Small Talk: Taylor Schlopy

     Taylor Schlopy is a second year player from The University of Georgia. She has quickly become a fan favorite in Akron. Her fiery personality and endless motor often bring fans to their feet and their appreciation for her style of play is tremendous. Taylor plays a blue-collar type of softball which most people in northeast Ohio can identify with. She is loved by all and it was awesome for me to get a few minutes to connect with Taylor!

So far this season has been sub par for your standards, what do you do to get through that and not let it effect you on the defensive end?

Offensively I'm just taking it one pitch at a time, one at-bat at a time. Staying calm, concentrating on putting the ball hard in play. Not really looking at stats, every day is a new day and I know I have to be successful for my team so it's not really thinking about myself and just do my for my team.

Have there been any changes moving into your second season in the league that you've noticed?

No, it's always great competition within the league. I might not be doing the best I can offensively but I'm going to go out and make great plays defensively there that will make up for some of the at-bats I haven't had. I'm really going to just flush the first half of the season and take off from here, can't dwell on the past.

Where does the team go from here after a tough weekend?

I have full confidence in our team, I definitely think we're headed in the right direction. Even though we only took one in this series this last game says a lot. Shows a lot of character that we came out with a lot of energy. I think that we're just going to get hot, we're growing and we're getting closer. Every thing's going to click at the right time and we're going to be on fire.

It's kind of obvious you're the fan favorite around here, what makes you the fan favorite?

I really don't know, people tell me it's because I'm short, kids like short people I guess. I really don't know. So yeah, I'm not quite sure. I appreciate all the love, clearly. But I really have no idea.

Give us the story behind your face paint...

I actually never wore it til college and then Christie Hamilton, she was a junior when I was a freshman, she used to wear it and we used to only do one line. It was pretty much like warrior paint and I had to earn to be a warrior. I worked really hard as a freshman and it was about midway she put it on me and said you earned it so go out and be a leader.