Nebraska 5, Arkansas 3
THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Nebraska. We'll start with an opening statement from Coach.
RHONDA REVELLE: First of all, I just thought it was an incredibly hard-fought battle. It was two teams out there playing to win. Nobody gave an inch.
It was back and forth the whole night long. So a tip of the hat to Arkansas. They came out here, they battled. We battled. I said earlier in the week I thought it was going to be the team -- we're so razor thin in the margins, if you look at our statistics, it was going to be one team made one more execution. That's exactly how it played out.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the players.
Q. Ava, when did you know off the bat that was good? When did the tears start falling?
AVA KUSZAK: I feel like I took a couple steps because it felt good off the bat, but I wasn't sure. Then I just threw my hands up hoping it was going out.
I think the tears came around third seeing all these girls absolutely screaming. And I was just like, there's just no way that just happened.
Q. Did it ever enter your mind to take Jordy out of the circle?
RHONDA REVELLE: No (smiling).
THE MODERATOR: Questions for players right now.
Q. Jordy, how are you feeling?
JORDY FRAHM: Great. I feel really good. Yeah, it was a long game. Especially towards the end, it just became a matter of being in control of everything I could be in control of.
This team is insane. Literally it could be anyone on any given day. Everybody in our lineup is made for the moment. As the pitcher, you're like, All right. Let's do what we can to let someone on this team be in the opportunity to be in the moment when they need to be.
Tonight it was Hannah Coor, tonight it was Ava Kuszak, it was Sammy Bland, it was Bella Bacon, it was base runners taking extra bases 60 feet. So many people. Nat. I don't know how many balls got hit to left field. Everybody on our team was ready to be on the moment when they were called on. As a pitcher, your greatest responsibility is let that happen, put the team in position to be there.
Q. Hannah, another huge hit in this post-season. Walk us through how you felt in the box this entire time.
HANNAH COOR: Really confident and calm. Just putting all my trust into Jesus and surrounding every victory, every defeat, every home run, every strikeout, just surrendering it all to Him. At the end of the day, this is just a game. It's not my identity. I find my identity in Christ, Christ alone. Literally giving Him every single ounce of everything.
Before my home run, I'm on deck praying for God to just slow me down because I was really sped up. I was going too fast. I could feel my heartbeat bouncing out of my chest, asking the Lord to slow me down. Giving everything to Him, every good and bad.
Q. Jordy and Hannah, that eighth inning, the at-bats you had, looks like you had a long conversation before Hannah stepped into the box. What was said?
JORDY FRAHM: You're doing whatever you can to take your at-bat, give whatever information you can to the next person up to help them. I don't even remember exactly what I said.
You see that throughout the whole lineup. That's one thing we're huge on, just pass along whatever information you can because every little bit can help.
Q. Jordy, what allowed you to maybe not panic after that second inning home run, then the eighth?
JORDY FRAHM: I'm not going to lie. I think early in the game I was just juiced up. There was so much adrenaline, and it was fun. As the game went on, that settled in a little bit.
When they scored again -- was it in the eighth? Yeah. When they scored again in the eighth, just so much trust in my teammates, so much trust in our offense, knowing that's a position that we thrive in, back against the wall. I just knew somebody was going to come through.
Q. Hannah, Jordy, take me through where you were when Ava hit the home run.
HANNAH COOR: I was standing on second base. I was like, Oh, my gosh, we just won the fricking game. I had to turn around and look at it. That was so good.
JORDY FRAHM: I think I was on the stairs going down into the dugout. I saw the ball come out of the bat. I heard Coach Miller, she was like, Yes, yes. Then I saw it go over. We all ran to home. As soon as I turned, I saw Ava with all the emotion. That was one of the happiest World Series moments ever.
Q. Ava, you went 0-4. How do you stay confident, after a start like that? Stay in there, take a full-confidence swing like that...
AVA KUSZAK: I feel in practice, even if it doesn't go well, you keep growing and keep fighting and keep making adjustments.
After every at-bat, I was learning. I had to keep telling myself I'm learning, I'm learning, focus on my team and what needed to be done, then continue to go on and just adjust.
Q. Jordy, you haven't lost in two months now. How does this team keep finding a way?
JORDY FRAHM: We don't really focus on how much we've won or how much we've lost. But every day is a new day, every new inning is a new inning, every pitch is a new pitch.
Simplifying it as much as possible. I think the simpler you can make the game, the slower it becomes, and the more that you realize you're in control of. And so just doing our best to control that.
THE MODERATOR: That will wrap things up for players. Thank you. We'll continue with questions for Coach.
RHONDA REVELLE: Am I still here?
THE MODERATOR: Yes.
RHONDA REVELLE: I thought that was going to happen (laughter).
THE MODERATOR: We'll open questions for Coach.
Q. This is your first program win here since 2002. What are your emotions?
RHONDA REVELLE: Okay, so I had some, because I have some historical perspective. I always say I'm the historian.
Last time we were here, we lost in an extra-inning game to Washington, Game 1. I thought about that today as I was doing my prep. I thought, What was the difference? What would be the difference between that team and this team? Taylor Edwards, who is an Olympian, said it last week when she came up to this team and said, This is not the 2013 team. It was the highest praise. In 2013, we were the 14 seed and we knocked off the 3 seed in Oregon to make it, but didn't have the belief coming in.
We had belief, but not the belief that this team has. This team has developed the belief. I have talked about it a lot from losing last year in super regionals, what that has done to galvanize and lean into one another and really shrink it down, Jordy said it really well too, make it real simple.
To have a sense of urgency, but not press. Your sense of urgency is in the daily repetition, in the detail of the repetition, intention of the repetition.
When you get to those moments, like tonight there were a lot of moments, people executed in the moment. That's because of how they've approached it since last year at super regionals.
I don't know if I answered your question, but that's my answer.
Q. The last time Jordy was here, she was pretty incredible with runners in scoring position. Same thing tonight. What makes her so special in those moments?
RHONDA REVELLE: I wasn't with her in the dugout last time she was here. I've experienced two years of her being very consistent with runners in scoring position, with the bases empty.
What you see is what you get every day. Her consistency is contagious. Her consistency is inspiring because it's not just consistency, it's consistency performing in an elite level consistently.
Q. Take me through Hannah when she ties the game up with a home run. Anything said prior to that in the dugout when they took the lead, then Ava with the walk-off a couple innings later?
RHONDA REVELLE: Hannah kind of walked you through her process.
Like, I walked up to her, because I could feel she was sped up a little bit. I just put my hand on her back and said, See it well, see it long, get a pitch you can stay through. I'm not taking any credit for that. I'm just telling you what I said to her.
But I just thought she was really in a very good element. I couldn't be more thrilled for her. This is really, really special for her. Even yesterday when we got to walk out on the field in the rain, just be a part of the field, I had her lead the way because I thought it was really important that she got to lead the way for this team.
Q. How important was Sammy Bland's defense?
RHONDA REVELLE: Oh, my God. Here's the thing, that is Sammy being Sammy. She is that good all the time. She's made for these big moments, too. She's got a champion's heart. She tends to play her best when the lights are the brightest. She's exciting to watch over there defensively. I thought she came up real big for us offensively tonight, as well.
How about Kennadi Williams? Goes from first to third like she came off the basketball court and put on cleats.
Q. This is something I've wanted to ask for a while, seems like the right game to do it. A 10-inning game like that, where does fatigue set in first for a pitcher? Would it be the arm or the plant leg, just landing like that all night?
RHONDA REVELLE: I think when you have adrenaline running, you don't even know you're tired till after it's over.
I can only speak from my own experience. She threw a lot of rise balls tonight. It's the forearm that wants to go. She's so strong in her lower body. If you keep your lower body really generating a lot of power and force, which she does, you can tend to continue to spin it.
To me that's what always fatigued in the long games like that. The adrenaline is so high, she'll probably be exhausted in about another hour, I'd say.
Q. I would be remiss if I didn't ask you this. You and the team got a surprise from "Delta Dawn" herself. How special was that moment? Could you feel that today?
RHONDA REVELLE: When that happened, I immediately thought, and I haven't had this confirmed yet, I might be up here fibbing to you not even knowing it, I thought Nebraska worked that out to have that happen.
But what I was told by our digital media is that Tanya Tucker herself reached out because she saw us singing "Delta Dawn" and she wanted to meet this team.
I was pretty awestruck. I texted with her today (laughter). It was awesome. I will meet her. I will hug her neck because she said she wanted to hug my neck. I don't know what that will happen.
I got distracted, sidetracked for a while. It took me a little while to come down. Our digital media did what they did, do, did some brilliant work. My phone was blowing up, I had to put my phone away.
I was like a kid on Christmas morning. I didn't want to take anything away from the team. They got to embrace that, too. It was really, really remarkable.
THE MODERATOR: That will wrap things up. Thank you.
RHONDA REVELLE: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports