The University of Mississippi Athletics
NCAA Oxford Regional Practice Sessions
5/28/2009 | Baseball
Teams from the NCAA Oxford Regional took part in a pre-tournament practice session Thursday and afterward participated in a press conference.
Ole Miss | Missouri | Western Kentucky | Monmouth
Ole Miss Press Conference
Head Coach Mike Bianco
Opening Statement
"We're excited to be in a regional at home. We're certainly ready to play some baseball. It's been a long time."
Q: What is Scott Bittle's status?
A: "He wasn't out there today (at practice), so he won't dress this weekend."
Q: Is this weekend a lot about your team and how you can play?
A: "Yeah, I think so. Certainly you try to get scouting reports and get as much information as you can. Sometimes it's easier than others with some teams. Sometimes it's difficult. I think it's more about our execution and how we play. We feel that we can compete and play with anybody in the country if we play well. But we also understand that if you don't play well that anybody could beat you. It's more about us and how we play and how we pitch, hit, field and execute."
Q: As the years mount, do you feel more pressure to go deep in the postseason?
A: "I don't know if there's more pressure. I think you feel that pressure every year. I think it's more expectations than pressure from myself, our staff, our players, and certainly our fans. I think that's a good thing. I learned a long time ago from my mentor that high expectations beat low reality any day of the week. You want to be part of something that's a winner. I don't know if I feel any more pressure' this year than I did going to New Orleans my first year, really. We went down there to win, expected to win. You feel that every year, I believe."
Q: How equipped is this team to go deep? Can this team go deep even without Scott Bittle?
A: "Yeah, I believe so. I certainly think we have the pitching depth. This team plays outstanding defense, and offensively much has been said about the home run numbers, but they're probably about the middle of the road from all the teams that we've had. Certainly runs scored I think we're right up there with any team that we've had. Our ability to win games this team won 20 games in a Southeastern Conference that might have been the strongest year in the SEC since I've been here as far as collectively with the teams, I think the 10th team had a 40-something RPI. This team was 40-15 in the regular season, which ties our most wins in the regular season but is the best record that we've ever had. For a lot of reasons, if you can match them up and judge them, this team is probably as good or better than any team we've ever had as far as winning games."
Junior OF Jordan Henry
Q: What are your thoughts about playing a No. 4 seed? Is there a possibility that you could take Monmouth a little lightly?
A: "Of course you can't take anyone lightly in regionals because everyone who gets there deserves it and obviously has a great team. They're going to come out and have a good pitcher against us. We're going to have to bring our A-game, and that's what we plan to do."
Q: Do you think there will be any watching of the Irvine Regional this weekend?
A: "I'm sure some people will probably look at scores, but our main focus will be on each game, one pitch at a time and just concentrate on that. Everything will work out how it's supposed to, and we'll just worry about that when it comes."
Sophomore LHP Drew Pomeranz
Q: What do you know about Monmouth's offense?
A: "I'm not really sure. I haven't looked at anything yet. I'm sure we'll see something today or tomorrow before the game. They're obviously a good enough team to make it here."
Q: How does your NCAA Regional start against Bethune-Cookman from last year help you this time?
A: "It helps me know what to expect. Maybe some people would look at Bethune-Cookman as a team we would just roll over, but they were a good team. Monmouth is a good team, and we have to bring our A-game every time."
Senior OF Logan Power
Q: What are your thoughts about playing a No. 4 seed? Is there a possibility that you could take Monmouth a little lightly?
A: "I don't think there's a possibility at all (of taking Monmouth lightly). I think we've had a really good week of practice, and we're just ready to get out there. It seems like it's been a month since we've played. We're just ready to go."
Q: Is there an eagerness to play after the SEC Tournament and kind of flush that experience?
A: "I think so. We had a real good week of practice. We had to put those two games behind us and look ahead. We're just ready to go. We know who we're up against, and we know they're really good teams. We really want to play well this weekend."
Q: Was there a moment this season that seemed to turn the year around or was it more of a progressive improvement?
A: "I think a big weekend was the Saturday game when we played Georgia. We had a tough loss that Friday night. We looked at each other and said we really want to play well the rest of the season.' We did that in that Saturday game. It was a big win for us."
Missouri Press Conference
Head Coach Tim Jamieson
OPENING STATEMENT
We're extremely happy to be here. For me personally, this is my first time I've been to Ole Miss since I was a player. Obviously things have changed quite a bit. It's a great venue. Any time you get a chance to go see an SEC school and see what they do, we're looking forward to being here and seeing what the Ole Miss people have to bring as far as the crowds. We're excited about that.
Q: What's it like being in the same regional with Ole Miss two years in a row?
A: I don't have a strong opinion either way. Last year was the first time I'd ever met Coach (Mike) Bianco, so it's kind of nice to be around him a little more. Teams change so much from one year to the next. We basically have the same team back that we had last year, but we're a different team. I am sure they're the same way. You can get a sense of style of play, but we have to worry about Western Kentucky first.
Q: Talk about the strengths and weaknesses of your team.
A: We started out ranked 10th in the preseason and went 1-7 to start out the season. It seemed like with the combination of our schedule and how we were playing, it was really tough to dig ourselves out of that hole. It took us a long time to get to the .500 mark. We played six consective weekends against ranked opponents in our conference, and four of them on the road. Finally, we got above .500 and the confidence seemed to come around and we started winning baseball games, beating good teams and playing like we thought we were capable of. It's an experienced group. A lot of guys have played in multiple regionals, Big 12 Championship game and the Big 12 Tournament. We've got a talented group, but it took us a long time to overcome ourselves a little bit. Then we started playing better baseball. The strength of the team, is that we are a team. If you look at our numbers, we're not very good hitters, not very good defensively, and not very good on the mound in terms of the elite. But we've been finding ways to win, getting the hit at the right time, making the pitch at the right time and making the play at the right time. We just fight and scratch and hang in there and see what happens.
Q: So you're going with Kyle (Gibson) Friday?
A: No. We are going to start Nick Tepesch on Friday. He beat Oklahoma (national seed) in the conference tournament. He pitched very well. Hopefully we'll win the ballgame and come back with Kyle on Saturday. I know very little about Mlonmouth or Western Kentucky. Over a night's time, we'll have a better idea what the match-ups are. Kyle is our most experienced pitcher. Part of the arguement might be you need to throw him the first game, but there is no guarantee. True, but for us to win the regional, he's going to have to beat the home team. He's the one that's going to handle that the best. It may not happen, we not get to that point. But we're not here to win on Friday (only), were here to win a regional.
Junior RHP Kyle Gibson
Q: What do you know about Western Kentucky?
A: For me it's just going to be going out there and doing what I do every week, just going out there and throwing strikes and seeing what adjustments they make. If they make adjustments like teams have in the past, then I'll change my approach. I'll attack hitters like I have in the past. One thing we always do, is go out there and throw stirkes and make them prove they can hit strikes. That's what I am going to do.
Q: How did you adjust to being the Friday night guy?
A: I knew going into the year, I wasn't going to be an Aaron Crow. The guy went undefeated. Nobody does that, except for Stephen Strasburg (San Diego State pitcher) maybe. For me it was just going out there and being Kyle Gibson and making sure I just stayed within myself and did what I could do. I just focused on going out and giving the team a chance to win every time. Except for a couple of times, I've been able to do that.
Junior OF/RHP Greg Folgia
Q: Comment on the team's 1-7 start and coming back from that
A: It's tough. It took us almost 40 games to get back to .500. You can't focus on the negatives, and you just try and find a way out of it. We just tried to play the baseball game that we've played since we were young. We just stayed positive and realized that we have talent and it would click sometime.
Q: After getting to Big 12 Championship game, do you guys feel that you're playing your best baseball of the season right now?
A: I honestly don't think we are. I think the sky's the limit for our team. We are still struggling hittinga little, but our talent level can still carry us to a higher level.
Western Kentucky Press Conference
Head Coach Chris Finwood
Opening Statement
We've got a good group of kids and this is their second regional so hopefully some of the luster has worn off. We need to come out here and play some good baseball.
Q: Is there is added motivation because Missouri is holding Kyle Gibson until Saturday?
A: Everyone has to look at what they have to do to win the regional based on what they have. We don't have a lot of pitching depth so to win this regional we need to stay in the winner's bracket. We are going to throw our best guy in game one and I'm sure who ever they throw tomorrow will be a good pitcher. We just have to go out there and play a good brand of baseball and get some timely hits against whoever we are facing. Obliviously, they have an All-American and if they want to save him, they can save him.
Q: Did you prepare all week like you were going to face Gibson?
A: Not really. We concentrated more on ourselves. We've seen some good arms this year and we did talk about him today, but we are still going to try to play how we play. We are going to try to stay aggressive on the offensive end. We have a pretty balanced offense and if we are clicking I think we can present some problems.
Q: Who are you throwing tomorrow?
A: We are going with Matt Ridings, a junior right-hander. Matt has had a up and down year. He was the preseason Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year. He is very capable. He was 10-1 last year and is 7-3 this year, but has had a lot of no decisions. He started the regional game last year against Oklahoma State, so he has been in this type of situation before. He is a strike thrower, so its important for him to get ahead and for us to play defense behind him when the ball is put in play.
Senior OF Chad Cregar
Q: What is it like being back in Oxford?
A: Its amazing. As soon as they made the call on ESPN my phone started blowing up with calls and text messages from people congratulating us. Going out as a senior making a regional in your hometown is pretty special.
Senior OF/LHP Matt Hightower
Q: What is it like to be playing against your brother (Ole Miss C Taylor Hightower)?
A: He was the first person I called when we found out, then I called my dad. We have a good relationship, so there will probably be a little bit of trash talking, but its all in good fun. He has always been around from little league on. He was always the youngest player at the field. I always moved up when he came to the team, so I never got to play with him. Even when he started playing in high school I started college so I haven't gotten to see him play much. So this will be a good time for me to get to see him play and hopefully play against him.
Q: Taylor said your work ethic and competitiveness rubbed off on him. Did you see that or were you just doing your thing?
A: I was just doing my thing. He has his own natural competitive edge. At first he didn't really want to play catcher, but he took to it and has worked himself into a pretty good catcher.
Junior IF Wade Gaynor
Q: Is it a snub if a team holds back its best pitcher against you?
A: Not really. Its like Coach Finwood said, we spent last week just mainly working on ourselves. We'll talk about the guy they are throwing and I'm sure he'll have a good arm. I'm sure he is probably their second best pitcher. We just need to worry about the stuff we can control, like our approach at the plate.
Q: How has this team been so good offensively?
A: I think our approach at the plate. We get into trouble when we get away from that approach and stop being aggressive and stop putting pressure on the defense to make plays.
Monmouth Press Conference
Head Coach Dean Ehehalt
Opening Statement:
Thank you for having us. It's a great thrill to be here. We're looking forward to playing. We have heard great things about the facility, the town, the fan support and Ole Miss. It's a great four-team field and we're excited about tomorrow. We were happy to get on the field today, but tomorrow will be exciting as well.
Q: What are the keys to you guys pulling an upset?
A: Anytime you run into a situation like this, it's all about the basic stuff you start to talk about when developing your program. It's about keeping the game simple, throwing strikes, making routine plays, staying out of big innings and getting some clutch hitting when you need it. It's similar to a basketball game where one team makes a run and the other team has to stop them. The key to everything is trying to keep the game simple.
Q: What has been working well for you guys lately?
A: I think we have been resilient lately. We have gone through spurts during the year where we have had some good innings and some bad innings. We've had a lot of big innings offensively and I think that has allowed us the ability to relax over time. We played extremely well last weekend. We've got the ability to play well at times. We are somewhat young, but we found our niche midway through April and things started going our way.
Q: What are your impressions of the facility?
A: Immediately unbelievable. In Division I college baseball I think there are a lot of great ambassadors of the game. I take a lot of pride in being an ambassador of the game. The minute we drove past here last night we immediately knew it was going to be an awesome situation. We've been fortunate enough to have been to a few regionals before, and we've been to some great places, but I can honestly say this will be the best place we've been to up to this point.
Junior RHP Brett Brach
Q: What do you know about Ole Miss and what is your gameplan?
A: I don't know a lot about them, but I do know their leadoff guy (Jordan Henry) really starts their offense. My focus is going to really be to keep him off the bags number one. I haven't really seen any of their stats yet either, but I will check those out soon.
Q: What do you think it going to be like pitching in front of 10,000 people?
A: I've played where there have been a lot of people, but never anything like this. This is going to be a great experience and hopefully I just get caught in the moment and go out there and pitch well.
Senior INF Chris Collazo
Q: What do you guys do well offensively?
A: I think we are very aggressive. When we play aggressive, we tend to play well. We are going to try to keep that up and that's the gameplan going in.
