Molly Fichtner was a transplant. After beginning her career at UTSA, she transferred to Alabama prior to her junior season and spent the final two years of her career as the Crimson Tide’s starting catcher. In 2014, Fichtner was part of the Crimson Tide squad that returned to the Women’s College World Series for the first time since their 2012 national title.
After losing to Florida in the WCWS championship series in 2014, the Tide returned to Oklahoma City again in 2015, this time with Fichtner on staff as the program’s volunteer assistant coach. Since that time, Fichtner has served on staff at Dartmouth and East Carolina and is now the head coach Louisiana-Monroe. Here, she shares some of her memories of Oklahoma City.
On her emotions after officially clinching a WCWS berth in her senior year… “I was a kid in a candy shop. I remember the exact hit; the last out of the game was a fly ball to Leona at first base. I saw the swing path and where the ball was going and my thought was ‘oh my gosh, this is it, this is it.’ And when she caught the ball, my feet were just on fire. I somehow jumped onto Jackie [Traina] when usually the pitcher jumps onto the catcher. I remember us screaming and hollering; giving [head coach Patrick Murphy]a big hug; and, of course, a dogpile. It was really a surreal moment and, for me as a player, that was my last opportunity to get to play in Hall of Fame Stadium.”
On the differences of going to Oklahoma City as a player and as a coach… “Oh boy. It was a lot different. My mindset really changed; you see a lot more of the game when you’re not actually in it. To be able to stick with Murph, and Aly [Habetz], and Steph [VanBrakle], and see how they perform on the big stage… it’s one thing for the athletes, but to watch them as coaches, and the conversations they’re having, how they’re preparing a certain approach… When you’re playing, you just want to go out there and get it done, but in coaching, it’s about the methodology within knowing you can’t change a thing, but what can you do to win?”
On her favorite World Series memories… “We were playing Kentucky, and we were up by a run or two, and the bases were loaded for Kentucky with no outs. And of course, it’s already really hot in Oklahoma City, but I’m sweating profusely from the stress and nerves of the situation. And I remember Steph [VanBrakle] called timeout and went out to the mound, and she was so calm, cool, and collected. So I’m in this situation and I’m so nervous and trying to mask my emotions, but she and Jackie were cool and calm, too. And Steph said, ‘No big deal; we’re going to take care of this. We’re going to strike this girl out on the off-speed drop, Jack, and then we’re going to get the girl on deck to hit a ball up the middle and turn a double play and be out of the inning.’ And of course, I’m standing there thinking ‘what are the chances that’s actually how it’s going to go?’ And I kid you not, we got the next batter on a strikeout on an off-speed dropball, and then Danae Hays and Kaila Hunt turned a double play and we got out of the inning. I remember thinking ‘What just happened?!’ But there’s a lot of credit for Steph for keeping us calm, and to [Traina] for going out and getting the job done.”
On her funniest World Series memory… “I don’t know how funny this will be, but Kaila Hunt was my road roommate, and when we got back to the room every night, we would pull out our phones and pull up our social media and read out loud all of the tweets that were tweeted to us during the game. We would die laughing for like an hour, and we would just go back and forth and try to figure out what was wrong with people!”
On what she’d like an opportunity to relive… “I would 100% relive the entire [World Series] if I had the opportunity to, regardless of the outcome, just because it was such an amazing experience. But Lauren Haeger and I have this argument all the time, from my first at-bat in our second game when she struck me out on a change-up that I thought was high in the zone. For YEARS, since we played in the pro league together, we have gone back and forth about that at-bat. I’m always like ‘It was too high!’ and she’s always like ‘It was a strike!’ So if I could go back, I would just love to have an at-bat against her again, knowing what I know now and knowing her… that always gets brought up, and the banter goes back and forth constantly.”
