WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES: BATON ROUGE REGIONAL

May 16, 2026

Pete D'Amour

Michelle Chatfield

Annika Rohs

Tiger Park

Virginia Tech Hokies

Postgame Press Conference

Virginia Tech 7, Akron 6

PETE D'AMOUR: To start it off, I want to commend Akron. They're a tough team. Jamrog, I think she probably threw 300 pitches today. As we like to call it, she's a dog.

Number two, I'd like to apologize for the quick pivot you guys are going to have to ask. I know the line of questioning would be a little different going into the seventh inning. I know you all are pros and you're ready for it, but fire away.

Q. What was different going into the seventh inning, what made that work?

ANNIKA ROHS: We just went in with the mindset, like, we can come back against any team, and it just happened that it took us till the seventh, which is okay, because we all came together and really fought for each other in that last inning. It wasn't just one person. We needed the whole team, and everyone stepped up.

MICHELLE CHATFIELD: I think we know as long as there's an out left, we can score. And we showed that today. We had three outs left, and we didn't let that stop us.

Q. Michelle, obviously hit that two-run homer at the top of the seventh. What did you see on that at-bat?

MICHELLE CHATFIELD: Just looking middle and trying to hit it hard. Good things happen. We hit the ball so many times today it just didn't fall. It's got to fall eventually. Just keep doing what we're doing and go at 'em.

Q. What were the conversations like in the dugout getting ready to go up for that seventh inning, and what was said that really turned it around?

ANNIKA ROHS: Everyone was coming together. The bench was like, you guys, we've all got this. Just we need runners. Just taking it one pitch at a time, and I think that was kind of the conversations. Like, you can't hit -- how many runs were we down? Six, five? You can't hit a five-run home run with no one on base. We needed runners and we kept moving people over, and that was what we were talking about.

MICHELLE CHATFIELD: I think we thought we're not done yet. This isn't our last game, we don't want it to be our last game, so we'll see what we can do.

Q. In the earlier innings, was there still confidence when you guys were at bat? Because the seventh inning felt like there was more aggressiveness, more confidence at the bat. How do you guys come together when things don't seem to be going well, whether in the field with errors or the pitching or at-bats, like coming together?

MICHELLE CHATFIELD: I think it's just one pitch at a time. I mean, we have confidence in ourselves no matter what. I think we just need to remember that. I think we really looked into that in the last inning. We said no one's going to do it alone. Know you can be aggressive. Know you can go after them, and good things will happen.

Q. What pressure were you guys feeling going into the seventh? You guys were down to your last three outs of the season. Were you feeling any pressure in there? If you did, how did you push through it?

ANNIKA ROHS: Yeah, I mean, there's going to be pressure when it could be your last game. That's just how it is. We just knew if we pressed, we weren't going to have success. So we just played loose and let the ball come to us and had that mindset, and it really worked for us in the seventh.

Q. Obviously freshman Avery laid in throws, five straight strikeouts. How encouraging is it to see that from her in her first year of collegiate softball?

ANNIKA ROHS: Amazing. We all had her back. Just do you, trust your stuff, we've got your back if you need it. When you strike out five in a row, we're cheering for her, and we've got her back. And it's amazing to see how she's grown through her collegiate career so far.

Q. You guys put so much emphasis on mental strength and pushing through adversity. How did you guys maybe channel that today, again, down to your last three outs of the season?

MICHELLE CHATFIELD: I think it's just kind of channelling that into each other. I mean, you can't do everything yourself, so you've got to turn to the person next to you and say I've got your back, and they're going to say it back. And you just can't do it yourself; you've got to trust your teammates.

Q. What did you say to the team going into the seventh?

PETE D'AMOUR: How many runs did Texas Tech score in the seventh? They all knew, and I said that's easy. Go ahead and let it fly and score some runs.

Q. What do you make of the performance like Avery's when your team's backs are against the wall like that?

PETE D'AMOUR: She just came in and made pitches. That's all we ask of her. That's all you ask of anybody, go in there and do your best. Seemed to get better the longer the game went. I thought she was throwing really well in the last inning. So just maturity and just go out and make pitches.

Q. What did you like about your team's mental fortitude to be able to go into the seventh and put up a six spot?

PETE D'AMOUR: It's just the continuation of what we've done all year. We've been -- I don't know if we've come back from five down, but we've come back before. There's no quit. They're always going to fight. Have good at-bats. Kylie hit that double and Michelle hit the bomb. You could tell something was brewing. Just a continuation, whether it happens in the first or seventh, doesn't matter to me as long as you score runs.

Q. Not to backtrack to the less happy part, but what is going to be the key to reducing walks? And I guess any thoughts on the decisions about tomorrow, who pitches the first game?

PETE D'AMOUR: Yeah, we were just getting through today. We'll talk about it when we get to the hotel. But, yeah, just I think the one thing about -- you emphasize walks and you talk about it all the time, then it happens more.

So just go out and make pitches. Spin the ball. Hit your spot. Do it over and over again and see what happens.

Q. On days like today where Emma Mazzarone doesn't have her best control, what do you think the performance of the rest of the staff says about the depth of this pitching staff?

PETE D'AMOUR: It's kind of like hitting. If somebody doesn't have a particular day, that's okay. Just put somebody else in there and see what they can do and it helps when you're deep because you have more options. So same thing with hitting. If somebody is struggling, you put somebody else in there and see what they can do.

Q. What are you taking from today going into a rematch against LSU tomorrow?

PETE D'AMOUR: We got to Sunday. So when you get to Sunday, you wake up and see how you feel and try to continue what we did that seventh inning the first inning tomorrow.

Our kids are in a good spot. They know it's opening-day mindset. We've got to win the first. But you don't think about winning the first, you think about playing well at the start of the game. So we'll get rest tonight and get ready to play tomorrow.