Alabama softball infielder Abby Duchscherer leads the team in hits, RBIs and home runs.
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00:00 What are some of the changes you've made this offseason to kind of get ready for
00:04 this position you've been in this year? Just a lot of countless hours in the
00:07 gym, the facilities, you name it. I just wanted to put a lot of work because
00:12 being in a different position last year I had a lot of good senior
00:16 leadership that kind of just pushed me for like when my time was ready and it
00:19 felt like this was the year to do it. So I had a lot of motivation going into this
00:23 year for a role I was ready to fill in. Yeah and then this weekend you know your
00:27 final preseason really weekend for SEC play starts. The competition really
00:31 picks up this weekend. First top 25 matchup with Arizona. How you guys feeling
00:34 about that? How are you feeling about playing this you know step up the competition?
00:37 I'm excited. Granted we'll take it one game at a time this week with Jackson on Wednesday, but I'm excited to start seeing more pitching,
00:46 different competition, but I think we're ready. The more preparation, I mean we've
00:51 done this for since August I feel like we're ready. We've prepared every day for
00:56 leading up to these moments. So I'm feeling good. What was it like this past weekend with the
01:01 offense? Was it just kind of hitting is contagious and how encouraging was it to see that
01:04 kind of production from the whole team? So when I talked about preparation I feel like
01:09 that's how everyone had confidence this week. There wasn't no one there no one
01:13 was going in the box scared like people wanted to hit and I think that was a
01:16 huge change from last year honestly. So when one person started to hit you know
01:21 you start feeling confident and then other people like you said it got to be
01:24 contagious so it was just super exciting and fun because everyone's cheering. I
01:28 will say it comes from our dugout too. When the whole dugout's up and rowdy it
01:32 makes you like more energetic too. Obviously the whole offense did
01:37 fantastic but Jenna Johnson was spectacular really. Could you talk about
01:41 her and you know her being awarded SEC Co-Player of the Week? Jenna's a
01:45 phenomenal senior and just a great leader so for her to get SEC Player of
01:49 the Week is just super deserving. She works super hard every day so there's
01:54 no one else I'd rather like see succeed than her. We were just talking about how
01:58 talented of a high school athlete you were in multi-sport. What was it kind of
02:02 like for you last year maybe having to wait your turn a little bit and what did
02:05 you learn through that experience in your freshman year to get you ready for
02:08 this season? I learned how to accept failure. I think that's a hard thing
02:12 coming from high school to college is you're the best in high school and
02:16 anything you do you succeed but when you come to college it's a different level
02:20 and I just had to learn how to fight through the adversity and just not being
02:23 successful 100% of the time but through all the failure I learned like the
02:28 silver lining lessons so I didn't settle and be content with failing. I learned
02:33 from it and wanted to get better at it every day. And then you also told us that
02:36 you had offers to play basketball in Big Ten. What was it about softball in
02:39 Alabama that really brought you here over those other opportunities? Me and
02:43 Murph started building a relationship in sixth grade before the rule changed and
02:47 I got to come on a visit in eighth grade and as soon as I set foot on campus I
02:52 knew this is the place I wanted to be. Murph was the most kind, friendly, like you name
02:57 anything that's how I describe him because I got on campus everyone was
03:01 hugging me, they were super nice to my parents, it just felt like home and as
03:06 soon as I had this experience I had Washington the next week and it just
03:12 wasn't the same like it didn't feel like home, it didn't feel like the right
03:15 people, the right coaches. So with my journey through high school and the rule
03:19 changed I knew that I want to have this feeling forever and not have selfish
03:24 people like Murph has done a phenomenal job building a program of girls who
03:28 encourage other girls and I think that's a really hard thing. You really
03:32 experience that in high school too so I knew I wanted to be with people who are
03:35 gonna make me better and push me so through high school every day I was like
03:38 Murph I hope when September 1st comes you're calling me and he did so forever
03:43 grateful for that.