July 28, 2025 • 36 mins
AJ sits down with Georgina Corrick, a standout AUSL Talons pitcher celebrated for her dominance on the mound. The two explore key moments from Georgina’s career, including earning All-American honors, representing Great Britain on the national team, and throwing the first complete game in Athletes Unlimited League history. Beyond the accolades, their conversation dives deep into Georgina’s mindset—touching on personal affirmations, overcoming self-doubt, the relentless pursuit of growth, and the vital role of a strong support network.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Dropping Diamonds with AJ Andrews is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Athletes Unlimited Softball League and Deep
Blue Sports and Entertainment. Welcome to Dropping Diamonds with Me
aj Andrews, where we die of headfirst into the world
of softball. Today, I'm joined by one of the greatest
(00:25):
pictures to ever step on the mound. She is an
All American out of USF. She plays on the British
national team, and she is a part of the AUSL Talents.
It is none other than the beautiful, the talented Georgina Corey.
Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you
for having me, Adria. I'm so excited. I'm so excited.
(00:47):
First of all, when I start all of these, I
really like to start with an affirmation to really get
us going and feeling good. You know, you have the
lead things off right and so an affirmation that I
thought of when going to be able to talk to
you because of the way you're able to dominate on
the mound. It is I'm the best, big better, best,
(01:08):
I'm the biggest. I keep getting better and I am
the best.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I'm the biggest, I keep getting better and I am
the best and my biggest, I.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Mean, like the biggest to ever do it, like the
best to do it. I feel, you know what I mean,
because there's there's some big gals out here, But I'm
the biggest, but you're the biggest. But I'm the biggest,
but you're the biggest. If do you have a quote
or an affirmation that you like to live by.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's actually funny that you say that, because ever since
I was like nine, my affirmation has been be better
because I love that.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
It was something my dad always would like yell at
me when I pitch.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
But it's like so it's carried through with my life
because when I was younger, I was just like, well,
I just need to I just need to be a
little better, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I just every day, I'm going to get a little better.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And then as I got more competitive and started like
competing in the international side of things, the collegiate side
of things, being better was more of like a mentality
of like, can I be a better person in this moment?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Can I be a better teammate? Can I be.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Anything that you can kind of apply that to you
probably have a lot of space for growth.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
So I actually used to have it written in my visor.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I had it in my glove and it was like
something that my dad used to say a lot when
I was growing up, And now when I'm here, I'm like,
you are playing against the best of the best, but
you need to be better.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And I think that's a really cool way to like kind.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Of hold yourself to a higher standard without having some
of that negative self talk that I know pictures in particular,
Like for us, it's you throw a hundred pitches, you
mess up once, and everyone will remember the one once up,
you know, which is difficult. So it's a good way
to have that positive mentality of like, yeah, you got
to be a little bit, but you can be better.
And it's that kind of like gentle push that I
really like that keeps me striving towards the next big thing.
(02:42):
The next big thing will also appreciating how hard I've
worked to be where I.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Was, you know. I love Yeah, So I love that
you kind of like played into that in my mind.
Better best, I am the bigger, I'm the bigger, biggest,
I am the bigger I am, I'm the bigger woman
big will be the bigger woman better, and I am
the best. I love that big age a big a us.
(03:09):
We just we'll just turn rolls off the tongue. Yeah,
very well. I like AJ a little better, big G,
big G. Yeah. I love that you always always do
the that's the talents thing. I feel.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
It's like you got the talents, but you gotta that
makes we kind of you hit the double. We got
a couple of dances moving in. I mean, I don't
be hitting doubles, but I'm in the dugout with them.
You know, how is it being a talent? I love it.
I think that especially when they had the draft and
they started like picking the names, I was like, this
(03:42):
is getting kind of dangerous from like a player side
of things.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You never really know how the culture is gonna mesh
when you get in there.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
And I came in a little late because I played
in Japan, so I was definitely a little nervous coming
in because it's hard to like join something halfway through.
But I mean it's just been incredible the leaders that
we have on the field, like behind like a Megan
Framo and an Ali Aguilar and like a hand of Flippin.
They bring a lot of maturity to that side of
the game. And then you get girls like Tory Vidallas,
like Jada and Alcin that love playing, and you like
(04:11):
put those together and they kind of bring out the
best of each of each other. So it's been a
really cool kind of culture shift. And like since I've
joined the talents, I feel like we've been on the
up and up, and it's just been so fun to
be kind of connected to that, you know, starting to
find your feet a little bit. You want to lay
back and figure out how it is and then you
can be a part of it. And I feel like
coming in for this weekend, I've really felt like, finally
(04:33):
I am a talent, you know, and it's.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Just the coolest thing in the world. And continuously getting
better because not only you being a talent in inaugural
season of AUSL, but you one fourth place in the
prior format of athletes unlimited and now you have thrown
the first complete game in AUSL history. So you literally
(04:55):
all you do is keep getting better. How how do
you continue as the evolve as a pitcher and not
plateau which came me easy to do.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I actually it's difficult because I did have a plateau year.
I would say maybe like two years ago. I was
like only a grat assistant. I was only really throwing
VP at like my alma mater, at USF. And the
big thing about BP is you're trying to get hit,
you know, You're just throwing fastballs for people to get
their barrel to something, to have a lot of feel goods.
And so I came to AUSL and suddenly everyone was
(05:25):
getting barrel. Everyone was feeling really good off of me,
and I hated it. I had never really felt that
before in my life. And so when I went to Japan,
I think that was a really big turnaround for me
because I had to start being in these like really
new and unique situations and it's almost like being a
freshman in college again. Yeah, and so I had to
start all over and relearn myself. And then coming in
(05:45):
last year and being a fourth place medalist I think
was a direct translation of that. But the hard part
about that is you have to put in the work,
you know. I think I was really complacent in being
good for a long time and knowing that because you
were in college someone was already demanding the work of you,
you didn't have to demand the work of yourself. And
so I finally got the time to go to Japan
(06:05):
and be by myself and have to demand that of myself,
and so learning that skill and bringing it back into
AU was kind of the deciding factor for me to
now come in this year and have that growth and
have that new mentality and carry that into this year.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I don't have a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Of expectations for myself. I love the team dynamic of
it all because it's not one person, you know. I'm
so happy that they trusted me to throw that complete game,
to get the shutout and have that little moment of history.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
But it wasn't for me, you know. It was for
the talents.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
It was for the team and in a sense for
the league, because when you compete well and you play well,
people want to watch that, you know. And I want
to be a reason that people want to tune in
and watch AUSL and be a part of why it
continues growing.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Yes, said Diamonds. All of it Clockett clocking maam, exclamation point,
am my talent. Oh work love. Let me see that
you broke it down, you know, I.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Know, And it's a really cool part to be a
part of something like that and still have individual success,
which can be very hard, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, But it's never just one person. What do you
feel like you learned about yourself from that experience of
Japan be able to come into a USL and have
the performances that you've been able to have.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I think I learned that I can do it. I
think for a while, especially when I hit that plateau year,
you kind of have those little like pieces of doubt
that start coming in and be like, am I really
that good? Did I deserve to be here? You know?
You look at some of the names, even in this
room alone, you'll get some of the legends of the sport,
and I still couldn't feel like my name belonged to
(07:38):
be in those spaces, you know, which is a difficult
feeling sometimes, and I think that a part of that
is being like a woman in sport as well. It's
like sometimes thinking, oh, well, like I've been told my
whole life, well yeah, sports, great.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
What are you gonna do next? What are you gonna
do after? When are you gonna get married? When are
you gonna have kids?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
You know? Like things that sometimes are check marks for
some people and can be great check marks, but they
weren't my check mark at that time, you know, And
so I was worried that I had all these big
dreams for myself and that no one else believed in
the dream.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
You know that they were always like yeah, that's cool,
but like what's next? You know, what are you going
to do next?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And having that year where I really was like kind
of by myself in a foreign country, learning myself, I
realized that, like, my dreams are my dreams for a reason.
They're not someone else's dreams because they've got their own dreams.
I had to believe in my dream because if no
one else believed in it, I had to. And so
that was a really cool thing for me to come
back and bring back and suddenly I felt free. If
(08:33):
I failed or if I succeeded, it didn't matter anymore
because I was living my dream. And so I had
a little bit of freedom in that, in my ability
to now train and push myself because I had a hard,
solid truth, which is I'm going to live my dream
no matter what. It didn't feel like I needed to
make it to LA twenty twenty eight or I needed
to be a champion. Those weren't defining factors for me
anymore because I'd kind of defined myself for a moment
(08:55):
there and so coming in for this season, that's where
I really wanted to live in that moment of I'm
gonna be myself regardless, and she's gonna win and she's
gonna lose, but I'm gonna be happy with me.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
It's so interesting you talk about how at moments you
didn't feel like you were good enough, because your senior
year you popped off. You were literally the best. I'm
gonna read off these stats. I have to read them
because there are that many. In her senior year, Georgina
broke forty different usf and AAC records, first pitching triple
(09:29):
crown winner in n C double A history, led the
country in e RA innings, pitched shutouts, strikeout to walk ratio, strikeouts,
and victories. She's also an FCA Pitcher of the Year.
It's not bad. It's work right, easy, easy done.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Easy. If you win some of those and you want
to come in the same city, you know, you know
he's keeping track of these things.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, Nos, easy to do. How does someone that has
reached that much success has proven not only to yourself hopefully,
but to the world of how great the pitch you
are get to a place where you don't feel like
you're good enough.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
I think it's a difficult question because all the accolades
are really cool on paper, but they kind of accumulate
over time, right, some of those things that like if
you show up and do your job every single day,
then eventually some of those things start to carry forward.
And I think also I take a lot of pride
in having come from what is essentially kind of a
mid major, right like USF was one of a couple
(10:34):
of really really good colleges in just the state of Florida.
So like I didn't make it out of a regional
I oftentimes like postseason was a fight and a crawl
for US pretty much every single year, which for some
teams that was it was more of an expectation than
it was something that had to be like strived for.
They knew they were going to be the postseason. It
was what were they going to do with their postseason?
(10:55):
For US, it was like, we need to sprint marathon
our way all the way to postseason, hope that we
make it, and then we'll figure it out when we
get there, you know. So I think it comes with
a little bit of that mentality coming through college and
then you get a lot of people that who aren't
a part.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Of the sport and aren't in our area. You have
a lot of things to say.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
You know, they're like, oh, well, she only earned those
awards because she played at a lower tier college or
she didn't have the same caliber of competition as other people.
So I think it took a while for me to
come into this league and throw against the best of
the best to kind of pull myself to that higher
standard of Oh okay, Like I wasn't just good because
of that one singular scenario that I was in. I'm
(11:34):
good because I continue to be good in every space
that I enter. But the hard part about pitching is
you fail more than you succeed, which is a really
difficult mentality sometimes, and you have to constantly have that
bounce back mentality because as a pitcher, you can't win
a game. You physically can't win a game. I can't
hit a home run unless someone gives me a bat.
(11:55):
You know, you can only ever lose a game, which
is a difficult mentality if you choose to take it
from a negative side of things. But as a picture,
you can give your team the best opportunity. So I
think a lot of pictures will kind of carry this
team first mentality forward always because it's really important, but
also because we physically cannot win a game. So I
(12:15):
think when I was in these moments and I kept losing,
these moments where like I was throwing everything that I
could and losing, you start to question yourself a little
bit of like if this is everything that I have
to give, what more is there? You know? And so
it took that year of me kind of rediscovering myself
and being like it wasn't everything that I could give,
it was just everything that I could.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Give at that moment. I still had the work.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
I could still put in the time on my training
and get where I needed to be. And that has
been kind of night and day for me in my.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Development from two years ago.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
If you'll get the stats here in this league to now,
it's just a completely different mentality and a different kind
of grind that I've been able to adopt as my own.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
That's a diamond being dropped. That's a ding, that was
a diamonds, that's a ding, that's a dig. Wow. Yeah,
this wasn't It's more than just a moment, is what
I really got from that because.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
If you can only succeed in one moment, then it's
not success, you know, It's only a single moment of greatness,
you know. And so I've kind of had to branch
out and try and be in different places, whether it's
international through GB whether it's Japan for the JDL, or here.
If I can be great in all of those places,
then I know that I'm great, you know, Because if
everything else is moving and I say the same, then
(13:28):
I know that it's me, you know, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Everything else is moving, but I say the same, I
know that it's me.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, which is kind of cool, you know. And that
is what succeane success is, and that's what I want
to be. I want to be successful for a long time,
no matter what the circumstances are. And it's taken me
a long time to learn that.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Wow, let's take a quick break to hear a word
from our sponsoring. How would you advise someone to be
able to stay themselves no matter what is moving around them? Like,
(14:10):
from what you've learned and your reflection, what is it?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
I think it gets there. It's where confidence is. I
think everyone chases confidence. I think especially like remember when
you were little and like middle school, high school, you
were like always kind of watching someone else and you're like, oh,
they're really cool.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I kind of want to be like them.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Or whether it's TV or something, you always wanted to
emulate someone else, and so when you were emulating them,
you didn't always feel confident in trying to be somebody
else because it's not you, you know, And so you're
always going to feel that little kind of nugget of
insecurity of like, am I doing it right? You know?
Versus as I've gotten older, I start to realize that
(14:46):
true confidence comes from being yourself, and that confidence leaks
into everything. It leaks into my softball in that I
don't need to throw seventy six miles an hour. I
don't need to be a drop ball pitcher or see
these other people that are very successful and try to
become them when I can have confidence in what I
do and be successful with who I am. And that
has improved my relationship with my family. It's improved my
(15:07):
relationship with my friends because you stop trying to be
somebody else and you just are you, and the people
that really like you for you hang around and it
doesn't feel like they are always on the verge of
leaving because you're pretending to be somebody that you're not,
you know, And so I always joke that, like at
twenty five, you're like frontal lobe kicks in and you're like,
oh my gosh, life is so easy. Suddenly out of nowhere, Hey,
you're like, wait, my brain is really cooked.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
She's come out of the oven. She's cooked, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And I really do feel like I hit like twenty
four to twenty five, and I was like, why am
I pretending to be somebody that I'm not? Why do
I want to be somebody else so badly? When I'm
really cool, you know? And I love who I am.
And it's made my friendships and like my relationship with
my parents so much stronger because now I just get
to be me And there's no like exhaustion that comes
with trying to be somebody else and like draining yourself
(15:52):
that way.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
There's no when you don't have exhaustion of trying to
be someone else, you have all the energy to be yourself.
It's so freeing, isn't that funding?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Like aren't you proud who you are? Like I've grown
up watching you have been like a j Andrews is
so cool. But now I know that I don't need
to try and be like you because you're you, and
that's like so beautiful and really cool. And I get
to be me and hopefully like I get to like
you more by being me, because then you're never in
competition with anybody because it's you versus you.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
It's not you versus them another that they dropped now
that is to me. One of the things I like
to tell, especially young girls, all the time. It's your
superpower is that you are you, and then there's no
one on this earth that is you. And to not
make people to your point your goals, make them people
(16:41):
that you are inspired by, right, because if you make
someone your goal, then who's to say that you weren't
supposed to exceed that goal. Who's to say that you
couldn't be bigger or better. So you make people guides inspiration,
not goals, so that you can truly be yourself and
not try to be them and see how far and
fast it can get you. Yeah, otherwise you're just putting
(17:03):
limits on yourself.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, and they are your limit, which it takes the
control out of your hands because you're the only one
in control of how good you can be, So why
limit yourself by somebody else?
Speaker 1 (17:13):
You know, like why why? Why would you do? Why
do we do that?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
You?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Me and my therapist would love to know that. I know,
literally honestly didn't have these conversations why why you know,
we look in the mirrors like why did I do that?
Or you do something like why I just do that? Yeah?
And then you have the moments when day I'm actually,
you do something really cool, like I don't know, throw
a no hitter, a perfect game like you did against Ireland,
and then you're like, yeah, being me is pretty cool.
(17:38):
It's actually kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I enjoy being me, I know, and I love that
feeling and I want that feeling to be like an
everyday feeling, you know, which is hard, but it's fun
to chase it, you know, it.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Is fun to chase it. And I think that that's
what we should tell people, like to chase every single day,
how to fall in love with yourself, Chase what that
looks like? What can I do today to make myself
love myself more different for everyone? And it's like you
gotta find it and every day is going to look different.
That process of loving yourself like today, I love my makeup.
(18:07):
It looks great. Mahla Enfield killed it. Yeah, it looks stunning.
Makeup by Mikayla. Makeup by Mikayla. Area fifty one area
in town. You were a dozen and he brought you
back down way better. You have Dan. Well that perfect
game is you do against Ireland because you play for
(18:27):
GB Great Britain. What is that like? Being able to
cause you both your parents were born in the UK.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Both my parents were born and raised lived pretty much
their whole lives in the UK, and then I was
born there and then we moved over here when I
was super baby. I was like three four months old.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Okay, wow, so you have a passport for both only
for the UK.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Actually, I'm only a UK citizen because my parents became
US citizens and in order to play for Team GB,
you have to have an active passport. So I maintained
my GB passport and I'm only a GB citizen.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
You're not an old time citizen of America. No, love
that I know.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Me and my me and my green card go everywhere together,
my emotional support green card.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Wait, okay, I'm a name it something that's okay, thank you?
One of my favorite things to do ever, is a
British accent literally just comes out. I can't help it. Honestly,
my voice is a little right now, but you tell
me how it sounds.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Okay, Okay, Georgina. Georgina is on dropping diamonds and she's
here to drop some diamonds today because she is bloody brilliant.
But the things that she says, but also with the
pictures that she throws out on the.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Mound, that's kind of smashing love smashing, kind of smashing
you kind of smashed it.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yeah, that's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Well, I have good chat, have a good chat, a
bad chat.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Not mugging me off that mugging. I would never mug you.
Love Okay, perfect, thank you.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I feel like my British accent is bad because I'm
so used to it at home. You know, You're like,
I've got a British like it's like we got McDonald's
at home. I got British accent at home, So like
I can't do one. I always just resort back to
Love Island, UK, which is.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
So much more literally by physically from my accent. I
tell people from Manchester because that's where most of the
guys are from have a good shot, a good chat Manchester. Yeah,
it's actually very good.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I was very grazed sometimes and everyone like falls into
the like, oh you want a cup of tea of you.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Know, everyone falls into that. No, you whipped out the
real accent. You are a man girl. Thank you, Love
Island for all that you've done for me. There's a
lot of wasted time, a lot of waste, a lot
of red rotting. Yeah, what goes into throwing a perfect game?
The mentality of it.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Perfect games are difficult because I feel like I go
into every game saying I'm going to throw a perfect game.
But the difference about like a no hitter in a
perfect game is like a no hitter. A pitcher can
achieve a no hitter relatively singularly, but a perfect game
is it's like a whole game effort. So it's really
cool that I get to play for GB and like
be a part of that program because it's a program
(21:15):
that's constantly changing and evolving. With we usually end up
having a really really young roster because as you get older,
a lot of girls unless you're able to do what
I do, which is an incredible blessing and make softball
my career. A lot of girls kind of hit that
twenty one to twenty two mark and then not able
to take six seven weeks out of the summer to
fly to Europe and play anymore. So we end up
kind of relying on the important talent of our young players.
(21:38):
So sometimes I'll be pitching and my first basement is
thirteen or fourteen, you know, and you never kind of
feel that age difference as much until you're in those
moments and you're having to have those conversations with quite
young players that haven't experienced the game at the same
level that you have with an additional ten years of
experience on them. So, like having a perfect game against
Ireland in that moment with a lot of my young
(22:00):
players that are now going to be essential to the
program was really kind of like mind blowing for me
as well, because it was an eye opening time of like,
we can really do this. Knowing that LA twenty twenty
eight is right around the corner and they're only going
to take one team out of all of Europe and Africa.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
You know, why does it deserve to be GB?
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Why does GB need to be the team that goes
instead of in Italy instead of a Netherlands someone with
a little bit more tenure in that spot. And it
was having a game like that, you know, where you
look around and you're like, I'm surrounded by some of
the coolest fourteen year olds with the same kind of
cultural heritage and pride that I have, And we can
do it in five to six years. Think about how
much better they're going to be, even knowing how good
(22:38):
they are right now. So like having a moment like
that is always really cool. And then like doing it
in front of my parents, who like uprooted their whole
life to leave the UK and start anew in the US.
But I still get to be a part of them
and their heritage in that way, which is just It's
always I say that my greatest privilege in my life
every single year is playing for GMGB. You know, of
(22:58):
all the cool things that I do, that it's the coolest.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Do you eat the beans and toast? I don't eat
the beans and toasts, but I do. It's shameful.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
I enjoy mushy peas that it's exactly what it sounds like.
They take your peas and they yeah and eat it. Yeah.
It was like baby food. Yeah, they kind of seasoning
on it. No, it's England.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
No, you're just eating a smashed pea.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Yeah, eating a smash pee you and sometimes you know,
there's sometimes there's a fish there. There's like you know,
fish and chips with mushy peas or like a shepherd's
pie with mushy peas.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
It's very it's you know, we eat like we're still
in the Wars. You know, it happens. Its Georgia.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Some of the greatest athletes in the world coming out
of the UK are on that mushy pee grind one.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Know what makes her so great on the mountad eat
the mushy pee, eat the mushy peees and find out
and find out. And I wish you the greatest supply.
There's more to cover, but first let's take a quick break.
(24:07):
I watched a video on you and then I read
an article from and in it you said in it,
as long as you're winning, ladies and gentlemen, you're not losing.
And and that's genius, and that is as long as
you're way, you know, you're not losing. And it really
made me take a step back and think about life.
And that was just like you know what, She's right.
(24:30):
As long as I can keep winning, I will not
be losing. And I'm not down. As long as I'm up,
I'm never down. And as long as I'm up, I'm okay.
But honestly, that's a bar.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
It's kind of is it really is very We keep
a running like notes app of all the crazy things
that we say on the talents, and I think we need.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
To add that. We do add that, which one, as
long as you're up, you're not down. As long as
you're up, you're not down. I know, as long as
you're winning, you're not losing. I know what else do
we have that is?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
It reminds me there's a famous brillis one which is
winning is fun. Winning is so fun, guys is so fun.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Remind me of the if you're not first, your last,
and you're not if you're not first, you are not last,
what you are last? If you're not first, your last,
if you're not first to your last, if you're not first,
your last. And it might be Ricky Bobby, it might
be that might that might be Talladega Nights, it might
be I've never watched that movie, and I know that quote.
I think you can't get away from that coat. You
(25:23):
cannot juda. You are also certified in scuba diving. M sure,
I am. I know I got that at like probably
you are so interesting, trust me.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
The side quest that I go on when I'm not
here is are insane, absolutely insane. When I tell people
Caroline Jacobson yesterday was like would you go cave diving?
Speaker 1 (25:46):
And I was like, girl, I've already died it. I'm
certified for that.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I did take you cave diving, which is as kind
of a threat, but like I could take you cave
diving if I really needed to.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
How does it take to get certified?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
About like a year and a bit, It depends. I
got it. It was actually a birthday gift from my
dad when I was like fifteen, because I wanted to
be marine biologist and he wanted to be my dad,
which is very sweet, and so he was willing. He
was willing to play his life on the line and
get scuba diving certified with me. And so it's more
of like you have to get your hours in and
we would like go to the springs on like a
(26:18):
day that I didn't have softball practice or softball practice
or a softball game or you know, getting hit lesson
or a pitching lesson. Whenever I had twelve minutes to myself,
we would go scuba diving together.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
And so I did maybe. I think you got to
do like thirty or forty.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Individual dives maybe, and we got certified and so for
the next year. On my birthday, we went to the
Georgia Aquarium and they have whale sharks, and so we
got to dive in the tank with the whale sharks.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
And it's like my favorite birthday that I've ever had.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
It's me and my dad in the Georgia Aquarium and
I got to like do the mime thing against the
glass and all the kids are like there looking in
the aquarium and you get to like act like you're
a fish and like look out from inside of the aquarium.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
It was really cool. Would you go cave dive me through?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
I don't know that. That's kind of like risking my
life for nothing. Yeah, it's like the people that jump
out of planes. I'm like, you don't jump out of
a plane if you've got like great stuff happening on
the ground.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
You know, I don't need to get up there. There's
another bar kind of why would I Why do you
go there when everything I love is right here on
the ground. Yeah, I don't know. It's one of those things.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I'm sure some people really enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
It's not for me. I love these is We're going
now to. My favorite segment is no fly zone segment.
Return the field into no fly zone. Even as a picture,
it is something to do, possible to do. What is
your favorite play that you've ever made or your favorite outing?
Oh gosh, that's kind of a hard one.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
I am a big fan of People don't like to
think of like pictures as like athletes. Sometimes they're kind
of like, oh, you guys are like in your little circle,
and please stay in your circle, Like, don't leave your circle.
Don't endanger anybody else by getting out of there. I
had a really really cool play I think in college
where Ken Erickson was my head coach at USF, and
he loved his matchups. He loved having a lefty versus
(28:02):
lefty matchup. Like right he's kind of against power righties,
and so what he would do is to ensure that
your pitcher could have a good matchup without having to
kind of burn them. He would put whoever he might
need in left field and have the other pitcher pitching.
So there was a game against I think it was
Yukon my freshman year, maybe my sophomore year, where I
had to go out and play left field while our
(28:24):
lefty pitcher went in to go do like two batters
of the lefty lefty matchup, and someone hit an absolute
rocket off of the left field wall.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Play it off the wall, come up firing through. The
girl out at second base, thought she could get second
off of me. You're in right field. I was in
left field, the left field.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
She hits it off of the wall and I had
to read it, turn and throw the ball to second base,
and I got her trying to get in there, and
then I had to go in like the next batter
and like strike out a batter. And it was like
one of those innings where you're like could anything else
go wrong?
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Like does anyone need to catch her? Like what do
you guys need me to do next?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
And it was like my favorite play that I've ever made,
and it had absolutely nothing to do with pitching. It
was because I got five minutes of fame in left field,
and I get it. I understand why you guys love
being out there. It's so fun they I didn't have
to die of thank god. It was not like a
no fly zone, but there was like.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Almost half of a note. But it's still a no
fly zone because you got her out of there. Yeah,
she touched her. She didn't get the second. You sure
did not on Georgina's watch on my not on my cannon.
You're not getting the second. Yeah, that's so funny. It
has nothing to do with pitching. Ooh she I love
it when you know pictures make a cool play and
everyone's like, ooh, she's.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
And you like made the same play that your short
stoup make. It's like fifteen times a day and everyone's.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Like, wow, look at you go. Good job. So she's
a picture in an outfielder's Ladies and gentlemen. Don't be
telling people that it's a threat.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, you don't tell people that because Dobby will put
me out there and I can't.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
I can't do it. He would too, He's so funny.
I love him. What would you say is your favorite
failure that's ultimately led to some of your biggest successes.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
I had to have a knee surgery my sophomore year
of college. I'd torn my meniscus in high school, I
want to say, and just kept retearing it and retearing it,
and we couldn't figure out what was wrong with it,
but it would like swell up after games.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I couldn't like bend my knee. It was really painful.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
And we finally got to scan my sophomore year and
they were like, listen, if you get the surgery, it's
going to be a full repair, and it's probably going
to be you're going to be out for six months
before you can really pitch.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
If you do that right now. It was like September,
late September.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
You do that right now, there's a solid chance you
might have to red shirt your sophomore year. And I
just had a really really good freshman year, like I'd
kind of come out, I'd really started to define myself
and like who I was. I was a drop curve
pitcher coming in my freshman year. That's all I had
was drop curve and change up right, nothing crazy, And
they're like, you're probably going to have to get this surgery.
And we don't know how pitchers bounce back from knee injuries.
(30:50):
Sometimes they're really difficult. And it was my push off leg.
So I said, Honestly, it's been I've been playing with
it so painfully for the last four or five years.
I'll do their repair and I'll take it and see
if I can rush the rehab and come back and
compete for my team. But if I can't, I'll take
the red shirt year and do an extra year of development.
But I was devastated, you know. I wanted to be
on the field so badly, and we did. We ended
(31:12):
up getting the surgery in like late September, and we
pushed like a six or seven month recovery into four
and I worked harder than I think I've ever worked
in my entire life. Did rehab On Christmas Day, I'm
like my sister's opening Christmas gifts and I'm doing glut
bridges in the living room.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
You know, I was on it.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
I was so determined to be back, and I had
an amazing pitching coaching Jessica Moore, who was checking in
all the time, was giving me everything that I needed
to do. And I came back and that was the
first year. I came in maybe late February early March,
and my first game back, full game back, was against
Arizona ranked Arizona at the time, and we got our
first win against Arizona ever as our US program, and
(31:52):
we went on and that was the first year that
I was an All American and it was with my
knee brace under my pants. I went out there and
I just really rebuilt myself from the ground up. And
it was another kind of like flashback to like, are
you going to realize how much you want it? You know,
how badly do you want it? Are you willing to
put in the work to regrow yourself from where you
thought that you were the best you could ever be
(32:13):
and start again? And it was it was my start
again moment and ever since from then, I felt like
I really became who I wanted to be. I developed
my rise ball, I started having a screwball, and my
entire repertoire changed because I was willing to be brave
in that moment and start again from scratch.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
And it was really scary.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
But I still think that was my big moment in
my life where I had to ask myself do you
want it bad enough? And I did, And now I've
kind of carried that mentality forward into the prosphere.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
I think that it's so profound though, to be able
to say I am willing to start again, because that
can that sounds scary just saying it out loud, And
for so many people deal with injuries, not just in sooptball,
obviously in all sports, the courage to start again and
to know that it will be okay at the end,
Where did you find that?
Speaker 2 (33:00):
I think you have to lean really heavily on your
sports systems. We've spoken a little bit about my parents already,
but John and Sally are like my rock.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
You know, I know a lot of people their family
is everything.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Your family is the one thing that is probably gonna
be with you your entire life unconditionally. Friends come and go.
There are times when it's difficult to build that kind
of connection with people. But my parents never ever gave
up faith in me. They were always they told me,
no matter how much you fail, no matter how much
you don't get what you think that you want, We're
going to love you through it regardless. So they were
(33:32):
the ones driving to my rehab appointments. They were the
ones that showed up and were willing to sacrifice everything
to allow me to continue chasing my dreams and following
my dreams. So I think when you kind of hit
those roadblocks in your life where you have to ask,
am I willing to start again? Because it's really scary,
and from a lot of standpoints, you're like, what if
the person that I become people don't like? You know,
(33:54):
my friends who loved me before? What if they don't
like the new version of me? But you can really
lean on your sports systems that show you that no
matter what who you are, every single day, they're willing
to go to war for that person. And my family
was my number one rock through moments like that where
I didn't know if I wanted to keep playing softball.
I didn't know if I deserved to keep playing softball,
if I was going to come back good enough to
(34:15):
be who I was before that moment?
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Was I going to lose my scholarship?
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Was I going to be the athlete that they had
grown to love and they'd worked so hard to develop?
Speaker 1 (34:22):
But they sat me down.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
I remember them sitting in front of me and being like,
no matter what happens after this, we're going to love
you exactly the same, whether you're the star of every
team or you never touch the field again, We're going
to love you no matter what, Like nothing has changed
and so I was willing to have the courage to
kind of start again and try again. And I love
who I became from that moment, you know, which is
a really cool moment. We talked about kind of falling
(34:44):
in love with yourself every single day, and that was
one of the first times that I remember loving who
I was as a person and looking past the lens of.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Who I was as an athlete. I know, Dan, love
John and Sell. They're so cute with their little British action. Sally,
I know, just want in Sally. They're so sweet. Jordina,
thank you so much for coming on and dropping your diamonds,
letting us all know to be able to it's okay
to start again and to fall in love with the
(35:11):
process of falling in love with yourself. It is okay
to do it, and that's the only way we can
really be big better best, be the big better getting
better and be the best being the best. Thank you
so much, of course, thank you, Ijia. I appreciate it.
I'll catch all of you guys next week back on
the Diamond Bipe and now dropping diamonds with AJ Andrews
(35:40):
is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Athletes
Unlimited Softball League and Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. I'm
your host, AJ Andrews. Our executive producer is Jesse Katz.
Tari Harrison is our supervising producer, and this episode was
mixed and mastered by Mary Do. Listen to Dropping Diamonds
with Aga Andrews on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(36:03):
wherever you get your podcasts
Dropping Diamonds with AJ Andrews is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Athletes Unlimited Softball League and Deep
Blue Sports and Entertainment. Welcome to Dropping Diamonds with Me
aj Andrews, where we die of headfirst into the world
of softball. Today, I'm joined by one of the greatest
(00:25):
pictures to ever step on the mound. She is an
All American out of USF. She plays on the British
national team, and she is a part of the AUSL Talents.
It is none other than the beautiful, the talented Georgina Corey.
Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you
for having me, Adria. I'm so excited. I'm so excited.
(00:47):
First of all, when I start all of these, I
really like to start with an affirmation to really get
us going and feeling good. You know, you have the
lead things off right and so an affirmation that I
thought of when going to be able to talk to
you because of the way you're able to dominate on
the mound. It is I'm the best, big better, best,
(01:08):
I'm the biggest. I keep getting better and I am
the best.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I'm the biggest, I keep getting better and I am
the best and my biggest, I.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Mean, like the biggest to ever do it, like the
best to do it. I feel, you know what I mean,
because there's there's some big gals out here, But I'm
the biggest, but you're the biggest. But I'm the biggest,
but you're the biggest. If do you have a quote
or an affirmation that you like to live by.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's actually funny that you say that, because ever since
I was like nine, my affirmation has been be better
because I love that.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
It was something my dad always would like yell at
me when I pitch.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
But it's like so it's carried through with my life
because when I was younger, I was just like, well,
I just need to I just need to be a
little better, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I just every day, I'm going to get a little better.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And then as I got more competitive and started like
competing in the international side of things, the collegiate side
of things, being better was more of like a mentality
of like, can I be a better person in this moment?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Can I be a better teammate? Can I be.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Anything that you can kind of apply that to you
probably have a lot of space for growth.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
So I actually used to have it written in my visor.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I had it in my glove and it was like
something that my dad used to say a lot when
I was growing up, And now when I'm here, I'm like,
you are playing against the best of the best, but
you need to be better.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And I think that's a really cool way to like kind.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Of hold yourself to a higher standard without having some
of that negative self talk that I know pictures in particular,
Like for us, it's you throw a hundred pitches, you
mess up once, and everyone will remember the one once up,
you know, which is difficult. So it's a good way
to have that positive mentality of like, yeah, you got
to be a little bit, but you can be better.
And it's that kind of like gentle push that I
really like that keeps me striving towards the next big thing.
(02:42):
The next big thing will also appreciating how hard I've
worked to be where I.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Was, you know. I love Yeah, So I love that
you kind of like played into that in my mind.
Better best, I am the bigger, I'm the bigger, biggest,
I am the bigger I am, I'm the bigger woman
big will be the bigger woman better, and I am
the best. I love that big age a big a us.
(03:09):
We just we'll just turn rolls off the tongue. Yeah,
very well. I like AJ a little better, big G,
big G. Yeah. I love that you always always do
the that's the talents thing. I feel.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
It's like you got the talents, but you gotta that
makes we kind of you hit the double. We got
a couple of dances moving in. I mean, I don't
be hitting doubles, but I'm in the dugout with them.
You know, how is it being a talent? I love it.
I think that especially when they had the draft and
they started like picking the names, I was like, this
(03:42):
is getting kind of dangerous from like a player side
of things.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You never really know how the culture is gonna mesh
when you get in there.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
And I came in a little late because I played
in Japan, so I was definitely a little nervous coming
in because it's hard to like join something halfway through.
But I mean it's just been incredible the leaders that
we have on the field, like behind like a Megan
Framo and an Ali Aguilar and like a hand of Flippin.
They bring a lot of maturity to that side of
the game. And then you get girls like Tory Vidallas,
like Jada and Alcin that love playing, and you like
(04:11):
put those together and they kind of bring out the
best of each of each other. So it's been a
really cool kind of culture shift. And like since I've
joined the talents, I feel like we've been on the
up and up, and it's just been so fun to
be kind of connected to that, you know, starting to
find your feet a little bit. You want to lay
back and figure out how it is and then you
can be a part of it. And I feel like
coming in for this weekend, I've really felt like, finally
(04:33):
I am a talent, you know, and it's.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Just the coolest thing in the world. And continuously getting
better because not only you being a talent in inaugural
season of AUSL, but you one fourth place in the
prior format of athletes unlimited and now you have thrown
the first complete game in AUSL history. So you literally
(04:55):
all you do is keep getting better. How how do
you continue as the evolve as a pitcher and not
plateau which came me easy to do.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I actually it's difficult because I did have a plateau year.
I would say maybe like two years ago. I was
like only a grat assistant. I was only really throwing
VP at like my alma mater, at USF. And the
big thing about BP is you're trying to get hit,
you know, You're just throwing fastballs for people to get
their barrel to something, to have a lot of feel goods.
And so I came to AUSL and suddenly everyone was
(05:25):
getting barrel. Everyone was feeling really good off of me,
and I hated it. I had never really felt that
before in my life. And so when I went to Japan,
I think that was a really big turnaround for me
because I had to start being in these like really
new and unique situations and it's almost like being a
freshman in college again. Yeah, and so I had to
start all over and relearn myself. And then coming in
(05:45):
last year and being a fourth place medalist I think
was a direct translation of that. But the hard part
about that is you have to put in the work,
you know. I think I was really complacent in being
good for a long time and knowing that because you
were in college someone was already demanding the work of you,
you didn't have to demand the work of yourself. And
so I finally got the time to go to Japan
(06:05):
and be by myself and have to demand that of myself,
and so learning that skill and bringing it back into
AU was kind of the deciding factor for me to
now come in this year and have that growth and
have that new mentality and carry that into this year.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I don't have a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Of expectations for myself. I love the team dynamic of
it all because it's not one person, you know. I'm
so happy that they trusted me to throw that complete game,
to get the shutout and have that little moment of history.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
But it wasn't for me, you know. It was for
the talents.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
It was for the team and in a sense for
the league, because when you compete well and you play well,
people want to watch that, you know. And I want
to be a reason that people want to tune in
and watch AUSL and be a part of why it
continues growing.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Yes, said Diamonds. All of it Clockett clocking maam, exclamation point,
am my talent. Oh work love. Let me see that
you broke it down, you know, I.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Know, And it's a really cool part to be a
part of something like that and still have individual success,
which can be very hard, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, But it's never just one person. What do you
feel like you learned about yourself from that experience of
Japan be able to come into a USL and have
the performances that you've been able to have.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I think I learned that I can do it. I
think for a while, especially when I hit that plateau year,
you kind of have those little like pieces of doubt
that start coming in and be like, am I really
that good? Did I deserve to be here? You know?
You look at some of the names, even in this
room alone, you'll get some of the legends of the sport,
and I still couldn't feel like my name belonged to
(07:38):
be in those spaces, you know, which is a difficult
feeling sometimes, and I think that a part of that
is being like a woman in sport as well. It's
like sometimes thinking, oh, well, like I've been told my
whole life, well yeah, sports, great.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
What are you gonna do next? What are you gonna
do after? When are you gonna get married? When are
you gonna have kids?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
You know? Like things that sometimes are check marks for
some people and can be great check marks, but they
weren't my check mark at that time, you know, And
so I was worried that I had all these big
dreams for myself and that no one else believed in
the dream.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
You know that they were always like yeah, that's cool,
but like what's next? You know, what are you going
to do next?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And having that year where I really was like kind
of by myself in a foreign country, learning myself, I
realized that, like, my dreams are my dreams for a reason.
They're not someone else's dreams because they've got their own dreams.
I had to believe in my dream because if no
one else believed in it, I had to. And so
that was a really cool thing for me to come
back and bring back and suddenly I felt free. If
(08:33):
I failed or if I succeeded, it didn't matter anymore
because I was living my dream. And so I had
a little bit of freedom in that, in my ability
to now train and push myself because I had a hard,
solid truth, which is I'm going to live my dream
no matter what. It didn't feel like I needed to
make it to LA twenty twenty eight or I needed
to be a champion. Those weren't defining factors for me
anymore because I'd kind of defined myself for a moment
(08:55):
there and so coming in for this season, that's where
I really wanted to live in that moment of I'm
gonna be myself regardless, and she's gonna win and she's
gonna lose, but I'm gonna be happy with me.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
It's so interesting you talk about how at moments you
didn't feel like you were good enough, because your senior
year you popped off. You were literally the best. I'm
gonna read off these stats. I have to read them
because there are that many. In her senior year, Georgina
broke forty different usf and AAC records, first pitching triple
(09:29):
crown winner in n C double A history, led the
country in e RA innings, pitched shutouts, strikeout to walk ratio, strikeouts,
and victories. She's also an FCA Pitcher of the Year.
It's not bad. It's work right, easy, easy done.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Easy. If you win some of those and you want
to come in the same city, you know, you know
he's keeping track of these things.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, Nos, easy to do. How does someone that has
reached that much success has proven not only to yourself hopefully,
but to the world of how great the pitch you
are get to a place where you don't feel like
you're good enough.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
I think it's a difficult question because all the accolades
are really cool on paper, but they kind of accumulate
over time, right, some of those things that like if
you show up and do your job every single day,
then eventually some of those things start to carry forward.
And I think also I take a lot of pride
in having come from what is essentially kind of a
mid major, right like USF was one of a couple
(10:34):
of really really good colleges in just the state of Florida.
So like I didn't make it out of a regional
I oftentimes like postseason was a fight and a crawl
for US pretty much every single year, which for some
teams that was it was more of an expectation than
it was something that had to be like strived for.
They knew they were going to be the postseason. It
was what were they going to do with their postseason?
(10:55):
For US, it was like, we need to sprint marathon
our way all the way to postseason, hope that we
make it, and then we'll figure it out when we
get there, you know. So I think it comes with
a little bit of that mentality coming through college and
then you get a lot of people that who aren't
a part.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Of the sport and aren't in our area. You have
a lot of things to say.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
You know, they're like, oh, well, she only earned those
awards because she played at a lower tier college or
she didn't have the same caliber of competition as other people.
So I think it took a while for me to
come into this league and throw against the best of
the best to kind of pull myself to that higher
standard of Oh okay, Like I wasn't just good because
of that one singular scenario that I was in. I'm
(11:34):
good because I continue to be good in every space
that I enter. But the hard part about pitching is
you fail more than you succeed, which is a really
difficult mentality sometimes, and you have to constantly have that
bounce back mentality because as a pitcher, you can't win
a game. You physically can't win a game. I can't
hit a home run unless someone gives me a bat.
(11:55):
You know, you can only ever lose a game, which
is a difficult mentality if you choose to take it
from a negative side of things. But as a picture,
you can give your team the best opportunity. So I
think a lot of pictures will kind of carry this
team first mentality forward always because it's really important, but
also because we physically cannot win a game. So I
(12:15):
think when I was in these moments and I kept losing,
these moments where like I was throwing everything that I
could and losing, you start to question yourself a little
bit of like if this is everything that I have
to give, what more is there? You know? And so
it took that year of me kind of rediscovering myself
and being like it wasn't everything that I could give,
it was just everything that I could.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Give at that moment. I still had the work.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
I could still put in the time on my training
and get where I needed to be. And that has
been kind of night and day for me in my.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Development from two years ago.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
If you'll get the stats here in this league to now,
it's just a completely different mentality and a different kind
of grind that I've been able to adopt as my own.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
That's a diamond being dropped. That's a ding, that was
a diamonds, that's a ding, that's a dig. Wow. Yeah,
this wasn't It's more than just a moment, is what
I really got from that because.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
If you can only succeed in one moment, then it's
not success, you know, It's only a single moment of greatness,
you know. And so I've kind of had to branch
out and try and be in different places, whether it's
international through GB whether it's Japan for the JDL, or here.
If I can be great in all of those places,
then I know that I'm great, you know, Because if
everything else is moving and I say the same, then
(13:28):
I know that it's me, you know, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Everything else is moving, but I say the same, I
know that it's me.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, which is kind of cool, you know. And that
is what succeane success is, and that's what I want
to be. I want to be successful for a long time,
no matter what the circumstances are. And it's taken me
a long time to learn that.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Wow, let's take a quick break to hear a word
from our sponsoring. How would you advise someone to be
able to stay themselves no matter what is moving around them? Like,
(14:10):
from what you've learned and your reflection, what is it?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
I think it gets there. It's where confidence is. I
think everyone chases confidence. I think especially like remember when
you were little and like middle school, high school, you
were like always kind of watching someone else and you're like, oh,
they're really cool.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I kind of want to be like them.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Or whether it's TV or something, you always wanted to
emulate someone else, and so when you were emulating them,
you didn't always feel confident in trying to be somebody
else because it's not you, you know, And so you're
always going to feel that little kind of nugget of
insecurity of like, am I doing it right? You know?
Versus as I've gotten older, I start to realize that
(14:46):
true confidence comes from being yourself, and that confidence leaks
into everything. It leaks into my softball in that I
don't need to throw seventy six miles an hour. I
don't need to be a drop ball pitcher or see
these other people that are very successful and try to
become them when I can have confidence in what I
do and be successful with who I am. And that
has improved my relationship with my family. It's improved my
(15:07):
relationship with my friends because you stop trying to be
somebody else and you just are you, and the people
that really like you for you hang around and it
doesn't feel like they are always on the verge of
leaving because you're pretending to be somebody that you're not,
you know, And so I always joke that, like at
twenty five, you're like frontal lobe kicks in and you're like,
oh my gosh, life is so easy. Suddenly out of nowhere, Hey,
you're like, wait, my brain is really cooked.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
She's come out of the oven. She's cooked, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And I really do feel like I hit like twenty
four to twenty five, and I was like, why am
I pretending to be somebody that I'm not? Why do
I want to be somebody else so badly? When I'm
really cool, you know? And I love who I am.
And it's made my friendships and like my relationship with
my parents so much stronger because now I just get
to be me And there's no like exhaustion that comes
with trying to be somebody else and like draining yourself
(15:52):
that way.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
There's no when you don't have exhaustion of trying to
be someone else, you have all the energy to be yourself.
It's so freeing, isn't that funding?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Like aren't you proud who you are? Like I've grown
up watching you have been like a j Andrews is
so cool. But now I know that I don't need
to try and be like you because you're you, and
that's like so beautiful and really cool. And I get
to be me and hopefully like I get to like
you more by being me, because then you're never in
competition with anybody because it's you versus you.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
It's not you versus them another that they dropped now
that is to me. One of the things I like
to tell, especially young girls, all the time. It's your
superpower is that you are you, and then there's no
one on this earth that is you. And to not
make people to your point your goals, make them people
(16:41):
that you are inspired by, right, because if you make
someone your goal, then who's to say that you weren't
supposed to exceed that goal. Who's to say that you
couldn't be bigger or better. So you make people guides inspiration,
not goals, so that you can truly be yourself and
not try to be them and see how far and
fast it can get you. Yeah, otherwise you're just putting
(17:03):
limits on yourself.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, and they are your limit, which it takes the
control out of your hands because you're the only one
in control of how good you can be, So why
limit yourself by somebody else?
Speaker 1 (17:13):
You know, like why why? Why would you do? Why
do we do that?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
You?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Me and my therapist would love to know that. I know,
literally honestly didn't have these conversations why why you know,
we look in the mirrors like why did I do that?
Or you do something like why I just do that? Yeah?
And then you have the moments when day I'm actually,
you do something really cool, like I don't know, throw
a no hitter, a perfect game like you did against Ireland,
and then you're like, yeah, being me is pretty cool.
(17:38):
It's actually kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I enjoy being me, I know, and I love that
feeling and I want that feeling to be like an
everyday feeling, you know, which is hard, but it's fun
to chase it, you know, it.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Is fun to chase it. And I think that that's
what we should tell people, like to chase every single day,
how to fall in love with yourself, Chase what that
looks like? What can I do today to make myself
love myself more different for everyone? And it's like you
gotta find it and every day is going to look different.
That process of loving yourself like today, I love my makeup.
(18:07):
It looks great. Mahla Enfield killed it. Yeah, it looks stunning.
Makeup by Mikayla. Makeup by Mikayla. Area fifty one area
in town. You were a dozen and he brought you
back down way better. You have Dan. Well that perfect
game is you do against Ireland because you play for
(18:27):
GB Great Britain. What is that like? Being able to
cause you both your parents were born in the UK.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Both my parents were born and raised lived pretty much
their whole lives in the UK, and then I was
born there and then we moved over here when I
was super baby. I was like three four months old.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Okay, wow, so you have a passport for both only
for the UK.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Actually, I'm only a UK citizen because my parents became
US citizens and in order to play for Team GB,
you have to have an active passport. So I maintained
my GB passport and I'm only a GB citizen.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
You're not an old time citizen of America. No, love
that I know.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Me and my me and my green card go everywhere together,
my emotional support green card.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Wait, okay, I'm a name it something that's okay, thank you?
One of my favorite things to do ever, is a
British accent literally just comes out. I can't help it. Honestly,
my voice is a little right now, but you tell
me how it sounds.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Okay, Okay, Georgina. Georgina is on dropping diamonds and she's
here to drop some diamonds today because she is bloody brilliant.
But the things that she says, but also with the
pictures that she throws out on the.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Mound, that's kind of smashing love smashing, kind of smashing
you kind of smashed it.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yeah, that's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Well, I have good chat, have a good chat, a
bad chat.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Not mugging me off that mugging. I would never mug you.
Love Okay, perfect, thank you.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I feel like my British accent is bad because I'm
so used to it at home. You know, You're like,
I've got a British like it's like we got McDonald's
at home. I got British accent at home, So like
I can't do one. I always just resort back to
Love Island, UK, which is.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
So much more literally by physically from my accent. I
tell people from Manchester because that's where most of the
guys are from have a good shot, a good chat Manchester. Yeah,
it's actually very good.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I was very grazed sometimes and everyone like falls into
the like, oh you want a cup of tea of you.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Know, everyone falls into that. No, you whipped out the
real accent. You are a man girl. Thank you, Love
Island for all that you've done for me. There's a
lot of wasted time, a lot of waste, a lot
of red rotting. Yeah, what goes into throwing a perfect game?
The mentality of it.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Perfect games are difficult because I feel like I go
into every game saying I'm going to throw a perfect game.
But the difference about like a no hitter in a
perfect game is like a no hitter. A pitcher can
achieve a no hitter relatively singularly, but a perfect game
is it's like a whole game effort. So it's really
cool that I get to play for GB and like
be a part of that program because it's a program
(21:15):
that's constantly changing and evolving. With we usually end up
having a really really young roster because as you get older,
a lot of girls unless you're able to do what
I do, which is an incredible blessing and make softball
my career. A lot of girls kind of hit that
twenty one to twenty two mark and then not able
to take six seven weeks out of the summer to
fly to Europe and play anymore. So we end up
kind of relying on the important talent of our young players.
(21:38):
So sometimes I'll be pitching and my first basement is
thirteen or fourteen, you know, and you never kind of
feel that age difference as much until you're in those
moments and you're having to have those conversations with quite
young players that haven't experienced the game at the same
level that you have with an additional ten years of
experience on them. So, like having a perfect game against
Ireland in that moment with a lot of my young
(22:00):
players that are now going to be essential to the
program was really kind of like mind blowing for me
as well, because it was an eye opening time of like,
we can really do this. Knowing that LA twenty twenty
eight is right around the corner and they're only going
to take one team out of all of Europe and Africa.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
You know, why does it deserve to be GB?
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Why does GB need to be the team that goes
instead of in Italy instead of a Netherlands someone with
a little bit more tenure in that spot. And it
was having a game like that, you know, where you
look around and you're like, I'm surrounded by some of
the coolest fourteen year olds with the same kind of
cultural heritage and pride that I have, And we can
do it in five to six years. Think about how
much better they're going to be, even knowing how good
(22:38):
they are right now. So like having a moment like
that is always really cool. And then like doing it
in front of my parents, who like uprooted their whole
life to leave the UK and start anew in the US.
But I still get to be a part of them
and their heritage in that way, which is just It's
always I say that my greatest privilege in my life
every single year is playing for GMGB. You know, of
(22:58):
all the cool things that I do, that it's the coolest.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Do you eat the beans and toast? I don't eat
the beans and toasts, but I do. It's shameful.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
I enjoy mushy peas that it's exactly what it sounds like.
They take your peas and they yeah and eat it. Yeah.
It was like baby food. Yeah, they kind of seasoning
on it. No, it's England.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
No, you're just eating a smashed pea.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Yeah, eating a smash pee you and sometimes you know,
there's sometimes there's a fish there. There's like you know,
fish and chips with mushy peas or like a shepherd's
pie with mushy peas.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
It's very it's you know, we eat like we're still
in the Wars. You know, it happens. Its Georgia.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Some of the greatest athletes in the world coming out
of the UK are on that mushy pee grind one.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Know what makes her so great on the mountad eat
the mushy pee, eat the mushy peees and find out
and find out. And I wish you the greatest supply.
There's more to cover, but first let's take a quick break.
(24:07):
I watched a video on you and then I read
an article from and in it you said in it,
as long as you're winning, ladies and gentlemen, you're not losing.
And and that's genius, and that is as long as
you're way, you know, you're not losing. And it really
made me take a step back and think about life.
And that was just like you know what, She's right.
(24:30):
As long as I can keep winning, I will not
be losing. And I'm not down. As long as I'm up,
I'm never down. And as long as I'm up, I'm okay.
But honestly, that's a bar.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
It's kind of is it really is very We keep
a running like notes app of all the crazy things
that we say on the talents, and I think we need.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
To add that. We do add that, which one, as
long as you're up, you're not down. As long as
you're up, you're not down. I know, as long as
you're winning, you're not losing. I know what else do
we have that is?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
It reminds me there's a famous brillis one which is
winning is fun. Winning is so fun, guys is so fun.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Remind me of the if you're not first, your last,
and you're not if you're not first, you are not last,
what you are last? If you're not first, your last,
if you're not first to your last, if you're not first,
your last. And it might be Ricky Bobby, it might
be that might that might be Talladega Nights, it might
be I've never watched that movie, and I know that quote.
I think you can't get away from that coat. You
(25:23):
cannot juda. You are also certified in scuba diving. M sure,
I am. I know I got that at like probably
you are so interesting, trust me.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
The side quest that I go on when I'm not
here is are insane, absolutely insane. When I tell people
Caroline Jacobson yesterday was like would you go cave diving?
Speaker 1 (25:46):
And I was like, girl, I've already died it. I'm
certified for that.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I did take you cave diving, which is as kind
of a threat, but like I could take you cave
diving if I really needed to.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
How does it take to get certified?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
About like a year and a bit, It depends. I
got it. It was actually a birthday gift from my
dad when I was like fifteen, because I wanted to
be marine biologist and he wanted to be my dad,
which is very sweet, and so he was willing. He
was willing to play his life on the line and
get scuba diving certified with me. And so it's more
of like you have to get your hours in and
we would like go to the springs on like a
(26:18):
day that I didn't have softball practice or softball practice
or a softball game or you know, getting hit lesson
or a pitching lesson. Whenever I had twelve minutes to myself,
we would go scuba diving together.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
And so I did maybe. I think you got to
do like thirty or forty.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Individual dives maybe, and we got certified and so for
the next year. On my birthday, we went to the
Georgia Aquarium and they have whale sharks, and so we
got to dive in the tank with the whale sharks.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
And it's like my favorite birthday that I've ever had.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
It's me and my dad in the Georgia Aquarium and
I got to like do the mime thing against the
glass and all the kids are like there looking in
the aquarium and you get to like act like you're
a fish and like look out from inside of the aquarium.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
It was really cool. Would you go cave dive me through?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
I don't know that. That's kind of like risking my
life for nothing. Yeah, it's like the people that jump
out of planes. I'm like, you don't jump out of
a plane if you've got like great stuff happening on
the ground.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
You know, I don't need to get up there. There's
another bar kind of why would I Why do you
go there when everything I love is right here on
the ground. Yeah, I don't know. It's one of those things.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I'm sure some people really enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
It's not for me. I love these is We're going
now to. My favorite segment is no fly zone segment.
Return the field into no fly zone. Even as a picture,
it is something to do, possible to do. What is
your favorite play that you've ever made or your favorite outing?
Oh gosh, that's kind of a hard one.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
I am a big fan of People don't like to
think of like pictures as like athletes. Sometimes they're kind
of like, oh, you guys are like in your little circle,
and please stay in your circle, Like, don't leave your circle.
Don't endanger anybody else by getting out of there. I
had a really really cool play I think in college
where Ken Erickson was my head coach at USF, and
he loved his matchups. He loved having a lefty versus
(28:02):
lefty matchup. Like right he's kind of against power righties,
and so what he would do is to ensure that
your pitcher could have a good matchup without having to
kind of burn them. He would put whoever he might
need in left field and have the other pitcher pitching.
So there was a game against I think it was
Yukon my freshman year, maybe my sophomore year, where I
had to go out and play left field while our
(28:24):
lefty pitcher went in to go do like two batters
of the lefty lefty matchup, and someone hit an absolute
rocket off of the left field wall.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Play it off the wall, come up firing through. The
girl out at second base, thought she could get second
off of me. You're in right field. I was in
left field, the left field.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
She hits it off of the wall and I had
to read it, turn and throw the ball to second base,
and I got her trying to get in there, and
then I had to go in like the next batter
and like strike out a batter. And it was like
one of those innings where you're like could anything else
go wrong?
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Like does anyone need to catch her? Like what do
you guys need me to do next?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
And it was like my favorite play that I've ever made,
and it had absolutely nothing to do with pitching. It
was because I got five minutes of fame in left field,
and I get it. I understand why you guys love
being out there. It's so fun they I didn't have
to die of thank god. It was not like a
no fly zone, but there was like.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Almost half of a note. But it's still a no
fly zone because you got her out of there. Yeah,
she touched her. She didn't get the second. You sure
did not on Georgina's watch on my not on my cannon.
You're not getting the second. Yeah, that's so funny. It
has nothing to do with pitching. Ooh she I love
it when you know pictures make a cool play and
everyone's like, ooh, she's.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
And you like made the same play that your short
stoup make. It's like fifteen times a day and everyone's.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Like, wow, look at you go. Good job. So she's
a picture in an outfielder's Ladies and gentlemen. Don't be
telling people that it's a threat.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, you don't tell people that because Dobby will put
me out there and I can't.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
I can't do it. He would too, He's so funny.
I love him. What would you say is your favorite
failure that's ultimately led to some of your biggest successes.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
I had to have a knee surgery my sophomore year
of college. I'd torn my meniscus in high school, I
want to say, and just kept retearing it and retearing it,
and we couldn't figure out what was wrong with it,
but it would like swell up after games.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I couldn't like bend my knee. It was really painful.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
And we finally got to scan my sophomore year and
they were like, listen, if you get the surgery, it's
going to be a full repair, and it's probably going
to be you're going to be out for six months
before you can really pitch.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
If you do that right now. It was like September,
late September.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
You do that right now, there's a solid chance you
might have to red shirt your sophomore year. And I
just had a really really good freshman year, like I'd
kind of come out, I'd really started to define myself
and like who I was. I was a drop curve
pitcher coming in my freshman year. That's all I had
was drop curve and change up right, nothing crazy, And
they're like, you're probably going to have to get this surgery.
And we don't know how pitchers bounce back from knee injuries.
(30:50):
Sometimes they're really difficult. And it was my push off leg.
So I said, Honestly, it's been I've been playing with
it so painfully for the last four or five years.
I'll do their repair and I'll take it and see
if I can rush the rehab and come back and
compete for my team. But if I can't, I'll take
the red shirt year and do an extra year of development.
But I was devastated, you know. I wanted to be
on the field so badly, and we did. We ended
(31:12):
up getting the surgery in like late September, and we
pushed like a six or seven month recovery into four
and I worked harder than I think I've ever worked
in my entire life. Did rehab On Christmas Day, I'm
like my sister's opening Christmas gifts and I'm doing glut
bridges in the living room.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
You know, I was on it.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
I was so determined to be back, and I had
an amazing pitching coaching Jessica Moore, who was checking in
all the time, was giving me everything that I needed
to do. And I came back and that was the
first year. I came in maybe late February early March,
and my first game back, full game back, was against
Arizona ranked Arizona at the time, and we got our
first win against Arizona ever as our US program, and
(31:52):
we went on and that was the first year that
I was an All American and it was with my
knee brace under my pants. I went out there and
I just really rebuilt myself from the ground up. And
it was another kind of like flashback to like, are
you going to realize how much you want it? You know,
how badly do you want it? Are you willing to
put in the work to regrow yourself from where you
thought that you were the best you could ever be
(32:13):
and start again? And it was it was my start
again moment and ever since from then, I felt like
I really became who I wanted to be. I developed
my rise ball, I started having a screwball, and my
entire repertoire changed because I was willing to be brave
in that moment and start again from scratch.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
And it was really scary.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
But I still think that was my big moment in
my life where I had to ask myself do you
want it bad enough? And I did, And now I've
kind of carried that mentality forward into the prosphere.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
I think that it's so profound though, to be able
to say I am willing to start again, because that
can that sounds scary just saying it out loud, And
for so many people deal with injuries, not just in sooptball,
obviously in all sports, the courage to start again and
to know that it will be okay at the end,
Where did you find that?
Speaker 2 (33:00):
I think you have to lean really heavily on your
sports systems. We've spoken a little bit about my parents already,
but John and Sally are like my rock.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
You know, I know a lot of people their family
is everything.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Your family is the one thing that is probably gonna
be with you your entire life unconditionally. Friends come and go.
There are times when it's difficult to build that kind
of connection with people. But my parents never ever gave
up faith in me. They were always they told me,
no matter how much you fail, no matter how much
you don't get what you think that you want, We're
going to love you through it regardless. So they were
(33:32):
the ones driving to my rehab appointments. They were the
ones that showed up and were willing to sacrifice everything
to allow me to continue chasing my dreams and following
my dreams. So I think when you kind of hit
those roadblocks in your life where you have to ask,
am I willing to start again? Because it's really scary,
and from a lot of standpoints, you're like, what if
the person that I become people don't like? You know,
(33:54):
my friends who loved me before? What if they don't
like the new version of me? But you can really
lean on your sports systems that show you that no
matter what who you are, every single day, they're willing
to go to war for that person. And my family
was my number one rock through moments like that where
I didn't know if I wanted to keep playing softball.
I didn't know if I deserved to keep playing softball,
if I was going to come back good enough to
(34:15):
be who I was before that moment?
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Was I going to lose my scholarship?
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Was I going to be the athlete that they had
grown to love and they'd worked so hard to develop?
Speaker 1 (34:22):
But they sat me down.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
I remember them sitting in front of me and being like,
no matter what happens after this, we're going to love
you exactly the same, whether you're the star of every
team or you never touch the field again, We're going
to love you no matter what, Like nothing has changed
and so I was willing to have the courage to
kind of start again and try again. And I love
who I became from that moment, you know, which is
a really cool moment. We talked about kind of falling
(34:44):
in love with yourself every single day, and that was
one of the first times that I remember loving who
I was as a person and looking past the lens of.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Who I was as an athlete. I know, Dan, love
John and Sell. They're so cute with their little British action. Sally,
I know, just want in Sally. They're so sweet. Jordina,
thank you so much for coming on and dropping your diamonds,
letting us all know to be able to it's okay
to start again and to fall in love with the
(35:11):
process of falling in love with yourself. It is okay
to do it, and that's the only way we can
really be big better best, be the big better getting
better and be the best being the best. Thank you
so much, of course, thank you, Ijia. I appreciate it.
I'll catch all of you guys next week back on
the Diamond Bipe and now dropping diamonds with AJ Andrews
(35:40):
is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Athletes
Unlimited Softball League and Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. I'm
your host, AJ Andrews. Our executive producer is Jesse Katz.
Tari Harrison is our supervising producer, and this episode was
mixed and mastered by Mary Do. Listen to Dropping Diamonds
with Aga Andrews on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(36:03):
wherever you get your podcasts
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