The Scarlet Sitdown: Rutgers Softball with Payton Lincavage and Kyleigh Sand

Welcome to the Scarlet Sit-Down with Alice and Josh, a daily Targum sports podcast dedicated to covering everything that goes on at Rutgers Athletics. You may have noticed our names has changed. We've gone through a rebranding with a new logo out shortly. In Scarlet Sit-Down, we're going to bring in special guests every episode to discuss the hottest topics in Rutgers sports. I'm head sports editor, Alice Gordon. And I am associate sports editor, Josh Myers. And today we are joined by two special guests from the Rutgers softball team. I'm doing pretty good. How are you doing, Peyton? I'm doing great. Awesome, awesome. So you guys started the season 7-0. It was the best start to the season since 1980. You guys are now 12-3. What do you think has contributed to your early season success and what do you think the goals are for the season at large? I think a big difference in this year is that we collectively have a team goal and a team. I think we're all really bought into being great and we recognize how much talent and potential this team has and we're all working so hard and it's really shown these first three weeks. Great, awesome. As senior and junior softball players, you spent multiple seasons on the banks, multiple seasons on the field. What has been your favorite moment playing softball for Rutgers? One of my favorite moments was probably last season getting to go play back in my home state for postseason back in Colorado. I just thought that was really cool and it came full circle for me. What about you, Kylie? So my favorite moment, honestly, was when we went on a retreat and we went to the grocery store and we had like three carts full of groceries and then the receipt was so long. It was just a funny moment. We're all in the grocery store getting food that we could cook for that trip. What food? So my team cooked Mexican food. We had tacos and quesadillas. What does your team cook? We were like separate. Yeah, every team had a different part of the day they had to cook for. Mine was breakfast so we got like pancakes, eggs, chocolate milk. Yeah, Rutgers softball definitely knows how to eat. We have some cooks on the team. You guys travel like at least this season a lot, a lot of places. What's that like? How's like the team boss? What's it like traveling? How are road trips? Because I always wonder because you guys have gone to like so many places already like this season and you always have in the past. How do you pass time on road trips? Road trips, well we haven't had one yet this season but in the past we tend to, personally I like to get a blanket, a pillow and just sleep like anytime I can. I just like to catch up on sleep but there's always music playing on our bus. We have a speaker we carry with us everywhere. That's a big thing that happens on the bus. What's in the aux? Yeah, what's on aux? Oh, it's a mix of everything. We got country music, old school rock, you know like pop. We always have some Rihanna on there. Team likes Rihanna. Super Bowl. Did you guys watch that? Yeah. We were on the way back when the Super Bowl was happening but I did see the halftime show. I'm an Eagles fan so it was unfortunate for me. What country artists? Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, some girls like Hardy. I'm sorry, I don't have any country artists. Kai doesn't like country that much. What do you like? 2000s pop. Oh yeah, you can't go wrong with that. Isn't that, what's his biggest song? Well, my walk-up song is Man Eater but he has Promiscuous. Alright, so yeah, you guys are like two of the most experienced players. What is something you tell to younger players? I know Ryan Orange just won Big Ten Freshman of the Week, so a big award. So how do you take that role as like a mentor on the team? Well, it's like a very interesting spot because we were both in that position and we had mentors that helped us so what they told to us really helped me but for them it's like you got to buy into the process, know where you are in the process and don't take a rep off. Our freshmen are pretty, they're a pretty strong group together and they pretty all, they all have like a strong goal and they're goal orientated so our freshmen have like a big impact on our team this year. What is it like playing for head coach Kristen Butler? I love Coach Butler. Coach Butler has been a great coach for me, life coach. I mean, she helps me on and off the field and she's helped me grow tremendously as a player like no other coach has. Yeah, getting to play for Coach Butler has been awesome. She knows all the ins and outs to softball. She's definitely someone I could go talk to or she'd just be there for me. Her values really align with mine and everything like that I want to be post softball not even just softball so I just like really love getting to play for her these past three years, four years. Yeah, so kind of like going off that I think like you know basketball, football recruiting gets very, for most men and women gets very publicized but like not a lot of people like softball recruiting so what was like your recruiting process like? Okay, my recruiting process was very interesting. I was committed, so I'm a transfer so she got me through the portal which was like the easiest process ever but yeah my commitment process before that in high school was a disaster but they just changed the rule so like you can't get recruited since you're a junior and I think that really saved a lot of people because if that rule was put into place when I was in high school I would be in a very like a better spot at that time but yeah she picked me up from the portal and it's just been all good from there. Well with the new rules the portal's like it's easy to pick up you said you mentioned? You're in the portal and every team could see you, every coach could see you so it's kind of just like who wants you they'll send you an email and you decide if you respond back or not. And do you like I guess fly out to the different your different options or you're just like phone calls? So for me we had a phone call and then she came out to California for recruiting and then we just went to lunch together to meet and then bring me on a visit for my official visit and then I flew out here my official and that's how it went. How about for you? Mine was different I actually committed my sophomore year of high school to Rutgers but it was to the coach before like coach Butler didn't originally recruit me so and then that coach obviously left and Butler I heard she was the new coach and then we talked and I ended up loving her and her staff so I stayed here and that's what happened. Yeah there's a lot of good coaches at Rutgers so it's it doesn't it doesn't change for softball too. So Payton you were in the academic big 10 last season I guess it's a question actually for both you guys how do you juggle both softball academics and just I guess like normal Rutgers life? I always wonder I don't know how you guys do it yeah I don't know how you guys do it I seriously don't. At this point it's just become like natural because of how challenging it is but I think a big thing I have to do is prioritize okay school work like okay so these past three weeks we have three days at home and then what is it four days on the road so when I come home like Monday Tuesday Mondays are off day so I really try to get all my school work done on Monday because I know that the second we leave Thursday morning I won't have as much time to do what needs to be done so it's really just like prioritizing when and where you have to do your school work in order to get it done on time. What about you Kai? No I think I should follow that path because I'd be in the airplane trying to do all of my homework at one time. That's easier when you guys wake up usually on the normal not an off day but like on a normal day normal day like for training I guess. 7 yeah 7 7 30. I had a hard time waking up at what 7 30 today. Props to you guys you guys you guys are troopers. Well tomorrow we have to wake up at like 4 30 to leave at 5. So what time do you go to bed then? I personally try to go to sleep early yeah I'll go to sleep anywhere between 8 and 10 truthfully. I'm always up at 2. Can you uh can you like take me through like then what a like a game day like looks like like in terms of preparation like what do you do beforehand what do you do after the game? Well I think for us preparation for the game honestly starts the night before we are always watching film you know talking about pictures we're gonna see so you know we're prepared for that but then like waking up wise wake up get some breakfast at the hotel go to the field do BP in the batting cages hurdles and ladders get our legs warm jump rope all that kind of stuff anything else I miss Kai? And then after the game what does it look like just like go to bed or like I guess it depends on the game time but like is there like a cool down um it depends kind of on how we did that day we'll watch film sometimes I'll watch the game after us but our film will vary in different ways sometimes we'll watch the game we just played or sometimes we'll watch our team that we're going to play next. All right Kylie you've won two Big Ten Player of the Week awards so far in the early part of season what does it mean to you to help the team in such a big way? Well I think it's a good opportunity because I get to lead our other girls into the same accolades like Ryan Orange getting Big Ten Freshman of the Week was huge for us because we have three weeks that we've been playing and now we have three representatives on the weekly accolades so I just think for me I like to see my teammates following behind me in the same thing. Um so obviously softball a big part of Rutgers experience but what do you say is your favorite part about Rutgers like a whole but like non-softball related? Well I kind of like how big it is like athletes they don't really run this school so much because it's so huge so I could just be kind of like a normal student when I go to school and not really have my athletic athletic performance I guess with me at all times so I guess that's pretty nice for me. I don't have to say I like getting the opportunity to go see the city whenever I really like to go to Hoboken or New York and just what the school has to offer outside of sports Have you guys up eating on East on East and F? Yes. What's your so if you had to pick what is your favorite food spot to eat go to you know dining with some friends? Mine would definitely be Hansel and we're gonna say we have it on our red card and any chance I have that I go to Hansel like last night I got it. I got Hansel yesterday yeah but my favorite is Fritz because I like the pretzel and cheese. They have good French onion soup there. All right how about and they have chocolates and pastries. Really they have pastries too? Yeah they have like chocolates I always get a truffle when I go. How about a stuff your face? I've never been there. It's so good. I've been a few times. Really? Yeah. You're a stuff your face fan? I'm more of like a taqueria kind of guy. Oh I forgot about taqueria. That's a close second. Not all jefes. No offense. I used to like all jefes now I'm like no I converted because we had this debate because you're like you're gassing up on alfas and I was gassing up on alfas but it's like it was mid. Okay I agree um it was mid. All right um Payton you're currently seventh in program history in triples um and Kyle you're a perfect 18 at 18 on stolen bases and number one nation stolen bases. What do you guys think who's who do you guys think is a fast between you two? Who do you think is running winning a race around the bases like that? This is my girl Kylie Sane right here. She's definitely the fastest. I mean it goes to show like the stats are there for a reason. She is the fastest girl in the country. We both bring strong points like I'm fast and she's strong. That's what we mix. Thanks Kyle. Right there. You're strong too though. When it comes to the stealing bases though like what is like is that like a like what's what do you attribute your success to off to your speed but is that also watching film knowing like timing or? Honestly I attribute my success to our strength coach coach Abby because she has been she has taught me how to run faster just the dynamics of running everything that she's done for us she's taken that game into a huge jump for us. You say you're the fastest in the big 10 then? 100 percent. Hopefully. All right Payton I'm gonna ask you this question who do you think would win a race the flash with the DC superhero or Kylie? Okay. We'll have to answer that. The flash would win. All right. My money's on Kylie. Oh there you go. Thanks. Confidence. Maybe if you like what maybe if you didn't use his superpowers. Yeah. Yeah superpowers are a little. Yeah no it's true it's true. Yeah so what big 10 what big 10 opponent are you looking forward to playing against this season? Definitely Indiana. And why? Those games they were just right there they were like in our hands to take them yeah and we did it but it's okay we're young a lot of us were sophomores freshmen on the field this year we're upperclassmen with eligibility a lot of us are juniors and seniors this year and I think because of our mindset we have we just look a lot better as a team and as a whole physically and emotionally so I think that's going to be a pretty good game and plus they're coming to our home field. I think we've been been waiting to play them since that last game that we played them last year like we're just hungry to play that team again. I think Kylie mentioned this a little bit what is it like when you have such like a mix of like some teams like are older some teams are like younger but you guys kind of have like a mix of like young young players older players like what is that like when you have such a wide mix of age and seniority like is it any different do you even think about it or I was gonna say I don't even really think about it it doesn't our team is pretty close as a whole so like the freshman being freshman really doesn't matter I was gonna say I don't even think of like say Ryan Orange as a freshman yeah I just think of her as like a really close friend yeah because because well outside I guess outside of athletics it's different because I think it gets overplayed in terms of like media world or like the thinking of like age but you know like when I think of I have friends that I mean I know it's definitely different outside about like these guys are your team and obviously have a bond but like outside it's just like when you're like a sophomore junior senior you like look down on the freshman yeah but obviously it's different it's different it's different not like look down I mean no we were always listen I guess I guess people think that like oh we freshman blah blah blah but but like I don't know I mean I guess we were all freshmen so I guess I guess I actually don't like that that people do that but yeah no yeah we don't like it either so we honestly try as hard as possible to like not have any freshman initiation or anything yeah it's good yeah kind of just like one of course and like what is your favorite kind of another Rutgers like what is your favorite campus to be on out of the four are you guys ever even on Cooker Bush well I have one class on Cook but I have never really seen it to be honest I would say College Ave is the good food and just good vibes I like I think everyone's everyone is there I'm there I like this either I like movie too but I feel like it's more calm it's two different vibes I was gonna say this yeah I was here like Wednesday night I saw I want to see the cocaine bear actually um me too I'm like I was like the movie it was very like yeah it was very calm so I don't know movie I'm not no not the movie goes campus after the movie movie's not calm it's about a but um bear on cocaine my favorite food places around this campus really yeah well I just like the Asian no the Asian um what's it called the Asian place right here yeah I know you're saying yeah Asian fusion yes I just love that place and Qdoba and Starbucks but see Takara and Chipotle Qdoba is actually the best place I like Qdoba too but before Qdoba is Taco Bell Taco Bell oh my god I feel like it's even it's like it's different types of tax no but okay but Qdoba I feel like it's more authentic Crunchwrap Supreme yeah I'm not getting I'm not getting it so far yeah you're getting a Crunchwrap a creamy jalapeno sauce it's like it's what okay I've never tried that you need to try it Kylie come on next time it's pretty good I like the Baja Blast yeah it's like it's like see Taco Bell Superior I will say I think Chipotle I don't know I've never seen it it's like it's like the go-to spot yeah I've heard of it but I never really no actually I do prefer Chipotle better you guys are weird I'm from North Jersey so you guys are weird down there I can't believe it's 9 45 and I'm craving some Mexican food right now in the morning I'm about to get Taco Bell after this really yeah it was actually in the plan before I came here all right um yeah I think any last things you want to touch on Josh or no I think we I think we got it all just um you know what are what are some you know upcoming games obviously like well what are you looking forward to the most obviously you're coming home you're coming home too soon too so like how's it how's it to play at home it's really good we have a nice environment there with like us being a building program our fans are also building too and it's like even in our fall games we had fans more fans than we had last year and I I'm assuming this year we're gonna have a lot of likability for our home field all right thank you Kylie and Payton for coming on and thank you guys for listening to the Scarlet Sit-down with Alice and Josh your podcast for everything Rutgers athletics again thank you guys for coming on and good luck on the rest of your season don't forget to follow Scarlet Sit-down podcast on Spotify and YouTube at the Daily Targum and Instagram at what will be our new handle Scarlet Sit-down RU and stay tuned for more podcasts in the coming weeks thank you thank you