Mark Berman here in Ann Arbor, where Virginia Tech beat Michigan 6-1 in the third and decisive game of the series to earn the school's first trip to the Women's College World Series.
The Hokies will play fifth-seeded Texas A&M on Thursday, the first day of the Series.
"I'm just really proud of ths team," coach Scot Thomas said. "Some people would probably call us overachievers, but the blood and guts of this team is walk-ons and people that were passed over .. and we were fortunate enough to have them, people like Angela [Tincher]. ... People like Whitney [Davis, a former walk-on] stepped up.
"We're going to have fun [at the Series] and enjoy our time and be appreciative of the privilege we've got.... The last couple days, my mornings been spent with a lot of butterfiles. I think I can relax a little more and just have butterlfies of excitement."
Tech needed to beat Michigan twice on Sunday because it lost to UM on Saturday.
"We just wanted to leave everything on the field," said Davis, who homered in the final game. "We didn't want to fall short. We knew that this was elimination Sunday, that we potentially could be going home. But we didn't want that to happen. We wanted to obtain our goals, and we were so close to doing it, we didn't give up."
Tincher threw a pair of three-hitters Sunday, winning the first game 1-0 and the second 6-1, after throwing 107 pitches Saturday.
"I'm starting to feel a little bit [tired] now but I definitely wasn't tired during the game," she said. "Everything was working a lot better today..... When my drop started working better today, we threw that a lot more, and we mixed in the changeup."
Tincher owned Michigan's best hitter, Samantha Findlay, who did not get a hit off Tincher in the series.
"Two years ago, she'd have probably walked and tried to get around some of those people, but she went right at these kids," Thomas said. "It was an incredible feat for her to do what she did there against those hitters."
Tech was shut out by Jordan Taylor on Saturday, so the Hokies moved to the back of the batter's box against her on Sunday. It worked.
"After watching the video and stuff last night, we felt like we weren't aggressive enough in the middle of the zone, and we were chasing ... with Taylor the off-speed pitches and swinging at a lot of non-strikes," Thomas said. "We made the adjustment towards the back of the box to get her to throw the ball a little further. It worked out, to see the ball a little longer from the back of the box."
Coach Carol Hutchins didn't like how Taylor threw in Sunday's first game, which she started and lost, so she went with Nikki Nemtiz to start Sunday's second game. Nemitz had thrown the final inning of Sunday's first game.
Hutchins yanked Nemitz after Davis got on in to start off the third inning, and Taylor gave up three walks, a two-RBI double to Misty Hall and an RBI grounder before being pulled for Nemitz with VT up 4-0.
Tincher with a 4-0 lead? Bad news for UM.
"It's fun to pitch when it's like that and you can just relax and have fun," she said.
Davis hit a solo homer in the fourth inning - her first one of the year.
Assistant coach Al Brauns "always makes fun of me and tells me if I ate one more biscuit, it's going to go over [the fence]," she said.
No comments yet