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Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're celebrating

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Speaker 1: National Girls and Women in Sports Day by walking into

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Speaker 1: our neighborhood sports bar and asking every bro we encounter

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Speaker 1: a women's sports question we know they can answer.

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Speaker 2: Feels good to flip the script every once in a while.

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Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, February fifth, and on today's show, we'll be

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Speaker 1: nixing the Need to Know and bringing you No Dumb

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Speaker 1: Questions Softball Edition with journalist, reporter, and editor Rhiannon Potke

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Speaker 1: ahead of the twenty twenty five college softball season, which

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Speaker 1: begins tomorrow. We talked about what makes the sports so unique,

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Speaker 1: perennial powerhouse programs, and of course the stars, stakes, stats

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Speaker 1: and stories that you need to know.

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Speaker 2: That chat's coming up right after this joining us now.

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Speaker 1: She's a journalist for multiple outlets, including d one sooftball

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Speaker 1: dot com, the leading source for college softball coverage and scores.

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Speaker 1: She's the founder of Goods for Greatness, and nonprofit that

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Speaker 1: provides sports equipment to low income children across the country,

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Speaker 1: and she's one of those.

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Speaker 2: Mourning people you hear about. It's Rhiannon pot Key. What's up, Rhannon, Hey, Sarah?

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Speaker 3: How are you doing. Thanks for having me on.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I'd like to think I'm doing better than

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Speaker 1: you because I didn't wake up at four point thirty

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Speaker 1: in the morning, But that's your thing.

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Speaker 4: So I am a morning person. It's you know, to

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Speaker 4: be in this profession as a sports writer and be

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Speaker 4: a morning person is probably the worst possible thing in life.

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Speaker 4: But I just can't. I mean, if I'm sleeping until six,

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Speaker 4: then that's a long long sleep.

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Speaker 3: In for me, which is crazy.

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Speaker 2: But it's no thank you.

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Speaker 3: My genetics is blame my parents. I'm blaming my parents

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Speaker 3: for that.

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Speaker 1: Well, thanks for taking the time to join us and

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Speaker 1: tackling the very worthy task of answering all of our

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Speaker 1: very not dumb questions about college softball in the upcoming season.

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Speaker 1: We probably have some listeners that watch a lot of

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Speaker 1: college softball, even more likely some that just catch up

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Speaker 1: on the World Series, and maybe some that are new

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Speaker 1: to it. So let's make sure everyone who's curious about

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Speaker 1: softball earns what they need to know to dive in,

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Speaker 1: even if it's for the first time.

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Speaker 2: So this is college softball, no dumb questions.

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Speaker 1: Addition, historically, what are some of the top programs in

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Speaker 1: the women's softball world maybe of all time and then

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Speaker 1: maybe just for the last couple of years.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, of all time. You got to go back to

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Speaker 4: UCLA and Arizona. They used to you know, go back

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Speaker 4: and forth. Huge rivals. Still I don't know if they

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Speaker 4: will still be rivals given the changes in conference re alignment,

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Speaker 4: but those two historically were, you know, always winning the titles.

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Speaker 4: More recently we've seen a little variety. But last four

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Speaker 4: years and six of the last eight, Oklahoma has become

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Speaker 4: the dominant program. But there is a lot more variety

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Speaker 4: than there used to be. We had Florida State win titles.

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Speaker 4: We've had the SEC build up programs like Alabama and Tennessee,

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Speaker 4: and so there's a lot of legacy programs. But I

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Speaker 4: think everyone knows that Oklahoma is kind of the big

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Speaker 4: program now, but in the heyday it was Ucla.

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Speaker 3: Arizona that we're kind of winning most of the titles.

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Speaker 2: Why do you love college softball so much?

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Speaker 4: I love it because there's just it's softball, such a

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Speaker 4: faster paced game, and then baseball. For me, the innings

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Speaker 4: are quicker, there's more variety. I mean, you get some slapping,

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Speaker 4: you get some home runs, you get a lot of

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Speaker 4: variety with that. The teams are very they have fun stories.

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Speaker 4: There's a lot of cheering in the dugout, which you

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Speaker 4: don't get much of baseball. I mean I can be

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Speaker 4: honestly like in my maybe run an air and go

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Speaker 4: to the kitchen and have a game on and know

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Speaker 4: who's playing just because of the cheers I hear from

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Speaker 4: the dugout, because every school is kind of distinctive and

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Speaker 4: they all have their own separate cheers. It's just, you know,

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Speaker 4: and like a lot of women's sports, the players and

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Speaker 4: the coaches that are a lot more approachable and they

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Speaker 4: seem more down to earth a little bit, and they're

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Speaker 4: willing to kind of like want media attention and share

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Speaker 4: their stories. And it's just fun. I mean, I think

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Speaker 4: the main word. Whenever I go to a game, I

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Speaker 4: feel like it's a lot of fun and a lot

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Speaker 4: of action.

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Speaker 2: How were you first introduced to softball?

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Speaker 3: I grew up playing softball.

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Speaker 4: I mean I started in Little league baseball and then

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Speaker 4: I eventually like, everyone's like, you're a girl, go to softball,

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Speaker 4: So I did. I grew up playing it for about

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Speaker 4: twelve thirteen years. So I grew up in southern California

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Speaker 4: playing it pretty high level travel, so that kind of.

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Speaker 3: Got me addicted.

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Speaker 4: And then I you know, I was always watching softball

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Speaker 4: whenever I could, although back in the day that wasn't

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Speaker 4: you know, as accessible, but go into games and stuff,

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Speaker 4: so it's always been in my blood.

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Speaker 1: I guess, Yeah, what important thing should fans know about

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Speaker 1: what went down last season in college softball?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, well as we kind of, I said, Oklahoma when

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Speaker 4: it's fourth straight national title with one of the best

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Speaker 4: senior classes in the history of the sport. They won

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Speaker 4: a title every year, you really can't do better than that.

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Speaker 4: It's pretty pretty amazing, you know. Last year OU Texas,

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Speaker 4: Oklahoma State, UCLA, Stanford, Florida, Alabama, and Duke all made

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Speaker 4: the women's College World Series.

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Speaker 3: Duke was kind of a cool story. Is the first

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Speaker 3: time in the history of the program.

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Speaker 4: The program started in twenty eighteen, and it's a fast

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Speaker 4: rise underhead coach Mercy Young, And it was a littally

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Speaker 4: even more compelling because her husband the previous year had

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Speaker 4: suffered a major heart attack that caused a lot of

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Speaker 4: serious health issues and he wasn't there to see it

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Speaker 4: that year, and like so they almost made it the

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Speaker 4: year before, but if they had, he would have been

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Speaker 4: having that heart attack at that time. So it was

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Speaker 4: almost kind of like this, you know, but they made

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Speaker 4: it back this into last year and that was a

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Speaker 4: really cool, cool breakthrough for that program.

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Speaker 3: So that was fun to watch.

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Speaker 1: Let's get into things that might be unexpected. Are there

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Speaker 1: any major rule differences, conference re alignments changes that we

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Speaker 1: should be aware of heading.

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Speaker 4: In We talk about Oklahoma, Well, the SEC is adding

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Speaker 4: Oklahoma and Texas, and the SEC already gets in pretty

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Speaker 4: much every single team to the tournament every year, maybe

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Speaker 4: just one misses. So you add those two juggernaut programs

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Speaker 4: and that conference is going to be crazy good.

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Speaker 3: And then you got the other moves.

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Speaker 4: Sadly, the PAC twelve was a softball juggernaut, and you know,

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Speaker 4: we're still mourning the loss of the PAC twelve. I

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Speaker 4: know it's kind of going to be back in name only,

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Speaker 4: so Big ten adding UCLA and some of those road

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Speaker 4: trips in Washington and Oregon, and the Big twelve with

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Speaker 4: Arizona Arizona State, and then you get calan Stan from

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Speaker 4: the ACC. So it's going to be interesting to see

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Speaker 4: some of those different matchups you don't see although in

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Speaker 4: softball you get a lot more teams playing each other

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Speaker 4: because the amount of games you got, like sixty seventy

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Speaker 4: games some teams play, so you do see more interconference

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Speaker 4: map I mean, like you know, cross conference matchups more often.

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Speaker 4: But it'll be cool to see three game series like that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, let's get into my patented four s's the

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Speaker 1: stars stake stats and stories. Who are a couple players

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Speaker 1: our listeners can follow on social maybe expect see in

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Speaker 1: a lot of highlight clips and at the top of

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Speaker 1: the stats.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, let's start with probably the best pitcher in the game,

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Speaker 4: Najerie Kennedy Naja Candy for some people that know her well.

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Speaker 4: She transferred to Texas Tech from Stanford, which was a

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Speaker 4: huge story because she signed an nil deal that was

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Speaker 4: reportedly to be about a million for softball.

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Speaker 3: That's huge.

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Speaker 4: So that was a huge move in the offseason. So

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Speaker 4: she's what you got to start with. You have a

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Speaker 4: picture at Tennessee named Carlin Pickens, who.

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Speaker 3: Was a really, really good pitcher.

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Speaker 4: She's wanted to watch Jordi ball from Nebraska. I'm sure

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Speaker 4: some people if they tuned into Oklahoma a few years ago,

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Speaker 4: she was helping lead them to the title. She transferred

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Speaker 4: to Nebraska and then tore her ACL about three or

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Speaker 4: four games into the season. So she's going to be

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Speaker 4: back for Nebraska this season, but kind of the first

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Speaker 4: time we've seen her there. Catcher Reese Atwood for Florida

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Speaker 4: had a breakout season last year and she's back. And

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Speaker 4: then one at Florida catcher Jocelyn Ericson, she had a

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Speaker 4: great season SEC Player of the Year last year and

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Speaker 4: she's one to watch too.

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Speaker 2: And who are some dark horse teams?

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Speaker 1: Are there any that maybe could be, you know, making

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Speaker 1: a run in trying to steal a top spot.

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Speaker 4: It's interesting because there's a lot of quality mid major

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Speaker 4: programs in softball. I think if I was to say

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Speaker 4: a dark horse, which is not really I mean with

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Speaker 4: Jordi Ball and the team, but I think Nebraska is

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Speaker 4: going to be one to watch just because they've got

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Speaker 4: a lot of transfers in and they have Jordi Ball back,

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Speaker 4: so that could be one that can make a World

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Speaker 4: Series run.

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Speaker 3: That's kind of a dark horse sleeper to get to

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Speaker 3: the World Series.

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Speaker 2: Cool. Okay, let's talk stakes.

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Speaker 1: How important is every game in a college softball season,

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Speaker 1: Like when it comes to making the tournament or being

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Speaker 1: a good team. Is it a big deal if you

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Speaker 1: lose a game or how many are there?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, not every game is as important as it would

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Speaker 4: be for like college football or college basketball, because there

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Speaker 4: are more, Like I said, there's more than fifty games

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Speaker 4: in a season, So you have some midway call mid

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Speaker 4: weeks where you'll throw out some pitchers who maybe aren't

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Speaker 4: on weekend starters, and some teams can trip up there

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Speaker 4: and lose some of those games.

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Speaker 3: So there's not as much worry about that.

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Speaker 4: It's really conference play where you know you have the

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Speaker 4: three game series each weekend, So most coaches would be

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Speaker 4: satisfied to win two of those games and win the

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Speaker 4: series each weekend.

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Speaker 3: Obviously they love to sweep.

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Speaker 4: But it's really kind of just about who you beat

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Speaker 4: and when you beat them, and usually most of these

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Speaker 4: major conferences you get plenty of chances. I think for

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Speaker 4: the mid majors it's really important they take advantage of

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Speaker 4: the opportunities against the bigger opponents for the RPI's sake.

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Speaker 4: So maybe some games matter more to them than some

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Speaker 4: of the conference games. But yeah, it's not quite as

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Speaker 4: important as it would be in like football, where you

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Speaker 4: only get you know, fourteen chances. This is you know,

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Speaker 4: one chance each week. So college has a college offer's

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Speaker 4: got a lot of games.

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Speaker 2: Explain to us the RPI, Well.

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Speaker 4: It's ratings percentage index, which is very controversial in softball.

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Speaker 4: Most people don't like it because it's you know, depending

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Speaker 4: on who you play, where you play them. You know,

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Speaker 4: if you play a team that has an IRPI, you

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Speaker 4: keep it. Even if you lose, you can jump in

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Speaker 4: the RPI. So there's no perfect formula. As we said,

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Speaker 4: almost all sports we see that, but that's the one

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Speaker 4: that the tournament committee uses the most.

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Speaker 1: So at the end of the season, it's about both

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Speaker 1: your record and also the eye test or how a

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Speaker 1: committee views you as a team, which is why you

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Speaker 1: say it doesn't quite matter as much necessarily all the losses.

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Speaker 1: It's more that you're beating the good teams and the

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Speaker 1: teams that have a high RPI exactly.

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Speaker 4: I mean, there's and it's kind of built in obviously

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Speaker 4: with some of the strong conferences like the SEC. That's

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Speaker 4: why a lot of their teams get in because they're

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Speaker 4: playing every weekend teams that are very good.

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Speaker 3: And high in the RPI.

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Speaker 4: So it kind of you know that's kind of baked

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Speaker 4: in and there is some eye test, but I think

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Speaker 4: the committee as they usually just go straight RPI a

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Speaker 4: lot more, and I think a lot of people don't

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Speaker 4: really like that as much sometimes, but that's just kind

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Speaker 4: of the way it is when you have this many

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Speaker 4: teams contending for spots in the tournament.

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Speaker 1: We got to take a quick break when we come back.

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Speaker 1: More college softball with Briann and pot Key. Okay, let's

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Speaker 1: talk stats. What's a great stat line for a hitter

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Speaker 1: in the college game.

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Speaker 4: I would say if you get two or more hits

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Speaker 4: in a game and a few runs or maybe a

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Speaker 4: few RBIs you know. The hitting is in softballs, which

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Speaker 4: really gotten better these past few years. The offense has

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Speaker 4: increased way more than it used to be when you

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Speaker 4: pretty much every game was one zero, two to one,

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Speaker 4: one zero, two to one. So I think if you

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Speaker 4: get two or more hits driving a few runs, you know,

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Speaker 4: that's a pretty solid stat line.

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Speaker 2: What about a picture.

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Speaker 4: I think now for a picture, limiting teams to two

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Speaker 4: runs or less, you know, maybe eight strikeouts or more

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Speaker 4: and zero to one walks would be good. Like I said,

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Speaker 4: the offense is really increased, so it's you can't The

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Speaker 4: pitchers aren't going to be like shutouts every game like

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Speaker 4: it used to be. And softball's kind of developed the

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Speaker 4: baseball approach of by committee. That's been a really really

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Speaker 4: new thing these last five years. There's no you'll still

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Speaker 4: have your ass that go the distance, but they're doing

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Speaker 4: a lot more mixing and matching than they've ever done

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Speaker 4: in the sport. So that's a really really kind of

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Speaker 4: a new thing this sport, and I think it's made

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Speaker 4: it fun. You even have some closers in softball which

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Speaker 4: you never used to see.

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Speaker 2: Why do you think that's happening?

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Speaker 3: I think because the hitting is in it.

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Speaker 4: The video has improved so much, and people have so

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Speaker 4: much more stats and information on pitchers that you know

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Speaker 4: you can be and you have you know, if you

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Speaker 4: have a bigger staff, you can throw a change of pace.

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Speaker 4: And an interesting thing about softball is if you take

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Speaker 4: a picture out, you can put them back in, so

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Speaker 4: you don't like when you pull them, they don't have

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Speaker 4: to sit the whole game.

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Speaker 3: You can rein hurt them again. So sometimes you just

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Speaker 3: do it for a particular hitter or like a part

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Speaker 3: in the lineup or something.

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Speaker 4: And I think it's just the more variety that the

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Speaker 4: more pitches that people see from different arms, different angles,

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Speaker 4: different spins, it really impacts the hitter. So coaches know

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Speaker 4: that and now they're going with it.

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Speaker 1: Are there any rules to how long a pitcher has

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Speaker 1: to be in once they're inserted? Can they come in

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Speaker 1: for just one batter and come back out?

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Speaker 4: Yes they can't. Yeah, just one batter, come back out.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's that's wild.

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Speaker 1: So like if you just get torched by a particular

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Speaker 1: hitter as a pitcher, you can just sub out and

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Speaker 1: be like, I'm good, I don't really want to get

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Speaker 1: rocked by that gal again. We'll send someone else into

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Speaker 1: facer and I'll come back in possibly.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you can only come back in out limited times.

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Speaker 4: Like you can't keep doing that every time that picture

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Speaker 4: that the hitter comes up.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, you conceivably do that. It's fun. It's kind

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Speaker 3: of makes it a little bit more of a chess match,

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Speaker 3: you know. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: It's interesting because we had Kat Osterman on the show

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Speaker 1: to preview the ausl Athletes Unlimited Softball League, and she

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Speaker 1: still holds a billion d records. Now obviously that's because

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Speaker 1: she's unbelievable, but to your point, we're just also not

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Speaker 1: seeing pictures go the distance as often and throw as

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Speaker 1: many innings.

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Speaker 3: Huh, yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 4: There's there's you know, you used to have it pretty much.

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Speaker 4: You threw you to start a picture and she would

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Speaker 4: go the full seven if she was succeeding, or but

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Speaker 4: nowadays only even pull play. They'll think, you know, hey,

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Speaker 4: let's rest her a little bit for the stretch run,

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Speaker 4: or we don't want to. So it is there's I

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Speaker 4: think you're going to see a lot of different stats

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Speaker 4: that maybe you know, and Monica Abbott and kat Austraman

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Speaker 4: have tremendous like I don't think if you put people

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Speaker 4: seven innings they would do this, But now I think

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Speaker 4: it's not going to be quite as easy to do that.

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Speaker 4: Or you're going to see different types of stats. So

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Speaker 4: judging things for like awards and things have to be

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Speaker 4: kind of, you know, a little different than they.

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Speaker 3: Used to be.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and a lot more strategy, feels like for coaches

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Speaker 1: than as opposed to just like ride the ace. You've

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Speaker 1: got a little bit more thinking about who faces who.

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Speaker 2: I let's talk to stories.

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Speaker 1: Any players, coaches, teams that have a particularly compelling story

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Speaker 1: heading into the season, could be come back from ury,

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Speaker 1: could be uh that they're close to break in a

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Speaker 1: record or switch schools.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think we just gus a few of them earlier.

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Speaker 4: With Naja Kennedy going from Stanford to Texas Tech. That

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Speaker 4: was the biggest story in the offseason. And they've got

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Speaker 4: a new coach, Jerry Glasgow, who's he was at Louisiana

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Speaker 4: and now he's there and he's all in. He's one

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Speaker 4: that likes to get transfers in there and kind of

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Speaker 4: quickly transform programs. So we'll see if they can, We'll

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Speaker 4: see how high they can go. And then, like I said,

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Speaker 4: Jordy Ball coming back from injury is going to be

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Speaker 4: one to watch. She's a great story, you know, giving

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Speaker 4: her immense success, and she hits and pitches, so she's

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Speaker 4: a huge dynamic add to that lineup. So I think

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Speaker 4: those are the two ones that everyone's going to be

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Speaker 4: looking at. I think, oh, you they're still top five program,

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Speaker 4: but just see who can take that, you know, who

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Speaker 4: can replace those stars and become the stars of the

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Speaker 4: Sooners for the next generation.

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Speaker 2: How rare is it in softball to pitch and hit?

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Speaker 4: It's it's it's not as rare as it as it

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Speaker 4: used to be. I mean, you still I think a

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Speaker 4: lot of kids they do it in high school, but

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Speaker 4: for some reason, once they get to college, a lot

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Speaker 4: of coaches don't want to give them the pressure of

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Speaker 4: doing both.

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Speaker 3: But then there's some that love to do both.

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Speaker 4: I've noticed the past few years and more are allowing

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Speaker 4: them to, like some of the top aces two hit,

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Speaker 4: which I think is great. Some love to so I

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Speaker 4: think that's kind of an attraction for them. But I

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Speaker 4: would say it's you know, it's like fifty to fifty.

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Speaker 4: You get some that love love it, and it really

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Speaker 4: depends on what kind of you know, what coach you

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Speaker 4: go to, and how they utilize pictures.

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Speaker 2: And tough to do it at the highest level on

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Speaker 2: both sides, I presume.

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Speaker 4: Yes, exactly, it is hard. I mean you you know,

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Speaker 4: if you can find one that can hit against the

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Speaker 4: great stuff like well as they can throw it, you're

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Speaker 4: definitely gonna do it. And it saves you a spot

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Speaker 4: in the lineup too. You don't have to use the DP,

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Speaker 4: so there's some strategy in it too to keep that,

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Speaker 4: you know, the picture in the lineup without having.

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Speaker 3: To put in another player.

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Speaker 2: Tell us about the DP designated player.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well you can.

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Speaker 4: That's a spot where you can insert someone in the lineup.

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Speaker 4: If you have like a week hitter who's a good

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Speaker 4: defender or something, you can put a DP in there.

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Speaker 4: And like I said, most times that could be for

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Speaker 4: the picture because the pictures. But if you have a

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Speaker 4: great picture who can hit, then you can. That's a

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Speaker 4: strategy where you can utilize someone else who's a weaker

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Speaker 4: hitter and put them in the field somewhere it's a

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Speaker 4: great defender and then have someone come in and you know,

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Speaker 4: hit the crap out of the ball.

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Speaker 1: So let's start with the stars, starting with the favorite

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Speaker 1: teams to win it all. It sounds like Oklahoma's going

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Speaker 1: to be the favorite again right running four straight.

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Speaker 4: Actually, Oklahoma will be up there, but I think the

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Speaker 4: favorites to win it all are probably mostly Florida and

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Speaker 4: Texas are the two that you're seeing a lot of

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Speaker 4: because Oklahoma lost so many players from last year. I

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Speaker 4: think people still realize they're going to be up there

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Speaker 4: and contending. But I think Florida and Texas will be

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Speaker 4: ones that maybe you have at the top of the

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Speaker 4: rankings to start the season. Whether that you know continues

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Speaker 4: at the end, we'll see and I think UCLA and

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Speaker 4: Oklahoma State or two that also are going to be

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Speaker 4: in the running there as well.

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Speaker 1: Is it the first time it's felt a little bit

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Speaker 1: more open with all those players graduating from Oklahoma?

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Speaker 3: I think the first time in the like the last

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Speaker 3: four years.

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Speaker 4: Yes, I definitely believe that, because they just said that

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Speaker 4: class was so sensational, and then plus you had the

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Speaker 4: COVID year, so you had some coming back that were

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Speaker 4: fifth years, so they Oklahoma was stacked and they still are.

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Speaker 4: They still have tons of talent, but it does feel

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Speaker 4: more wide open than it was the last four years.

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Speaker 1: So we know that Patty Gasso, who is the head

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Speaker 1: coach at Oklahoma, is literally like a legend in the game,

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Speaker 1: knowing what you know about her.

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Speaker 2: Is this like an exciting season for her?

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Speaker 1: The idea that people are doubting them, that a bunch

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Speaker 1: of players would graduate and they wouldn't be a favorite.

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Speaker 4: For sure, Patty loves and she loves coaching, and I

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Speaker 4: know not that she didn't have to coach those other players,

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Speaker 4: but as she loves developing players and developing.

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Speaker 3: You know, people into what they are.

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Speaker 4: So I think she's gonna love this season and get

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Speaker 4: kind of reinvigorated and having some young talent to kind

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Speaker 4: of mold and she does it. It's you know, I

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Speaker 4: guess doubted quote unquote being like five instead of number

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Speaker 4: one is. But you know, you'll take the chip anywhere

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Speaker 4: you can get it. So I think she'll love that.

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Speaker 4: But I do think the part she'll really love is

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Speaker 4: just the development aspects and having to kind of, you know,

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Speaker 4: teach them what much of the game again, as opposed

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Speaker 4: to having such veterans that you know, you don't necessarily

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Speaker 4: have to teach as much as you did.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, two more for you. A softball back in

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Speaker 1: the Olympics in twenty twenty eight. Will that have any

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Speaker 1: sort of trickled down effects on college programs?

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Speaker 2: You think?

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Speaker 4: I think it will, Yeah, because many of the players

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Speaker 4: that you're watching now may have a chance to make

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Speaker 4: that national team. I mean it's because it's still you know,

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Speaker 4: three years away, and some of the top seniors juniors

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Speaker 4: may be able to make it, depending on who's still

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Speaker 4: around or hiring or not. And you know, the Olympics

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Speaker 4: always brings a spotlight to the sport, so it always

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Speaker 4: ends up like you know, if people, oh I see

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Speaker 4: in the Olympics, maybe I'll either start playing softball or

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Speaker 4: else watching college softball if they haven't already. And the

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Speaker 4: cool thing is a lot of them know the stars

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Speaker 4: if they are because most of the college stars do

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Speaker 4: play for the Olympics, and you know, some of the

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Speaker 4: coaching staff too could be as usually made up of

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00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:23,720
Speaker 4: college coaches, so that there's there's usually you know, a

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Speaker 4: little trickle down. The only thing about the softball being

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Speaker 4: the Olympics that's kind of a bummer is it's going

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Speaker 4: to be as much as I love Oklahoma City and

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Speaker 4: like it's a great venue, having to be play there

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Speaker 4: and not getting the full Olympic experience around the other

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Speaker 4: Olympic athletes I think.

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Speaker 1: Is yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, they won't be able to be in LA around

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00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:43,080
Speaker 4: and like in the you know you just fraternizing with

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00:17:43,119 --> 00:17:44,960
Speaker 4: other athletes. I think that's kind of a bummer for

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Speaker 4: just you know, they'll still get the the other softball players,

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Speaker 4: but but yeah, I think it'll have a trickle down

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Speaker 4: effect to college and and some like I said, some

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00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:53,560
Speaker 4: of the players you're watching now may be on those teams.

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Speaker 4: So it's pretty good primer to get used to who

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00:17:55,520 --> 00:17:56,320
Speaker 4: you might see then.

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Speaker 1: Which brings me to my final question, which relates to

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00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:02,080
Speaker 1: somehow Oklahoma even getting home field in the Olympics, which

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Speaker 1: is unrelated to college softball. But there are people who

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Speaker 1: respect that Oklahoma's facilities are incredible. They are by far

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00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:14,399
Speaker 1: the best place to play the World Series, and that

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00:18:14,520 --> 00:18:16,959
Speaker 1: means that they get home field every single year. How

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00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:18,639
Speaker 1: much of a benefit is that and is there a

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Speaker 1: real argument to having it move.

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Speaker 4: There's no question it's a little. It's a benefit in

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00:18:22,280 --> 00:18:24,920
Speaker 4: terms of the fans. Can you know, travel easier and everything,

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00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:27,840
Speaker 4: and it's it's you know, comfortable for them. But you know,

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00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:30,960
Speaker 4: I don't think it's as decided as some people like

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00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:32,840
Speaker 4: to make it out to be. I think there's I

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00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:34,679
Speaker 4: think it's a great venue. I think you know, you

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00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:36,879
Speaker 4: have to have it somewhere. I mean, Omaha's not winning

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00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:40,160
Speaker 4: every baseball title. I mean Creighton's not winning every baseball title.

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00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:42,560
Speaker 4: They're in their own backyard. You still got to be

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00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:44,879
Speaker 4: good to get there. It's not really a factor there.

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00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:47,720
Speaker 4: And the biggest question there is where else are you

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00:18:47,760 --> 00:18:49,520
Speaker 4: going to play that has a facility that you can

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00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:52,320
Speaker 4: build with the amount of money that'll have space and

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00:18:52,359 --> 00:18:53,920
Speaker 4: people to do it. If someone wants to spend a

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00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:56,200
Speaker 4: few billion dollars million dollars to build a whole facility

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00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:58,480
Speaker 4: with the infrastructure, that's great, they'll play it somewhere else.

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00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:01,359
Speaker 4: But until that's done, I really did the complaining is

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00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:03,639
Speaker 4: kind of you know, it's I think it's just a

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00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:06,040
Speaker 4: coincidence that's become like now it's taken a life of

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00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:08,520
Speaker 4: its own. And I think if it was, you know,

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00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:10,959
Speaker 4: played anywhere else, I don't know if like, if there

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00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:12,200
Speaker 4: was a good team there, you would be saying the

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00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:12,720
Speaker 4: same thing.

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Speaker 2: But and for now, it does make for a really

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Speaker 2: cool experience.

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Speaker 1: Everyone knows what they're getting, everyone knows where to go,

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00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:19,560
Speaker 1: where it'll be, when it'll be, and how they can

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00:19:19,600 --> 00:19:23,359
Speaker 1: go watch one of the great things in college sports,

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00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:25,719
Speaker 1: which is the women's softball College World Series. I mean

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00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:28,200
Speaker 1: it is just one of the highest rated, one of

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00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:32,040
Speaker 1: the highest viewed, and attendance in the scene around it

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00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:34,239
Speaker 1: is always such fun. All right, I feel like I

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00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:37,560
Speaker 1: know more, I'm more prepared. I'm ready to dive into

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00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:40,000
Speaker 1: college softball. So thanks so much for giving us some time,

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00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:41,199
Speaker 1: Rannon my pleasure.

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Speaker 3: I appreciate you having me on.

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00:19:46,119 --> 00:19:47,720
Speaker 2: Thanks so much to Rihanna for joining us.

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00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:59,520
Speaker 5: We got to take another break, be right back, Welcome back, slices.

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00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:01,679
Speaker 1: We love you're listening, but we want to get you

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00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:03,440
Speaker 1: in the game every day too, So here's our good

507
00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:04,280
Speaker 1: game play of the day.

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00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:05,560
Speaker 2: You know what time it is.

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00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:08,879
Speaker 1: Choose your fighter, and by that I mean choose the

510
00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:11,600
Speaker 1: program you'll be rooting for this college softball season. The

511
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:15,000
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five campaign starts tomorrow, so decide who you're

512
00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:16,920
Speaker 1: rocking with and get in on the trash talk in

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00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:19,680
Speaker 1: action if you feel so inclined. We'd love to hear

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00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:21,320
Speaker 1: from you, so hit us up on email Good Game

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00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:24,159
Speaker 1: at wondermedianetwork dot com or leave us a voicemail at

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00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:26,360
Speaker 1: eight seven two two oh four fifty seventy.

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00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:28,560
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, See you tomorrow.

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00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:32,120
Speaker 1: Good game, Rhannon, Good game, College soft Bebes?

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00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:37,560
Speaker 2: Wait what college softbab? No? Few College soft Bebes.

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00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:43,760
Speaker 1: Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iheartwomen's sports production

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00:20:43,880 --> 00:20:46,760
Speaker 1: in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can

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Speaker 1: find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our

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00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:56,480
Speaker 1: producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers

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00:20:56,520 --> 00:20:59,760
Speaker 1: are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder.

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00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:03,000
Speaker 1: Our editors are Emily Rutter, Britney Martinez and Grace Lynch.

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00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:06,280
Speaker 1: Our associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host

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Speaker 1: Sarah Spain