game and driving in four of Georgia’s five RBI …
“I just came out and competed and tried to get better at each at bat. I was just trying to get the team going and be a spark for the team so we could keep fighting.”
On making adjustments during the game against Florida pitcher Hannah Rogers …
“She threw a pattern so I kind of picked up on the pattern and just went for a pitch I knew she was about to throw.”
On the team not giving up and fighting until the final out …
“We are just fighters. We didn’t want it to end in the fifth inning, so we just fought our way to get those three runs so we didn’t have to end in the fifth.”
