Wichita State Head Coach Gene Stephenson opening statement:

"I'm frustrated about it, but it is what it is. They hit the ball extremely well and our pitching could not stop them under any circumstances. We couldn't keep them from scoring until the seventh inning. That pretty much tells the story. I'll emphasize that I'm not a betting man, but if I were and someone would've told me that we would've scored eight runs on 15-some hits, I would've bet on us. But it wasn't to be and my hat goes off to Illinois State. They really played well. Today was their day."

Stephenson on being an at-large team:

"If I had to pick based on today...but overall, yes, of course we are. Right now there aren't 20 teams in the country with 40 wins and we're one of them, plus we've won 19 of our last 23 or 25, and that's what a stretch run is all about. The other thing is our fantastic starting pitchers who have thrown well all season."

Senior Cody Lassley on the offense from both teams:

"Today was a good day to hit, if you look at both teams we both hit the ball pretty well. We knew that was what we had to do. We had to try to slug it out for Jordan who pitched really well for us all season long so we really wanted to help him out, but our offense just couldn't keep up."

Illinois State Head Coach Mark Kingston opening statement:

"First of all, I would like to tip my cap to Wichita State. They have had a tremendous season I think they are a regional team. I hope that happens on Monday - with 41 wins and their weekend rotation is starting to get healthy now, I think they are a regional team. Secdondly, I can't tell you how proud I am of this team, this program, the guys sitting next to me. There are a lot of things that helped us get here, the coaching staff, the players, the coaching staff before us. This is a very proud moment for all of us. I hope everyone that has been associated with Redbird baseball and everyone that has been a part of it in one way or another can celebrate with us today. I don't think anyone saw this coming, so I am so proud of our guys."

Illinois State left fielder Anthony Ruffolo on getting to Jordan Cooper early in the game:

"I think it was huge, we've had our problems with Cooper in the past. He's a great pitcher and I don't think we had scored in 23 innings off of him prior to today, so he likes to get ahead and I swung at the first pitch. He left the ball over the plate and I jumped on it."

Illinois State pitcher Corey Maines on settling down after his rocky start:

"I think more than anything when I got behind because I was hanging some breaking balls, but after that the offense picked me up. I think when I scored five after they scored five, I just went up there and gave it my all. As long as we're scoring runs, I can go up there and put up zeros. It basically washed away the five I gave up and I couldn't pretty much start over."