TUFTS POST-GAME QUOTES:

Head Coach Cheryl Milligan on the Tufts offense coming alive with nine hits after being shutout against Coe last night: “Our bats came alive. We felt like we really didn’t do our job at the plate last night, and we knew we could do better. Last night, we talked about being a little bit tight, but today we swung a lot better than we did yesterday. A lot more like we are capable of doing. That’s the kind of power we have. We didn’t have as many base hits as we are used to getting, but we swung the bats better in key situations.”

Milligan on Tufts’ approach offensively against Texas-Tyler: “After the first inning, we talked about not being tight at the plate. We said that if we were going to go down swinging, we were going to go down swinging hard to break something. That really kind of changed our attitude a little bit at the plate. I think we just played a little bit looser and worried about us as opposed to what anyone else was doing.”

Milligan on the shutout pitching performance by sophomore right-hander Izzie Santone: “She pitched a great game and hit her spots about 95 percent of the time today. She’s pitched as good as we’ve seen her pitch all year. Her change-up was great, and her ability to throw a change-up at any point in the count is such a powerful weapon. You feel like you never really get behind when you have that in your back pocket.”

Santone on how she felt physically prior to the game: “I felt really great. I felt great against Cortland two days ago, but I felt even better today. It’s great to know that as the tournament goes on, I’m not losing the battle to nerves.”

Santone on her low pitch count in the game: “[Texas-Tyler] are good hitters. They went up there and had good swings on every pitch. It’s just a matter of keeping your cool and throwing to your spot and having a little bit of luck. They were swinging early, and that contributed to the low pitch count.”

Santone on the play of the Jumbos defense behind her: “Our defense was great. There was one inning where I walked the first batter, and as a pitcher, 90 percent of the time your walk the leadoff hitter that runner scores. As a pitcher, it is great to know that if you give up a hard ground ball up the middle, your defense can turn it into a double-play, it really helps you as a pitcher. It’s great to know that little mistakes like that can be covered by your defense.”

Freshman first baseman Lena Cantone on how it feels to be just one of four teams still competing for the National Championship: “It feels great. As a freshman, we knew coming in here that with eight seniors, there were a lot of expectations to perform well. We have a lot of confidence in each other as a team, so I knew that we would have to live up to those expectations. It’s great to make it this far.”

TEXAS-TYLER POST-GAME QUOTES:

Head Coach Mike Reed on the pitching performance by Tuft’s Izzie Santone: “She did a great job. We had a game plan coming in that we thought was good, but we got away from it early. She did a great job of mixing it up, changing speeds, and throwing her change-up for strikes. You tip your hat to them. We left a couple of balls up early and they had two big hits. I thought Lauren Scruggs came in and did an outstanding job of working out of a jam and helping us stay in the game. But give credit to Santone. She changed speeds and kept us from ever getting in a good rhythm offensively.”

Reed on Tyler producing only four hits after generating three home runs in their win yesterday over Ohio Northern: “[Santone] did a great job. She changed speeds, kept the ball down, and didn’t make any mistakes. When you have hitters like ours, part of our success is getting mistakes and capitalizing on those. She didn’t make a lot of mistakes today.”

Reed on whether his team’s plan was to swing early in the count against Santone: “We knew she would try to get ahead in the count and then go to her off-speed pitches, so we tried to get on the first pitch if it was a strike and not get behind in the count, because we knew that she could throw her off-speed pitches for strikes. We didn’t have our best at-bats today, and you can’t do that at the National Championship.”

Reed on playing in cool and windy conditions: “We’ve played in a lot of wind and cool weather, so it wasn’t a big climate change for us. With our style, we usually like the flag blowing out, but we just didn’t have our best at-bats today.”

Reed on the diving catch made by sophomore All-American right fielder Whitney Wyly: “It says a lot about Whitney. Ten months ago, she had never played in the outfield and we asked her to do that for our team. Ten months later, she’s playing in the National Championship and makes that kind of catch. It’s a credit to how hard she works. We talked about memories after the game, and that is one memory that we will take with us. It was the best catch that I’ve ever witnessed as a coach.”

Wyly on her decision to leave Division I Texas-San Antonio to attend Texas-Tyler: “Tyler was a better fit for me. I knew Coach Reed from before, and he graciously accepted me back at Texas-Tyler after not choosing his program originally. Tyler is a better fit for me and my husband, and I’m happy to be at the institution.”

Wyly on advancing to the National Championship in the program’s infancy: “This is just the start for us. Hopefully we can build on this and this experience will be something that we can build on. We’re only five years into our program, and this experience is something to build on.”

Reed on Wyly’s transfer to the Texas-Tyler program: “She was a valedictorian in high school and a great player, so we recruited her out of high school, but she chose a different school. That summer we got a release form and a phone call asking if we would be interested in having her at Texas-Tyler. Like I said, she was a valedictorian, a great player, a great person, and she came from a great family. It was a no-brainer, and we were glad to have her. What a great year she had.”

Reed on the experience of playing in the National Championship at Montclair State: “It really went smooth and we’ve had a great experience. It’s been a really well-run event. Everything has gone great. We appreciate the planning and preparation that everyone at Montclair has done. Everything that we could possibly think of was done for us by the Montclair staff. You dream about going to the National Championship, and this has lived up to that. Our whole experience has been great.”