Kaley Mudge admits stopping Oklahoma's momentum is 'hard'
On Thursday night, Kaley Mudge and the Florida State Seminoles need to do something that nobody has been able to do since February, beat the Oklahoma Sooners.
Oklahoma jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the Women’s College World Series on Wednesday. They did this despite weather delays and Florida State’s best defensive efforts. However, as left fielder Kaley Mudge admitted, stopping Oklahoma’s momentum is difficult.
“Definitely hard to stop their momentum,” Mudge said. “Obviously being here, they have a bunch of crowd cheering for them, too. Just being able to stop the bleeding, I think that’s something we’ve done well all season.”
Kaley Mudge emphasized that Florida State needs to prevent Oklahoma from scoring in multiple innings, building up a seemingly insurmountable lead.
“Obviously having a couple runs here and there, not ideal. Definitely just being able to stop the bleeding, the infield brought it in quite a few times tonight. Obviously being from the outfield, being able to talk to J.J. [Kerr] and Hallie [Wacaser] to my side, too. Being able to bring the dugout in, not letting them pile more and more runs and more base runners is huge.”
With a win Thursday night, Oklahoma will have won its 53rd game in a row and its third Women’s College World Series in as many seasons. Florida State has a chance to prevent that and force a third game but they’ll need to stop Oklahoma’s momentum to do that.
“I think we did a pretty good job of that. I’m excited to see tomorrow.”
Kaley Mudge reflected on her viral home run robbery
Late in game one, Oklahoma nearly ended the game with a three-run home run that would have run-ruled Florida State. However, Kaley Mudge wasn’t going to be having any of that, robbing the home run to keep the game alive.
The catch immediately went viral and after the game, Kaley Mudge reflected on that home run robbery.
“Yeah, definitely saw the ball go over my head,” Kaley Mudge said. “Knowing the three-run home run could have ended it, wanted to try to do something for Allison, for my team.”
“Grateful their fence is short. I was able to get up a little bit on that fence. It’s a moment I dream of regardless of the score. Just being able to stay in it, hitters being able to get a little bit more information in the top of the seventh inning is huge for tomorrow. Excited to go out and make more adjustments for tomorrow.”