Ford's No. 1 Aggies aim to carry road success into SEC Tournament

Texas A&M is back at the top of the college softball world after a series win over Tennessee on the road. Ahead of the Aggies' Thursday night matchup in the 2025 SEC Tournament, head coach Trisha Ford joined the show from Athens, Georgia.

Key notes from Trisha Ford interview

• We are excited. This is what you play for this time of year. I am excited to get going here and in the next couple of weeks and see what happens.
   
• I think the run rule against Tennessee was huge. Tennessee is a very good ball club, and I was really impressed with our ability to come out and strike first and to keep striking. Then we had the rain delay, and it went into the next day. That takes a lot of concentration and focus, and I was really impressed with how Emiley Kennedy handled that whole delay.
   
• I think this year, more than ever, this conference is tough, brutal to be honest. The strong survive. These are great opportunities for us to face top lineups and for our hitters to face tough arms.  All this is doing is sharpening our skills. Iron sharpens iron. That is really what the SEC has been about this year. I love to compete so anytime we can get on the field and try to kick someone's butt, it is a good day for me.
   
• I feel like we are in a very good spot with Kennedy. She is in a really good headspace. She was a little banged up early on this year, and that's starting to heal and be in a good spot. I think for us, whenever she is in the circle, we have a shot. I think offensively, we have shown the propensity to beat you in a bunch of different ways. Kelsey Mathis gets a start and hits a home run, a no-doubter. It's fun to coach these kids.
   
• I think being deep is huge. We talked at the beginning of the year that we were going to be a little different. Our home run balls. I didn't imagine them being as high as they were last year. We lost a lot of long-ball hitters, but I felt like we were more athletic, and I think our athleticism is what has led us to this point. Our ability to short game, our ability to put pressure on the base paths... We have way more depth in the circle this year. I think all of that combined is why we are where we are at today. And then, going through what we went through last year. We might have talked about being four outs away from going to the Women’s College World Series too many times. I think you have to go through it before you understand it, and luckily for us, we have grown from it.
   
• I did watch Kennedy get drafted to the AUSL. We got home earlier, and I did some mom things and hung out with my family. We were able to watch. I am so happy, proud, and all the things for her. To be one of 12 college athletes to be drafted into this pro league says a lot about who she is and everything she has done for our program.
   
• First and foremost, anytime you get an opportunity to represent our great nation, it is such an honor. Those who know me know I bleed red, white and blue. I think we live in the best country. Anytime you get to hear our national anthem at the end of a tournament, it brings tears to my eyes. There is a different level of pride. For me, selfishly, I am going to learn a lot and I am going to bring those skills back to A&M. That coaching staff, there are two phenomenal coaching minds in Jennifer Rocha and John Bargfeldt and being around Patty Gasso, who has won multiple national championships. I think it is great for Texas A&M because we are going to be able to get on that national stage. I am going to be able to learn and bring those tools back home.
   
• I am excited about Sidne Peters. We are progressing very quickly. Not sure that this weekend we will be able to get her back, but for sure, moving forward. She is doing good. Her ball looks great. It is dynamic. I am really happy with where our other staff members have been able to do up to this point in time without Peters available.
   
• Kate Munnerlyn had a great outing last weekend. I thought there were moments where you can really see how she is going to help us, and we need her to help us. We haven't seen Grace Sparks as much, but she is working hard. She threw some live this past week and looked really good. We have Emily Leavitt and Sydney Lessentine. We have a lot of different looks, and it is just us being able to hone in and execute our pitches. Our pitches are moving. We just have to keep them out of the middle part of the plate. It’s hard to do. I look forward to getting their arms going and getting them some innings, especially here at the conference tournament, and getting us ready for the postseason. 
   
• I had a couple of players come up to my office. We started talking about success on the road. They were like, "Coach, on the road, there are no distractions. It is just us against the enemy." It makes a lot of sense. We enjoy playing in front of the 12th Man. The 12th Man has been electric this year, but on the road, we can really embrace that chip on the shoulder. We are in enemy territory. Everyone is against us. All your thinking, breathing is how to beat the team in front of you. I think a sign of a really good team is teams that can win on the road. I think our concentration level, they know it has to be lifted a little bit more when we are on the road.
   
• I don't like to give Jeff Harger credit. I guess I have to in this case. I thought he did a tremendous job putting this schedule together. I told him he did such a good job that maybe he can do it moving forward. That's one of the bad things when you do something really well. You're so good at it. Now, you get to do it. I think he did a great job of balancing really hard teams and teams that we should've taken care of, and we did. This is my first year where we didn't have any bad losses. I thought we did a tremendous job of making sure that we went out and competed day in and day out.
   
• We joked about it on TexAgs Live before. The players don't stress about anything. I said, "Well, you're going to pay for my hair appointments." My gray hairs are coming in. I think they understand that they are prepared. They are really confident in their preparation. They know that they work hard at practice. They understand the schematics they are going to face and what the arms are going to do. I always say preparation is a sign of confidence. Your preparation is what gives you confidence in the box, that confidence in the circle, and that confidence defensively.
   
• I think they understand that there are a multitude of ways they can win and a multitude of ways for them to compete. They are never out of anything. I think they have shown that all year long of coming back and fighting back. Starting a game off with a three-run lead and losing a three-run lead, and then in the last inning coming back and keeping them punching. These are great life skills for these ladies to learn, as if you are never out of anything if you really put your mind to it.
   
• This is absolutely, 100 percent the type of player we thought Mya Perez could be. She has been this person her entire life. Her whole entire career, we have seen hundreds of games in her youth career of Perez hitting against anybody and everybody. She has always been that person, and last year was a year for her to adjust and figure things out. I am proud of her ability to put the work in and understand that she needed to do some things differently, and she did. This year has really paid off. My money is always on Perez. I am really excited that everyone else gets to see that now.