No. 9 Texas A&M drops game one of WCWS to top-ranked Florida, 8-0

Game one of the 2017 Women’s College World Series came and went on Thursday as Texas A&M Softball fell to the No. 1 Florida Gators, 8-0, in a five-inning decision, marking the first time the Aggies have lost by run-rule this season.

The Gators got out to an early lead in the bottom of the first. With one out and the bases loaded, a two-RBI single up the middle put two on the board for the Gators before the Aggie defense was able to end the inning with a double play.

Florida was able to score three more runs in the next two innings to bring the lead to 5-0. A three-run home run from junior Aleshia Ocasio gave the Gators the opportunity to end the game early by run rule. The Aggies failed to score in the top of the fifth to seal the loss.

The Aggies will take Friday off before facing No. 5 UCLA in an elimination game on Saturday at 11:00 a.m.

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A&M head coach Jo Evans

Opening statement...

"Well, the story for us was just we didn't pitch as well as we're used to. We got behind a lot of hitters. We had walks. We pitched from behind a bunch, and Florida is always good at discipline at the plate and taking free passes, and they did that really well today. You know, we just needed to do a better job of attacking the zone and understanding that our pitches are good enough to get people out – that even though you're on a stage like this and even though it's Florida, the No. 1 team in the country, you still have to believe that the pitches you throw for strikes are good enough to get outs. And we've done such a great job all year at that, and this was just a day where we weren't very good at it.

"You know, I expect our kids will bounce back from that. Offensively, I thought we did a nice job. In the first inning really setting the tone of, 'Barnhill is not going to be someone that's just going to throw it by us, and we're (not) going to take a bunch of strikeouts.' I thought Keeli Milligan did a great job to set the tone and work her way into a walk. Tori Vidales just hit the ball on the screws in that first inning, goes right to their left fielder. So I saw some positive things about our offense.

"When you get such a deficit early like that, it makes it hard on an offense. You keep the game close, then you've got a chance to win it down the stretch and get a little more comfortable. But you know, it's lesson learned. My message to our team is trust yourself; there's a reason you're playing in the College World Series. Trust your great ability and have confidence in yourself, and things will fall into place."

On not playing Florida in the regular season...

"Well, the technology is certainly helpful, but it's always best to have the hands-on experience, and you see that from our Tennessee series. We dropped the series to Tennessee. We end up getting sent there in our Super Regional, and we felt it was so familiar to us. It was a comfortable situation. So yeah, Florida with their pitching, you like to see them as much as you possibly can. The one thing we just did not do well at the plate today was – we're talking about attack the strike zone early, and we did that some in the first inning or so, and then we got away from that. And I thought that really hurt us. You do not want to be up there with two strikes against them. But yeah, always the more looks you get off a pitcher, the more you understand their tendencies and timing."

On the team's jitters...

"No, not really. We won a lot of Friday night games that gave us a chance to be the No. 9 seed in the country. I give credit to our opponent today, Florida. A lot of teams might have a challenge in a first game in the World Series against Florida, so it's not something I'm anxious about or worrying about. I do know that, yeah, when you play in the World Series, you're in, you're out. You're going to be that much more comfortable. You're going to be acclimated to the environment and the routine and the protocol and all of that. But no, I just think our kids have to make sure that they trust themselves in any situation, whether it be against a No. 1 team in the country or whether it be against a four-seed at regionals."

On the tight strike zone...

"Well, that's just a part of pitching. The umpire is not going to give you what you want. The umpire is going to give you what he sees as a strike, and so to me, that's just a part of the game and something that we need to make sure the pitching staff – that we can adjust to. As I would say, spit on it and move on."

On taking a day off before playing Saturday...

"Well, I just hate losing, and so sometimes – I'm just glad I'm not a football coach so I don't have to wait a whole week to play after a loss. But in this situation, I think it's good for us to be able to take a step back, sort of calm ourselves down, and look at our game and understand: You know what? We made that a lot harder than we needed to. We made that more difficult on ourselves. And no disrespect to Florida. I mean, you've got to play a great, great game to beat them, but you also can't beat yourself. I was really pleased to see our defense come out and be relaxed and play the game. So when you're asking about first-game jitters, to me that's what would present itself if we had first-game jitters. But yeah, we'll take a day. We'll kind of regroup. We'll go hit tomorrow, and we'll rally around each other."

Tori Vidales

On this game vs. game one against Tennesee...

"I definitely think it was a little bit different than Tennessee, that game, because in that game we as a defense didn't do our job, and I felt like there wasn't really anything we could do today that would, I guess, make that much better. It wasn't that we just fell apart. Florida just attacked, and they did what they were supposed to do. I mean, offensively, we kind of got a little tight. We could have hit a few more pitches and not taken as many first-pitch strikes, so that would have been nice. But yeah, I mean, really just focusing on the next game even though this isn't a three-game series. We know that, and we know that we have to come out and play for our life."

Keeli Milligan

On the game plan against Florida...

"We want to attack the pitches she gives us. We know Barnhill is a good pitcher, and so the pitches that she made some mistakes on, the ones she leaves over the plate, we want to make her pay for those, so we were definitely focused on making her throw strikes."

On adjustments that needed to be made...

"It's just about us being comfortable and sticking to our game plan. It doesn't matter who we're playing. I firmly believe that we're a team that can beat anybody in the nation at any given time, so it's just about. Like Coach said, when we got a little bit away from our plan and we got a little bit of strikes on us, it's just a matter of sticking to the plan. And I really believe that if we do that, it doesn't matter who we play and doesn't matter what game it is of the tournament. We can really do something."

Samantha Show

On pitching performance against Florida...

"I know from when I was pitching I was leaving balls over the plate when I shouldn't have been, and with two strikes I was adjusting to the umpire's strike zone. So I was leaving balls over the plate. They just attacked my mistakes and made us pay for it."