NCAA Super Regional Game 1 Postgame Quotes

Ole Miss

Ole Miss Head Coach Mike Bianco

Opening Statement
"What can you say, it was just a tremendous baseball game, and I thought we played very well until the end. They made an error in the ninth that opened it up, and then of course, we kicked a couple there in the 12th but got through it. It was a great pitching performance by (Phillip) Irwin, (David) Goforth and (Jake) Morgan. As you can tell Jake had a little incident before the game and broke his nose. He looked like Rocky, but pitched like him as well. He gutted it out and then (Matt) Smith just crushes one. It was an electric atmosphere and a terrific game. It's tough when anybody loses that type of game, but I thought both teams played well.

Why did you decide to stick with Irwin after visiting him on the mound in the fifth?
"I thought he was in good control. The thing that probably got him in the most trouble was walking the leadoff guy. Then (Jarrett) Parker hits a breaking ball low and in through the wind and over (Logan) Power's head. (Phil) Gosselin got a base hit and they just put an inning together. His command was good, and I felt like he was the best guy."

What went through your mind when Proscia hit the 3-0 ball to the warning track?
"When it came off the bat I wasn't real sure. I usually watch the outfielder and when I saw Jordan (Henry) going back on it and kind of slowing up, I felt good. It was hit well, but so was (Evan) Button's."

So. RHP Jake Morgan

How did you break your nose?
"I was doing my usual warmup routine, and I was throwing with my throwing partner that I throw with everyday. I guess I just wasn't paying good enough attention and it just caught me square in the nose."

How much pain were you in?
"The doctors gave me some pain medicine, so I didn't really feel it. I figured a broken nose would hurt more, but it just kind of went numb."

So. INF Matt Smith

What was it like to hit the home run?
"In my last at bat the pitcher struck me out with three straight cutters, so I went into that at bat telling myself to move up in the box and crowd the plate and see if he would challenge me inside. The first pitch was a fastball in and I didn't try to do too much. I didn't try to do too much, but I got the big part of the barrell on it and the crowd went nuts. I don't remember much after that except coming home and the team was there waiting. I really can't remember much, but it was an awesome feeling though."

Sr. OF Logan Power

What was your approach in your at bat in the ninth after struggling most of the day?
"I was really struggling up to that point and wasn't seeing the ball very well. I was really glad to come up in that situation, and I knew they were going to bring that righthander (Kevin Arico) in to face me. The coaches told me he was going to throw a lot of cutters and sliders and that is basically what I saw."

Jr. RHP Phillip Irwin

How would you rate your outing?
"I felt good today. I really felt like I had my good stuff, especially my fastball. I just battled through a couple tough times when they were getting to my curve ball a little bit in the fifth inning. They3 are a great hitting club. They hit a lot of mistakes, but fortunately enough the wind was blowing in and a few of those only made it to the warning track."

Virginia

HEAD COACH BRIAN O'CONNOR

OPENING STATEMENT
"Wow that was one heck of a college baseball game. Unfortunately we came out on the losing end of it. Nobody deserved to lose that game, it was one heck of a game. I am proud of our team, I know that we'll respond tomorrow. We'll be ready to play tomorrow at 11 a.m. Our players have responded all year to difficult defeats, and I feel this will be no different. Ole Miss has a heck of a ballclub. They are very similar to us. They have very good pitching and play solid defense. I would expect a similar kind of game tomorrow."

On most difficult loss since when
"This is probably our most difficult loss since we lost to Virginia Tech. We've had a lot of difficult losses, but I don't know what the (exact) number is, maybe seven or eight. It's baseball. We have 13 losses on the year. The Yankees would be happy with that. We have a ton of youth on this team. Ninety-five percent of the team will be back next year. I knew we had a lot of talent, but what I didn't know coming into this season, would be how they would respond to losses like this. When we've had losses like this at Georgia Tech at North Carolina, numerous other times when we've had other difficult losses, they've responded every time and been ready to play the next day. I would expect the same tomorrow."

On how the pitchers responded to the huge crowd
"I thought they pitched great. Danny had a really good fastball and mixed in his good changeup. It's a challenging envrionment to put a freshman in. I gave him the ball, because I knew he could handle it. He's had great poise all year, and then the other guys have followed. (Tyler) Wilson threw the ball well and so did (Matt) Packer and Kevin (Arico). They all pitched well, and we are going to need to continue to do that tomorrow to have a chance for Sunday."

Junior C Franco Valdes

On what Morgan was doing in the last innings
"He was mixing and matching a lot better than he had before. He was throwing a pretty good velocity on his fastball. We couldn't get any hits together."

Freshman P/DH Danny Hultzen

On Phillip Irwin
"He had all his pitches working, and he kept us off balance. He did a good job of attacking the zone and forcing us to beat him, he didn't beat himself."

On the one-run losses this year and putting it behind
"We just flush it away. The game's over. There is nothing we can do about it now. We just have to stay together and not point fingers. We just have to move on from what happened today and come out tomorrow ready to play."

Sophomore P Kevin Arico

On the pitch he threw to Matt Smith
"I threw him a fastball, left it up in the zone, better part of the plate. He did what any good hitter is going to do. He crushed it."

On the length of the outing today and what it does for you the rest of the weekend
"I wasn't really worried about the length of the outing, I knew my team was going to come around for me. We had multiple opportunities to go out there and do the job. I can still get three outs and it's on. That's all you can do when you're used to getting three outs."

The University of Mississippi Athletics

Related News

Related Videos