Trisha Ford's fourth-ranked Aggies head to No. 16 Georgia this weekend

Winners of six straight, Texas A&M softball is ranked No. 4 in the latest ESPN.com/USA Softball poll as the Aggies prepare for a top-20 series at No. 16 Georgia this week. On Wednesday, Trisha Ford joined TexAgs Live to preview the Maroon & White road trip to Athens.

Key notes from Trisha Ford interview

• I think we got out of this weekend what we needed to get out of it. I think we reset some things offensively. I felt like our approach was good. I think pitching-wise, we had some good outings. Emiley Kennedy looked really good on Sunday.
   
• Mya Perez is doing a great job of keeping it simple. It's not anything overarching. It's being on time, getting a good pitch and putting your A-swing on. She is that kid. Last year, I know she had some ups and downs, but this doesn't really surprise us. This is who Perez is.
   
• I think we have so many seniors that are helping her. Jazmine Hill was huge for Perez last year in being like, "Hey, you're going to figure this out. Persevere. Here are some things I think you could work on.” Hill and Perez were able to have those conversations. Allie Enright is pivotal, as well as Kramer Eschete, Koko Wooley and Mac Barbara. I think their ability to have conversations. Talk about the game. Talk about what they are seeing pitching-wise.
   
• Frankie Vrazel has gotten opportunities. She comes in and does a great job of executing when she needs to. She has had to sit on the bench a little. Amari Harper has gone off. Barbara has gone off. If Vrazel gets a pinch-hit opportunity, she does Vrazel things. I think that will be something as we go through this program, that will be something we will always grab from her.
   
• Kennedy is starting to hit her stride. Last year, I felt like the whole season was a rhythm and at the end, she gave us everything she had, but she had thrown a ton of pitches. She is still getting our load. She is still getting Friday and Sunday. She hasn't logged as many pitches early on in the year, so she got hard innings, which is also going to help her at the end of the inning because who are you facing at the end of the year? The hard. This year, I have been really proud of her handling adversity.
   
• The hard schedule is going to make us better. I think we are not going to know any different. It is going to be another game, so you have that professional take of "Hey, it's the same thing. We're just going to go out and play our game and win a ball game.”
   
• I think the team is super confident. They have a great relationship with each other. They can have conversations. We have a couple of kids on our team who rally the troops and understand how to connect to different groups and how we can get those different groups to win a ball game. Would I say I am calm? Fairly calm, but there is fire. I think that is the difference. You have to balance the calmness. You have to be surgical in your execution, but you have to have some intensity, some fire and some competitiveness in you in order to be successful.
   
• I think Barbara is starting to feel better. Just swinging at good pitches. Harper's swing this weekend on that home run? I think she hit it 280 feet. It was ridiculous and just a beautiful swing. Really it is just that process of you going to get this pitch. You can't miss it. The pitching coach always wants more runs.
   
• Kennedy Powell and Jeff Harger had a conversation of “Powell, you can't get too technical with it.” She is a rhythm and a feel kind of player. Harger approached her and said, "If you would just clean up your strike zone, you are going to hit way better." Nothing mechanical. It is just if you are hunting pitches over the heart of the plate, you are going to be super successful. People are getting her out because she was swinging at balls that were going to hit her, and she is so good. She can put her bat on it, but that is not helping us. She is really tightening her strikezone and putting good swings on it.
   
• Remember Wooley's broken finger? It's a thing. That's what happened with Harper. She is very calm and steady. You can almost listen to her in the batting box know what her plan is. She is like, "OK, that ball is out. I need to be later. I need to be flatter." She doesn't let things she can't control control her. I know it sounds simple, but that is a hard skill. If Harper's doing it, I can do hard things and do it at a very high rate.
   
• At any point, Harper could have said, “I'm not going to play. I'm going to wait for this to fully heal.” She was in my office and said she was mad at the trainer because the trainer is like, "We have to give it two weeks for it to at least set." Harper said, "I'll be fine. Put it on." We have a competitive group. She is a different type of competitive. She does not have this outgoing personality. She is just quiet, but she has got that in her fire.
   
• I think the LMU series is getting us prepared. We are about to hit a really hard section of our schedule. The series with Georgia is going to be big. We have LSU coming in. If we just are where our feet are and really understand what made us successful in the LMU series, I think it is going to propel us into the next section of our schedule.
   
• We have shown the ability to win games at different levels. We were just on our ESPN Zoom. Nothing really stands out about your team stat-wise. I'm like, "Exactly.” We are very consistent in every category, and we just don't panic. I think when we hit a bump, we are able to draw from those experiences of bump in road, and we need to do X, Y and Z better then things are going to be fine. For us, we are super confident. We talked about it all year. The second thing is they don't let things faze them.
   
• I think that is what has made us so successful. We don't have an overpowering offense. We don't have this. We have a lot of really good pieces that understand that today is my day to step up. And then tomorrow, it is going to be your day to step up. We have the ability and have shown it that every part of our lineup can start something.