Oh, it sucks. I mean, I can't say it any differently. I mean, we had it. But again, like we only had three heads, and we got to grind and we every loss really looks the same. When we get B, we have very minimal hits, and it's been happening in the game three. So we got to find a way to be more competitive and make better adjustments and have better at bats in the batter's box in game three and figure out why are pitchers getting this out? I thought Krings through unbelievable today. I mean, obviously you have hindsight, but we've been going to put now all season long as our closer and I would make that that same switch all the time because I mean, she's won a ton of ballgames for us, but it's really easy to hindsight, especially when critics do as well as that she did. But we just had to have better bats. We have to be more competitive, we have to make different adjustments and not keep getting the same result.
What do you think it is about you know, game three, move the approach and you know what, I think the key to breaking through that is foreclosing,
I don't you know, I look at it and I wonder if it's I don't want to say complacency because we're a very motivated, driven competitive team. But I don't know if we take couple things for granted. You know, we have the win one and two, and we just go out there and we have that grit in that fire if you wanted to, and I just don't see that same determination in game three that we think we can keep doing the same thing and we're gonna get the same result. And that's the definition of repetitive idiocy. So, you know, we got to do something different. We got to be we got to play harder. We got to make better adjustments. We got to play like our backs up against the wall because when we play that way, we're really exceptional team. And we just got to have that that determination that grit and game three,
you spoke about offensive adjustments and stuff. Is there something in particular that you're seeing recently, obviously, you talked about the changeup early on, is it the same kind of problems, or is there something else that's kind of popping up when you kind of look at it,
I think we evaluate too much like I when we hit Well, we move to hit every single pitch and we have a lot of intent or extremely aggressive and when I see that we have outings like this. We take a lot of hit hittable pitches. We get behind in the count or defensive reacting to the pitch rather than being the hunter and attacking every single page. So that's a mentality thing. So that's where we just have to maybe put them in some more live situations and practice with the game on the line so they feel that their back is up against the wall to have more intent in trying to swing more free. And that's something that we're gonna evaluate as a coaching staff, your senior
team kind of maybe turn things around after taking a game through loss and hitting and especially shorter turnaround this weekend.
I mean, we respond on time, like, I don't have to yell and scream and you know, threaten them in any way like they know. So the first thing I do in the locker was I asked what are you feeling right now and they're frustrated, you know, no one goes out wanting to lose the game. So it's just figuring out a little bit more reflection. And I think what happens and I can use Panella as an example. When you focus on the result and if you focus on winning or you focus on I have to get ahead or I have to I want to leave the country saves, you're only looking at the results. You're not looking at the process. And when you become process driven, you're looking to have to hit every single pitch you're looking to get on time you're looking to attack and I think when that game three, we get a little more result. On Let's sweep rather than let's win every single pitch. And that's where we have to continue to reinforce the process that's going to give us that opportunity rather than what the result is that we're trying to attain.
And today obviously it wasn't the result you wanted. But you know after senior day yesterday, you know kind of what was that moment like for you to see your seniors kind of go through that
I'm so unbelievably proud of our senior class. They are tremendous ambassadors of the program that they've left legacy. They've done tremendous things for us and the freshmen and really left their mark. It's going to last forever. I mean the impact that they've had on the freshmen, the freshmen are going to remember that their entire career and that's really what their legacy is going to be. So yesterday was extremely emotional watching that that senior video during the ceremony was was touching and you can just see the impact that they've had on every single individual and all of our coaches.
You kind of reverse engineer the response that Jenna had when I asked her this, but I kind of wanted to ask you like straight up so like when you score in the first inning that's kind of become a theme for this team. I think either two games or three games a series score in the first inning set the tone, but then, you know, kind of in the later innings you struggle to put runners on base train heads together. So would you say that that's part of the adjustments that are over adjusting and how has that kind of looked for this team?
I don't think that they're processing the situation at bat to at bat. So they're coming out with a great approach. And we're scoring and we're having quality at bats and when I evaluate a team when I evaluate hitters, I want their best to get better throughout the course of the game. And it felt like today they got worse. We weren't swinging at good pitches. We didn't have any talent. We weren't on time and it was the same pitcher so she wasn't doing anything different. It was we were more defensive. So that's where we have to continue to improve and I feel like they get like that when they start to feel the pressure of the situation and worrying about the result rather than worrying about I just need to get myself on time.
We've talked about Lauren and obviously we'd off batters being kind of a problem over seven tonight per Mississippi State. Just kind of have you seen her approach kind of change especially in these past two, two games and do you think she's kind of turning a curb a bit from kind of earlier starts no
pun intended, right? Yeah. She she has done a tremendous job in controlling the batter she deserved to win today. Absolutely. She threw her butt off and competed and threw an unbelievable game and deserved the win. She's thrown both sides to play with command. And we were working on her drop ball to be her second or third best pitch and it really kept them off balance and that was really good. To see. And interchange up is just so effective. I'm really really proud of her because her mentality has been to just go out there and leave it all in the field which is why she's going as deep as she can into the game on because she's given it she all she has she's not futzing around with a hitter. She's really attacking him. And going after them early and getting easy outs and having key strikeouts and that's what we need out of a senior pitcher.
You can't even say in hindsight 2020 Did you did you really pen like did you have personnel in the pen a little bit before she came out? And how did that kind of because I know you went with cranes and you went with cranes on Saturday and it works out sometimes but tonight at Denver and so for panelled you know how's your warmup process look like like that and how much trust do you kind of put in like having her to put her out there
now has the exact same warm up every single game she knows when she goes out there. She starts in the fourth inning she starts to throw him in the storm sorry she starts in the fifth inning. She gets close in the sixth inning, she's ready to go game game time in the seventh inning. So that's the same exact every single game regardless of what the score in the situation is because then she's even getting her work in if she's not going out. I went to p&l because we had a lefty and it was the leadoff batter. And that's her bread and butter. And, you know, it was unfortunate that she walked through that situation to set up the radii but I mean, it was the matchup that I would do 10 out of 10 times. It's just unfortunate that the ball got away from her and she wasn't on time for that first batter
like Mississippi State was seeing Panello quite well this weekend. Two hits yesterday and obviously the block and the hit today. What did you see from them and their hitters that they were able to attack now and what can you do to minimize that from now on? No,
I really don't look at yesterday because yesterday the conditions with the rain I mean, it's so unbelievably difficult to throw in those conditions. A female with a small hand and the larger ball is really tough to spin and tough which is why we went heavy with a changeup yesterday. You know today it looked like a tiny thing and talk tomorrow after the motion of this game settles down or she and I will have a real good conversation on what did you feel in that moment and to see where her head was and if it wasn't focused on one pitch and winning each pitch and then we know what the reason is so I don't think it was that they were seeing her really well. It was that personnel wasn't at her best.
Obviously general with a couple errors today and then maybe a miss playing center on that double in the seventh. Just what how do you kind of assess the defensive performance tonight and just where do you think you need to improve your
softball, that's for sure. very uncharacteristic agenda. I mean, obviously we know she's a Golden Globe Award winner and you know, makes ridiculous plays and those are two routine plays. And so we'll look at some video to see is that our first step reaction? The routine play sometimes it's the hardest play to make because it's right out to lose that depth perception. And that's what it looks like from our angle that her body was already going towards first and the ball was on her right hand side, which is going to hit her up every single time. So going back to that but then also, you know, putting them in some pressure situations, maybe some game winning plays and the games on the line that they have to feel comfortable, you know, the winning run in scoring position and we have to make those pitches and we have to have those at bats with the winning run and we have to make those defensive plays.
Coach Jenna talked about Mississippi State pitching guys a lot inside today. They were getting a lot of those calls from the umpire led to some frustration from your side of the dugout, what were you kind of seeing from you and the rest of your hitters out there today
that we made her look better than she is. And I don't care what the pitcher throws we have to make adjustments. And I'm not going to judge if the I thought the umpire calls a great game and I think they were all hittable pitches and if we're getting jammed then we have to make adjustment and either we were swinging the balls inside there and I got to look at video to be able to confirm that or we were letting the ball get too deep. But I want to tell you from when I call a game, I'm going to always jam up their best hitters because I don't want them to extend so our hitters have to be able to expect that the same exact thing. I will tip my cap to Mississippi State because it's the first time that I've seen a right handed thrower GM over lefty hitters, and they did an amazing job being able to keep especially Alex Honnold off balance. I mean, she did jump over and hit a home run but all weekend long. They were jamming her and not really giving her anything that she can handle
coach undefeated and SEC series at home this season. I mean, that's in and of itself is quite the statistic. I mean for any team to be able to do that. But I mean for that for this program and move making this big next step forward. I mean, how much does that mean to you and for this team to be able to, you know, come out and compete every single series and then how big is that for the program?
I mean, it's great to win every series at home in front of your home crowd. I mean the atmosphere and when they're standing up in the seventh inning, I mean, that's it's so good for Mizzou and Mizzou softball and Columbia and I love it for that aspect. I don't get caught up in it because I want to win every game and that's what I go out regardless of its home or away. I mean I want to defend our whole field like no other and I want this to be the toughest place to play in the SEC and in the country and we have an opportunity to host regionals. I want this place to be electric and people will be intimidated to come here and that's that's the environment that we create. But at the same time I want to win every single game and we're gonna go out to try and coach and do our best to win every single game home or away. You've shown
you can win SEC games and Columbia but when you go to Columbia, South Carolina next week, what's that going to be like for y'all looking to improve your you know, the computer rankings right now you ranking really high a pretty good chance and maybe sneaking into one of those top eight spots next week if you have a good series so what's the mentality going like over there and how excited are you to go out there for one last series? For me? It's
Columbia. Yeah, I mean, we're gonna go out and we're gonna give it our best shot. I mean, that's what we're gonna do every single time and we're gonna compete our butt off. We know we're gonna see great pitching again. We have to be more competitive, and we're gonna go out and we're gonna try to win the series in South Carolina and carry that momentum. I like how we're playing. Yes, the result wasn't there. Yes, we have some things we need to work on. But we are so close. And when I look at the standings, and I don't share this with the team, but I'll share it with the public. When I look at the standings, we could easily be in the top four, easily be in the top four and that was one of our goals isn't attainable at this point. Like we obviously have to have a lot of help and I don't even know if it's possible, but that just shows you how close we are to what we could do. And we're playing so well. Right now. We're extremely confident we we just have to continue to carry that momentum. into South Carolina into the SEC tournament into the postseason.
How old do you think that your pitchers embody that sort of confidence? I mean, four runs allowed all weekend long great outings from just about all your pitchers just how have they kind of led the way for you? Our
pitchers? What I'm really happy with our pitchers is how healthy they are. They're so fresh. They're not overthrown. I don't even know if Harrison has 100 innings yet. They can is probably hovering around 60 or so. So, and Krings is just over 100 so extremely fresh and healthy, which is why they're peaking right now. Like they feel really good. Their bodies feel really good and we just have to maintain that because they haven't been overthrown all year long. And that's what helps having a really deep bullpen.
You haven't lost the game this year that you have scored less than five runs. So no wants to gain. So every game that you've scored five plus, you've won. So moving forward, I mean, what does that say about this pitching staff that you're able to be competitive in those games and also like, you know, when you when you have games like that offensively, what's kind of the difference there for you?
You know, it's good to hear on the biggest thing is our offense. These understand like we're not going to win a lot of ballgames, only having three hits. And it's not fair to our pitchers to expect him to throw shutouts like that's extremely hard to do at any level unless our conference and it gets gets a team like Mississippi State that leaves the conference in batting average and a lot of other offensive categories. So we have to and from a coaching standpoint, maybe I need to manufacture more runs maybe I need to put more people and go face to face and hit and run and maybe steal some more and not care about video review and those types of things to get more people in scoring position. Because if we're winning when we score five or more and we gotta get five more fast,
Coach care daily has kind of struggled as of late and she had a few hits against Georgia. But oh, for the last 24 Here at home, just kind of what have you seen with her? And just what's the key to kind of unlocking her potential again, kind of what she's shown in the past.
I think she's one of those that she's just evaluating and she looks completely different in practice than she does in games completely different and she's proven into practice, and she's worked extremely hard and she puts in a lot of extra time and, you know, no one's more frustrated than she is. And we feel for which is why we keep throwing her out there and Hoover down the lineup to take that pressure off of and, you know, I know I know she's gonna come through I hope it's just right at the right times. But we have complete confidence and trust in her and she wouldn't be in the lineup if we didn't. So I mean, I know she's probably second guessing every single thing she sees and that's the the terrible thing about hitting. And how do you get out of a slump you swing back. These are walks. So seeing good pitches and her recognizing pitches and when she starts to draw walks and I know she's seeing the ball a little bit better. So gentlemen
afraid to switch around the lineup to try and get a spark. Have you thought about that at all to maybe try and find a spark at the bottom of your lineup using some of your bench players kind of use that spark? Obviously Chester has made a couple appearances this weekend. Yeah, I
have you know, we are we are a little bit in a lull when I feel like Langers leading off a lot of innings. So we need a little bit more production at the bottom of the lineup and you know I Chester I think she's unbelievable in RBI situations and I want to continue to use her in that because her mindset and you know, statistically she really comes through and has great at bats and not so much when people aren't on base. So, you know, using people in their strengths in their role and being able to give us the best opportunity. I think cleric a halen is one that we could probably use a little bit more as a leadoff batter to get on base. And try and make some things happen because of our speed. Awesome. Thanks so much.
