May 11, 2006

#1 Tulsa 4, #5 East Carolina 3

John Bargfeldt, Tulsa Head Coach

Your thoughts on the game:

"The game was in doubt several times. Anytime you're facing a pitcher as good as Kelli Harrell, and you fall behind you're always afraid that the air is going to go out of your team because they feel it's such an uphill climb. For us to come back and hit two home runs in one inning, and then have Tower hit her first lifetime first home run in the seventh inning to tie the game is amazing. She's been hitting them in practice and when she does she gets real excited and keeps saying, 'hey it's going to go.' I don't know if the breeze slowed down or not, but that's the way Lindsey's been hitting them in practice. She was almost in tears coming around from second to third base."

"To have it end that way -- First, they battled out of a first-and-third situation with nobody out, and then the pitcher makes a great stab but overthrows the ball. I know she (Brooke Swann) must be sick, but we'll take it."

Kelli McGlasson, Tulsa shortstop

"It's very exciting to get a win like this. It's always good to have a little luck on your side. It was a lot of stress during the game. I was trying to go up and get a base hit, but luckily she overthrew the ball. I'm glad we won. We needed that."

About tomorrow:

"We're going to come out ready to play. Marshall going to be intense. We need to come out fired up. They're a very outgoing team. We need to come out with our heads in the game, do what we need to do, and make the plays we need to make."

Lindsey Tower, Tulsa pinch hitter

About your game-tying and first career home run:

"It was amazing to be able to step uyo and help the team out. I couldn't imagine that. I never hit a home run before, and wasn't trying to do that, but I couldn't imagine a better time to help out the team."

Did you know it was a home run:

"No. I was just focused on running as fast as I could. As I was rounding first I just remembered jumping uip in the air screaming."

Tracey Kee, East Carolina Head Coach

Talk about the game:

"You never want to end a ballgame on an error, and obviously on a ground ball back to your pitcher. She is a freshman. I think she'll learn from it. Hopefully, she'll just run the ball over to first base and do the flip. That is all we ask. Our kids showed a lot of heart. We could have been out. Never in my life have I felt so high and so low multiple times in one game."

"All year this group has shown a lot of fight, especially in the last 20 ball games. We've started to pull everything together. Obviously, if we could have kept the ball in the ball park, but that's a credit to Tulsa. They swung the bats well, and they swung the bats when they had to."

About tomorrow's match-up with Houston:

"We have to learn from this. If the same team shows up tomorrow that showed up today we'd be fine. All we ask is that they show a lot of fight and that they don't give up til the last out of the ball game, and when you can do that there's no problem. There's no other team I'd rather be coaching. I think they'll bounce back."