2025 WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 4, 2025

Mike White

Teagan Kavan

Reese Atwood

Kayden Henry

Texas Longhorns

Postgame Press Conference

Texas - 2, Texas Tech - 1

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Texas head coach Mike White, and players Teagan Kavan, Reese Atwood, and Kayden Henry.

We'll start with an opening statement from Coach White.

MIKE WHITE: Obviously it was a hard-fought game. It could have gone either way, a game of inches. A lot of things happening for a 2-1 ballgame for sure. Fortunately we were able to come out on top of it.

NiJa Canady is just an extremely good pitcher. We have one on our side too with Teagan Kavan. They kind of matched toe-to-toe for quite a while, and it was good.

It's hard. Gerry's done a great job with their team and is still doing a great job with their team. To face them in this atmosphere is tremendous. Thank you to all the fans that turned out. The crowd was great, I thought, for not having a home team in it for the first time in a while. People always wonder about that. But the fans really showed out. I think that's great, and it was a good ballgame.

Q. Reese, obviously those first three pitches of the intentional walk were close. Were you prepared to swing? Did you want to swing knowing that it's probably the flattest pitch you'll ever get from NiJa Canady? Can you walk us through that?

REESE ATWOOD: The first pitch, I think she kind of left a little. After that, I was looking for something just a little bit. The game's really tight, and I knew I was going to have to take a risk to try and do something for my team.

Props to NiJa because she definitely kept us real tight throughout that game. She's a great pitcher. I saw my opportunity, and I took it.

Q. Reese, did you know on the first pitch that you might, if something was close, that you were going to take a swing at it? Is that your call to make that decision to swing when you're trying to be intentionally walked?

REESE ATWOOD: I've never had to -- I've never had that happen to me, so I'm not sure. I've had intentional walks, but I've never had one that was actually over the plate a little bit. The first one was, so at that point, I was like let me just be on time, and if I react -- I knew she had slowed down a bit, so I knew I had time to react to something. So I was going to make sure I was on time in case it was over the plate.

Q. Reese and Teagan, on that obstruction call, what did you guys see from your angle? When they ruled her safe, what was going through your minds?

REESE ATWOOD: It's a tough call. I'm just really proud of how the team responded to it. That's all that matters. I feel like we were kind of fired up after that, and we got the momentum going on from there.

TEAGAN KAVAN: Yeah, I was trying to get out of the way. I didn't see what happened.

Q. Teagan, can you walk us through that first inning and how you got out that have jam? How hard was it pitching with the pressure of trying to match NiJa pitch for pitch?

TEAGAN KAVAN: First inning, definitely a little rough, not the best. I think we responded in that, and my team kept me in it. Reese came up big in that moment, and that helped us out.

After we got through that, it was like just settle down, we're fine. That kind of helped us after we took the momentum from that.

Q. Kayden, it seemed like on the foul ball right before your hit that you were starting to get the timer up. That third time through the order, did things feel more comfortable for everyone?

KAYDEN HENRY: Yes, 100 percent. I think there was never a time or an at-bat we felt was wasted. We communicated throughout the whole entire game. We battled her throughout the whole entire game. At some point we knew we were going to execute and get through, and it just happened to be in the sixth inning.

Q. Kayden, this is for you. That was an epic at-bat. What information are you getting as you're fouling it off, fouling it off, and finally getting some good contact down left field?

KAYDEN HENRY: Just being on time, keeping it simple. Just knowing kind of my zone, what I like to hunt, and my pitches. Being able to trust myself, trust my skills, and kind of understand also how I was being pitched throughout the game. So being able to come through for my team when I needed to.

Q. Reese, for you, going back to that 3-0 pitch, you said that everybody was fired up after that obstruction call. Did that fire you up too? How did that fuel that AB?

REESE ATWOOD: Yeah, it definitely did. A lot of plays in that game fired me up. It's the World Series, it's the championship. So little things like that, it's tight, especially when you're facing a good pitcher. Any momentum, any energy we'll take, we'll get it.

Q. Kayden and Teagan, Reese was 0 for 10 before that hit. Sorry to bring that up, Reese. Good timing on the hit. What was your confidence level with her up with runners aboard?

TEAGAN KAVAN: I think it stays the same. It's Reese Atwood at the plate. I don't care if she had struck out ten times before that, if I was pitching to her, I wouldn't want to. No confidence drop at all.

KAYDEN HENRY: Yeah, I agree. She's an All-American for a reason, two times at this point. You know the confidence really never goes down with Reese. She's a competitor. She's a hard worker.

You know, at the end of the day, it was kind of just going to take one swing, and she took it.

TEAGAN KAVAN: She's 0 for 10 and they were intentionally walking her, so I think that says it too.

Q. For all the players, earlier this tournament, you all overcame Oklahoma. Tonight you overcame the controversial obstruction call. Then you overcome NiJa. Do you sense a collective resiliency with this team going into potentially the game to win the National Championship?

REESE ATWOOD: Yeah, for sure. That's instilled in our culture, resiliency. Coach White always harps on that, and that's definitely something that every person on this team has. We never stop fighting. It's Texas fight, and it will always be there.

TEAGAN KAVAN: I think getting the first one was big for us, and that's a huge piece of it. That's going to help us going forward. I think we never give in. Even when we'd come together, we were always talking about just fighting to the end. If you have an out, you have a chance.

KAYDEN HENRY: This team has dealt with adversity this whole entire season. A lot of us came back and we had adversity last year. I think it's just coming together, fighting for each other, and just being the team we have been this whole entire season.

Q. Coach, you kind of mentioned how strange this one was to you. Did it kind of in a way feel lucky or that you dodged a bullet in a game where you have four errors and still managed to come out with a victory against a pitcher the caliber of NiJa?

MIKE WHITE: Yeah, I think it just shows that the team had the resilience and just put it behind them to be able to reset. We work on that all the time, the mental toughness part of it.

Obviously nobody wants to get out today and make a couple of errors. One was the catcher's interference, which counted as an error, and I think the obstruction call at two counts as an error too, right. So a couple that reads a little worse than what it really is.

We've got to pick each other up, and that was the key there. You're playing a great pitcher like NiJa, you've just got to take advantage when you can. Fortunately, we had an opportunity to make things count, and we were able to do that with Reese Atwood's hit.

Q. Coach, you obviously have a very good workhorse pitcher, but you also have some depth. Just wanted you to comment, if you could, about how your pitching is set up going forward for the rest of this and just where you stand.

MIKE WHITE: Obviously we have four more pitchers that are well rested, and it gives us an opportunity to throw anybody at any one time. We'll go back and look at the film, talk to Teagan and see how she's feeling tomorrow and make that decision tomorrow once we get back and talk as a staff.

Talking to Pattie Ruth Taylor, our pitching coach, as well and see what we want to do after we look at some tape.

Q. Someone mentioned Reese's 0 for 10 streak. You haven't been shy about moving people around in your lineup. Did you ever consider moving Reese at all? And what gives you confidence in her even though she's 0 for 10?

MIKE WHITE: I can't believe in that thing. I think that you keep missing, sooner or later, you're going to strike gold. I think I told ESPN on an interview that I thought Reese Atwood was the one that was going to come through for us. I think it was the Softball Live show. That's the one I believe in, so I knew she was due.

She was on time quite a bit today and just missing. So I think she was due to come through. Didn't know it was going to be that intentional walk thing, but still it works and goes down as a hit.

Q. Mike, you had one hit as a team through five innings. What did you think of your approaches to NiJa then, and why do you feel like Kayden and Mia got the big hits?

MIKE WHITE: I think that early on we had quite a few strikeouts. We were chasing quite a bit, and she had our number, and we just had to make the adjustment. You can't chase after a pitcher like that.

We had the hits later in the game that showed up. Kayden Henry fought that one off, and it was huge for us to create some momentum.

Q. Teagan kept the ball on the ground all night. What is the evolution of her drop ball been like this year and just why it's been so successful, especially here?

MIKE WHITE: Coming back from the fast pitch days, and she was coached by Bill Hillhouse, who was a men's fast pitch pitcher. We believe in vertical movements, up and down and then off-speed, and those are the three pitches she has. She's able to move them those through the planes and make the pitches look similar but break different ways.

I think it came down confidence. From her earlier days, she could get away from throwing one pitch. She found out sometimes the hard way at this level you've got to be able to mix and match and reinvent yourself and do different things.

Q. Did you think that Reese was going to swing when you saw the intentional walk coming?

MIKE WHITE: I kind of was, if it's there, hit it. I didn't know she was going to swing. I kind of joked with her, I didn't give you the 3-0 green light. I'm glad she didn't listen to me. I think Coach Singleton was telling her to swing.

Q. The obstruction call has been an issue this whole World Series. Does it need to be reassessed by the NCAA about how it's applied?

MIKE WHITE: I was on the rules committee a couple of years ago, and it's a tough deal because one of the things you want to be able to do is allow us to make softball plays. Obviously that was a softball play. It didn't work out.

How the book is written, you've got to call up how it's written. So, yes, we do need to maybe look at that and change it so that it's not written that way and allows a little more interpretation or leeway.

We brought in the ruling that, if the throw takes you offline coming into home plate, you're allowed to go get the ball, and that was a good change. Now we need to look at some of these other things that are taking away these really great plays. That was a great throw and a great tag, but by rule book, they had to call it the way they called it.

Q. We haven't seen what Gerry will do playing back-to-back with NiJa. Do you go into tomorrow expecting to see her again?

MIKE WHITE: 100 percent, without a doubt. He's going to throw her -- he's already said he's not going to leave his ace on the bench, and I trust Gerry.

Q. During the broadcast, they reported that Mia Scott is playing with a torn ACL. Is that true, and when did that happen?

MIKE WHITE: I can't really elaborate on that at this point. I'm not sure when it happened. She's been playing banged up a little bit. Obviously there's HIPAA rules I've got to abide by and can't really talk about that per se.