Postgame Quotes: #3 Michigan 4, Kent State 1
3/15/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 15, 2015
Michigan Head Coach Carol Hutchins
On shaking off sluggish bats ... "Over the weekend we faced a very good pitcher. That kid is as good as anybody I've seen; she is legit. I just thought we were trying too much. We finally told them to get back to 'see ball, hit ball.' Just get your barrel to contact. I thought that they got better with that. We needed to be less focused on her and then we got better. We faced a class pitcher, and she shut us down when she needed to. I give her a lot of credit, and that team. They came up here to beat us."
On coming back after the loss in the opener ... "They lose a game at home, and I think they're a little wounded. Their pride is a little wounded and they were a little humbled. I was hoping they'd come back with a little bee in their bonnet. We started the game with a popup, so sometimes you just have to struggle through it. Hitting is a hard thing, you just have to stay on it and stay tough. Si-Lo (Sierra Lawrence) didn't have a great weekend, but her last on bat was huge. It was huge."
On the pitchers' duel ... "I thought the biggest thing for us today was [Megan] Betsa being one-pitch tougher. She says that more than any of the girls. She had a few moments there, that inning before we broke it open, she really had to tough it out. She really had to throw one pitch at a time. I want to see us continue with that mentality. We've blown a lot of teams out, but to get where we want to go, we've got to be able to chip away and win tight games. This was a tight series, winning the series was big. Hopefully this will give us some confidence for the next time we face a tight series. This won't be the only one we have."
U-M Sophomore RHP Megan Betsa
On how well she executed this weekend ... "I just focused on doing my part, and my part is allowing the least amount of runs on the board. I was just trying to be one-pitch tougher than they were. Whether that's not giving up as many walks or not trying too hard. I focused on getting outs. My team's behind me, and I know that they're going to play awesome defense. They came around and did an awesome job. I focused on getting outs."
On shaking off the leadoff home run in the fourth ... "I use it as fuel. I got mad, and I struck out the next three batters. It's fuel to my fire. I don't like it, so I use it and get better from it."
U-M Sophomore Leftfielder Kelly Christner
On if there was a sense of confidence today ... "All of us kept saying that our swings felt great. We were just a little off, one click too late or just a little bit under it. Finally being able to be right on the ball was a huge sense of accomplishment."
On if breaking through in the fourth carried into the later innings ... "Yeah, definitely. It's just momentum. Momentum is huge; even if it's one batter getting on base it can be huge for a game."
U-M Freshman First Baseman Tera Blanco
On overcoming slow starts at the plate ... "We just have to keep our one pitch focus and keep doing what we do. Keep in our process. I know we'll be fine."
On knowing her home run was out immediately ... "You kind of know where you hit it. When you hit it, you can feel it. There are some you just know."
