Welcome to "The Morning Kickoff Show" with Mike "Hardball" Hardge & "The World's Strongest Man" Mark Henry. Today, we talked to Texas Softball Head Coach Mike White about the upcoming trip to Oklahoma City for the Softball College World Series. They also talk about success in making changes in the right situations with pitching. The ability for the team to keep a competitive edge. How making the right decisions defensively continues success. The team aims to dominate every pitch, so players aren't fazed in key moments. The love from the support of the fans. What to expect from the upcoming battle with the Florida Gators. How playing in the SEC has prepared the team and the familiarity of the conference with five teams in total in the College World Series. You can hear it all here on "The Morning Kickoff Show!"
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's time to talk Texas Softball with the head coach
of the Texas softball team, Mike White. You can follow
him on social media at Texas Coach White and Texas
defeated Clemson in a tough, back and forth critical third
game to advance to the College World Series in Oklahoma
(00:22):
for back to back seasons and the third time over
the last four seasons. And coach talk about that battle
in that final game against Clemson two events to the
College World Series.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, good morning. I think obviously the biggest hurd or
was that second game in the eighth innings we had
second and tho nobody out and we were able to
get out of that. That was the biggest part of
the whole series. But obviously we took momentum from winning
that game and into the second game, came out at
four line drives and first innings and then eventually scored
(00:57):
three runs in the second and we're able to kind
of capitalizing some mistakes that they made, and you know,
pitching came through in the end with Mac Morgan coming
in for a first appearance for a tremendous safe or
win an opportunity actually, and I want to.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Stay right there because that's one thing that I love
about the fact that you're not afraid to throw different
pitchers out there at all times. Obviously Teagan is your
best player or best pitcher at this particular point in time,
but you're not afraid to throw Mac Morgan out there
and bring others out of the pen to go out
(01:32):
there and make that big time performance.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know you have to make
a change. You can't just keep doing the same thing
and hope for the best. I thought we we got
as bad as much as we could at a teague,
and we knew that it was going to difficult to
go seven full innings, so we were prepared to make
the changes if necessary. And we just felt like they
hadn't seen Mac the whole whole time. And you know, here,
a velocity can be overparing and times along with a
(01:57):
movement on a drop ball and get those ground ball
and she was able to do that for you know,
two and a half or three three solid innings.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Coach, you talk about her her velocity on the fastball
and the rise ball, and I was looking at it
and it just looked like it was getting on top
of the batters a lot more than what they were
used to seeing. But the other part of it too
is just that competitive nature that not only Mac had,
but your entire team, especially when you go back to
(02:25):
what you said about Saturday night, the importance of that
matchup and getting out of those innings in those crucial times,
but then to bring it right back into the final
game and be able to battle to get to Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, I think we took a lot of that mindset
and confidence level and what you say to yourself and
controlling and being where your feed are, you know, and
making the play and not thinking about the result. And
I think we were able to do that in those moments.
So we just made the plays when we needed it too,
which you need to have from a championship team. We
talk about it if you can get your club want
to make the play, and it can make a big
(03:01):
difference in a series. And unfortunately, you know, Teagan was
able to come through in that big moment in the
eighth innings, and then the same with mcmorgan. You know
where they had the tying run at second base and
the last inning of the last game, and then also
you know, the winning round of the plate. Now she
was able to come up with the ground ball right
back to her and what a relief that was.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
It was huge. You also had some unbelievable defensive plays
by Mia Scott over at third base. But before we
talk about Mia and what she was able to do,
being a head coach at times can be very difficult,
but you get paid the big bucks to make tough
decisions and one of those decisions that you made was
putting Leah liam Good back over at shortstop and her
(03:44):
being able to make the plays that she did and
coming up with some timely hits. Talk about her and
just what she's been able to achieve so far this season.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, I mean, you need different people to step up,
and we see that sometimes unsung heroes and you can
talk about that you wouldn't someone you wouldn't expect them
to come through in those situations. But we keep pumpering
her up and telling you who not to worry about
her offense and then concentrate on a defense. Well, as
soon as she did that, her offense came came through.
I mean here she had an unbelievable weekend in the
(04:15):
biggest moment of the season for us and was really
the difference maker in the series, I believe if you're
looking at one contributor, because you know, sometimes the expected heroes,
you know, like the reset with us suff you know,
there's so much pressure on them and they're really concentrating
on them, and then they look at like a seven
or eight header in the lineup and they're gun. You know,
this should be an out, and it tuns out not
to be, and fortunately for us, Liam was on our
(04:37):
side and had a great weekend.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
We're talking to Mike White, head coach of the Texas
softball team as they advanced to the College World Series
and back to back seasons, and coach, we're talking about it.
You're you're back in Oklahoma City. Your first game will
be Thursday, eleven o'clock against a formidable opponent that you've
already seen that you beat two out of three earlier
(05:01):
this year in the Florida Gators. You're in a bracket
with Tennessee and Oklahoma. Y'all might as well just kept
playing in the SEC tournament the way that they got
everything set up. But talk about Florida in the matchup
coming up this Thursday.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, obviously, Florida's uh, you know, finishing the season strong.
You know, they had a good weekend, a good regional,
good super regional Teagan rough Rock, I mean sorry rough Rock.
Their aces back and healthy. You know, so she's probably
the one we're going to see because we didn't see
her in that three game series early on, and she's
starting pretty well. So you know, it's kind of like
(05:40):
a matchup of last year. You know, we faced them,
i think the first game in the College World Series
and we're able to come out on top, and we're
hoping to do the same thing this this year. But
you know, they have you know, really good speed and
some great palace throughout the line. I'm a very tough team.
And of course, like you said, that topigh of the
bracket is like SEC old Stars, so you know, so
(06:00):
that's kind of crazy the way they hit that up.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah. I was talking to our producer earlier today and
I was looking at it and I was like, well,
five of the eight teams are out of the SEC
and it looks like they're trying to say only one
SEC team should be playing for the National Championship instead
of too the way that they got this bracket set up.
But if you win that game, when you win that game,
(06:23):
excuse me, you will play on Saturday against the winner
of Tennessee and Oklahoma, two teams that you know very well. Also,
as you look at the forecast for this weekend, the
expectation is the same, and that's to go out and
dominate every pitch.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean, we've got to come out and
be Agrasives worked well for us in this last part
of the season, and we got to do the same, Tam.
We can't be afraid of anybody we're facing. We know
the opposition very well. That's one of the benefits of
playing against the SEC programs. And it's not going to
be a shutout. I mean, I doubt very much whether
the team's gown to get shut out. And so we're
(07:02):
gonna have to produce in those big moments with runners
on basis, and we're gonna have to have that shut
down pitch or great defensive play when we need it
on defense. And that's the difference. So we had a
game of inches and it suddenly is that when we
saw that throughout the weekend as well.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Coach talk about Mia Scott and what she means to
this program. I know we talked about this in the past,
but each week it just seems like when the pressure
is at its highest point, she is the right person
at the right time and continues to have that even
keel look about her every step of the way.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, she never looks phased at any moment. And I
got asked earlier in the season, you know, who would
you want to be the person up with your with
your and I do it the moment, and Mia was
one of the ones I kind of picked on because
her attitude is always the same. She believes that she
can get that hit and so almost like she toys
with it or sometimes like to give him that first
strike and then kind of like take their pitch and
(07:59):
hit that. It's him frustrating as a coach because you
let the big one the fat one go down the
middle and she'll kind of work to get the outside
pitch through the bowl that the pitch is thrown. So
it's like she's teasing with them.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, every time I watch her, it's just like you said,
it's so calm, like nothing is phasing her until your point.
She just looks like, I'm gonna hit what I want
to hit. You can give me anything that you want,
but if you leave it up just enough, I'm gonna
hurt you and hurt you bad. So it's pretty fun
to watch, especially watching your team as it develops over
(08:34):
these seasons. And now the standard is the standard, and
the standard seems to be get to Oklahoma City and
then let the chips fall where they may.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, we have some talent
on this program and continue to build that through recruiting,
you know. I think we have one of the top
recruiting classes in the country coming in next year hopefully
to build on this program, you know, and you know,
continue to push and be it the Cult World Series.
I mean, it's obviously it's the pinnacle of the sport
and that's where we need to be to be able
(09:07):
to have an opportunity to win a national championship, and
we continue to strive to do that and we just
love to support. I don't know if you're out of
the games until the games, but the crowd was crazy
and it really gave us a lift throughout the weekend.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, the crowds are always packed out there at McCombs
field because they just loved their softball. I wanted to
ask you about Ashton Maloney as well. She has eighty
nine hits on the season, and she's close to breaking
the singles season record. You've been around this game a
long time, coach, and you've seen talent come and go,
(09:39):
but the one thing that continues to be consistent is
those players and their approach to the ball game. You
guys find a way to drive the ball out of
the park, but you need to have guys get on
to be able to be successful.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, without a doubt. I mean she excuse me, She's
the one that I would say has been the most
consistent throughout the year. And you're in the past two years.
Previous two years, that hasn't always been the case. She's
always been hot and need a little bit cold. And
this year she's been the model of consistency for us,
and it's been great at lead off and be able to,
you know, make sure that Reese Atwood comes up in
(10:14):
the first innings with a round around base and that
sometimes that can be the big difference in a game too,
because pitchers are still trying to find their feet in
that first inning.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, and you guys always seem to find a way
to jump out in front. You guys will be playing
at eleven o'clock against the Florida Gators. You can hear
that game right here on AM thirteen hundred. The Zone
and coach we as always, we want to thank you
for joining us today and best of luck.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Hey, thank you so much. I appreciate the support and
Hooke Holmes
It's time to talk Texas Softball with the head coach
of the Texas softball team, Mike White. You can follow
him on social media at Texas Coach White and Texas
defeated Clemson in a tough, back and forth critical third
game to advance to the College World Series in Oklahoma
(00:22):
for back to back seasons and the third time over
the last four seasons. And coach talk about that battle
in that final game against Clemson two events to the
College World Series.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, good morning. I think obviously the biggest hurd or
was that second game in the eighth innings we had
second and tho nobody out and we were able to
get out of that. That was the biggest part of
the whole series. But obviously we took momentum from winning
that game and into the second game, came out at
four line drives and first innings and then eventually scored
(00:57):
three runs in the second and we're able to kind
of capitalizing some mistakes that they made, and you know,
pitching came through in the end with Mac Morgan coming
in for a first appearance for a tremendous safe or
win an opportunity actually, and I want to.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Stay right there because that's one thing that I love
about the fact that you're not afraid to throw different
pitchers out there at all times. Obviously Teagan is your
best player or best pitcher at this particular point in time,
but you're not afraid to throw Mac Morgan out there
and bring others out of the pen to go out
(01:32):
there and make that big time performance.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know you have to make
a change. You can't just keep doing the same thing
and hope for the best. I thought we we got
as bad as much as we could at a teague,
and we knew that it was going to difficult to
go seven full innings, so we were prepared to make
the changes if necessary. And we just felt like they
hadn't seen Mac the whole whole time. And you know, here,
a velocity can be overparing and times along with a
(01:57):
movement on a drop ball and get those ground ball
and she was able to do that for you know,
two and a half or three three solid innings.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Coach, you talk about her her velocity on the fastball
and the rise ball, and I was looking at it
and it just looked like it was getting on top
of the batters a lot more than what they were
used to seeing. But the other part of it too
is just that competitive nature that not only Mac had,
but your entire team, especially when you go back to
(02:25):
what you said about Saturday night, the importance of that
matchup and getting out of those innings in those crucial times,
but then to bring it right back into the final
game and be able to battle to get to Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, I think we took a lot of that mindset
and confidence level and what you say to yourself and
controlling and being where your feed are, you know, and
making the play and not thinking about the result. And
I think we were able to do that in those moments.
So we just made the plays when we needed it too,
which you need to have from a championship team. We
talk about it if you can get your club want
to make the play, and it can make a big
(03:01):
difference in a series. And unfortunately, you know, Teagan was
able to come through in that big moment in the
eighth innings, and then the same with mcmorgan. You know
where they had the tying run at second base and
the last inning of the last game, and then also
you know, the winning round of the plate. Now she
was able to come up with the ground ball right
back to her and what a relief that was.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
It was huge. You also had some unbelievable defensive plays
by Mia Scott over at third base. But before we
talk about Mia and what she was able to do,
being a head coach at times can be very difficult,
but you get paid the big bucks to make tough
decisions and one of those decisions that you made was
putting Leah liam Good back over at shortstop and her
(03:44):
being able to make the plays that she did and
coming up with some timely hits. Talk about her and
just what she's been able to achieve so far this season.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, I mean, you need different people to step up,
and we see that sometimes unsung heroes and you can
talk about that you wouldn't someone you wouldn't expect them
to come through in those situations. But we keep pumpering
her up and telling you who not to worry about
her offense and then concentrate on a defense. Well, as
soon as she did that, her offense came came through.
I mean here she had an unbelievable weekend in the
(04:15):
biggest moment of the season for us and was really
the difference maker in the series, I believe if you're
looking at one contributor, because you know, sometimes the expected heroes,
you know, like the reset with us suff you know,
there's so much pressure on them and they're really concentrating
on them, and then they look at like a seven
or eight header in the lineup and they're gun. You know,
this should be an out, and it tuns out not
to be, and fortunately for us, Liam was on our
(04:37):
side and had a great weekend.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
We're talking to Mike White, head coach of the Texas
softball team as they advanced to the College World Series
and back to back seasons, and coach, we're talking about it.
You're you're back in Oklahoma City. Your first game will
be Thursday, eleven o'clock against a formidable opponent that you've
already seen that you beat two out of three earlier
(05:01):
this year in the Florida Gators. You're in a bracket
with Tennessee and Oklahoma. Y'all might as well just kept
playing in the SEC tournament the way that they got
everything set up. But talk about Florida in the matchup
coming up this Thursday.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, obviously, Florida's uh, you know, finishing the season strong.
You know, they had a good weekend, a good regional,
good super regional Teagan rough Rock, I mean sorry rough Rock.
Their aces back and healthy. You know, so she's probably
the one we're going to see because we didn't see
her in that three game series early on, and she's
starting pretty well. So you know, it's kind of like
(05:40):
a matchup of last year. You know, we faced them,
i think the first game in the College World Series
and we're able to come out on top, and we're
hoping to do the same thing this this year. But
you know, they have you know, really good speed and
some great palace throughout the line. I'm a very tough team.
And of course, like you said, that topigh of the
bracket is like SEC old Stars, so you know, so
(06:00):
that's kind of crazy the way they hit that up.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah. I was talking to our producer earlier today and
I was looking at it and I was like, well,
five of the eight teams are out of the SEC
and it looks like they're trying to say only one
SEC team should be playing for the National Championship instead
of too the way that they got this bracket set up.
But if you win that game, when you win that game,
(06:23):
excuse me, you will play on Saturday against the winner
of Tennessee and Oklahoma, two teams that you know very well. Also,
as you look at the forecast for this weekend, the
expectation is the same, and that's to go out and
dominate every pitch.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean, we've got to come out and
be Agrasives worked well for us in this last part
of the season, and we got to do the same, Tam.
We can't be afraid of anybody we're facing. We know
the opposition very well. That's one of the benefits of
playing against the SEC programs. And it's not going to
be a shutout. I mean, I doubt very much whether
the team's gown to get shut out. And so we're
(07:02):
gonna have to produce in those big moments with runners
on basis, and we're gonna have to have that shut
down pitch or great defensive play when we need it
on defense. And that's the difference. So we had a
game of inches and it suddenly is that when we
saw that throughout the weekend as well.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Coach talk about Mia Scott and what she means to
this program. I know we talked about this in the past,
but each week it just seems like when the pressure
is at its highest point, she is the right person
at the right time and continues to have that even
keel look about her every step of the way.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, she never looks phased at any moment. And I
got asked earlier in the season, you know, who would
you want to be the person up with your with
your and I do it the moment, and Mia was
one of the ones I kind of picked on because
her attitude is always the same. She believes that she
can get that hit and so almost like she toys
with it or sometimes like to give him that first
strike and then kind of like take their pitch and
(07:59):
hit that. It's him frustrating as a coach because you
let the big one the fat one go down the
middle and she'll kind of work to get the outside
pitch through the bowl that the pitch is thrown. So
it's like she's teasing with them.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, every time I watch her, it's just like you said,
it's so calm, like nothing is phasing her until your point.
She just looks like, I'm gonna hit what I want
to hit. You can give me anything that you want,
but if you leave it up just enough, I'm gonna
hurt you and hurt you bad. So it's pretty fun
to watch, especially watching your team as it develops over
(08:34):
these seasons. And now the standard is the standard, and
the standard seems to be get to Oklahoma City and
then let the chips fall where they may.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, we have some talent
on this program and continue to build that through recruiting,
you know. I think we have one of the top
recruiting classes in the country coming in next year hopefully
to build on this program, you know, and you know,
continue to push and be it the Cult World Series.
I mean, it's obviously it's the pinnacle of the sport
and that's where we need to be to be able
(09:07):
to have an opportunity to win a national championship, and
we continue to strive to do that and we just
love to support. I don't know if you're out of
the games until the games, but the crowd was crazy
and it really gave us a lift throughout the weekend.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, the crowds are always packed out there at McCombs
field because they just loved their softball. I wanted to
ask you about Ashton Maloney as well. She has eighty
nine hits on the season, and she's close to breaking
the singles season record. You've been around this game a
long time, coach, and you've seen talent come and go,
(09:39):
but the one thing that continues to be consistent is
those players and their approach to the ball game. You
guys find a way to drive the ball out of
the park, but you need to have guys get on
to be able to be successful.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, without a doubt. I mean she excuse me, She's
the one that I would say has been the most
consistent throughout the year. And you're in the past two years.
Previous two years, that hasn't always been the case. She's
always been hot and need a little bit cold. And
this year she's been the model of consistency for us,
and it's been great at lead off and be able to,
you know, make sure that Reese Atwood comes up in
(10:14):
the first innings with a round around base and that
sometimes that can be the big difference in a game too,
because pitchers are still trying to find their feet in
that first inning.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, and you guys always seem to find a way
to jump out in front. You guys will be playing
at eleven o'clock against the Florida Gators. You can hear
that game right here on AM thirteen hundred. The Zone
and coach we as always, we want to thank you
for joining us today and best of luck.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Hey, thank you so much. I appreciate the support and
Hooke Holmes
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