Post Game Quotes
June 07, 2010 | Baseball
June 7, 2010
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Opening Statement...
"It's very tough. I want to congratulate Vanderbilt. They have a great team. I feel they had to be the best number two seed in the country. They were a bad weekend away or another win in the tournament to be the host. It just didn't work out. They have great coaches, great players. They obviously felt comfortable here. It's disappointing that they did get sent here two years in a row. I think the NCAA has to evaluate that. But again, I don't want to take anything away from them. This is a great team. As for our guys, boy, it hurts. What a great season. I told our guys in the outfield how proud I am of them. What a special, special year. The success that they had, how successful they were, to host a regional and be a national seed. I told them there's only one team in the country that doesn't end their season with that type of speech in the outfield. And unfortunately we're not going to be that team. But I challenged these kids all year. I raised the bar high and they responded. Like I said, what an unbelievable season to this point. Unfortunately it ends. What a great game. I think if you step back, I know that hurts for us right now, but that's an unbelievable college baseball game. They rob us of a two run homer there. They catch the line drive with the bases loaded. As did we. We made some great catches. We struck out three guys with the bases were loaded. It's just an unbelievable baseball game. Clearly the home team has the great advantage in a game like this. We were the home team the first two times we met, but the scores weren't close. Like losing to them in 17 innings down there, when you're the home team and get extra innings, all you have to do is get that one run. The advantage clearly swung to them late. I was proud of our kids that we fought and tied it up with two outs with a runner on first. We kept the rally going. But once you get into extra innings, the home team has a huge advantage and they capitalized. We've got to give them credit."
on the Batter's Interference Call...
"Just that he had gotten in the catchers way for the throw. You don't have to touch the catcher. You just have to interfere with it. I just thought it's disappointing because my guy just turned in. They have 120 HBPs and they probably lead the country or they are awful high. My guy just turns in, doesn't get hit, it's an awful pitch; it's a base we're going to steal. It's a judgment call. I don't have the angle that he has. I'm sure I'll watch it on video tape. I'll have a better feel for it."
on His Pitchers...
"What you've got to understand and again I give all the credit to Vanderbilt, you can't take anything away from our pitchers. Think of the three runs that we gave up. It's was a bases-loaded or was it a first and second, runners were going, and the kid capped the ball. It fell in front of our left fielder. Then they hit the six hopper through the six hole where our shortstop and third baseman dove. That guy led off with a walk and then they squeezed. The ball rolled about 30 feet. That's baseball, that's what it is. We didn't choke, we didn't make errors. We didn't give up rocket ball as I like to call it. We played play hard. I'm really proud of this group. I challenged them to hold their heads high. It's baseball and you'll be better off for it. It's not easy to run out there and compete because as good as the feeling is when you win, boy it really hurts when you lose. This one's going to hurt for a while. Again I give them credit because they put on the uniform and they competed and played hard. It was fun to watch."
on performance of Thomas Royse and Neil Holland...
"Real gutsy. He had a tough week and wasn't feeling great. Roger Williams isn't going to run somebody out there who he doesn't feel isn't ready and prepared. I feel we did a good job of allowing him time to get healthy and feel right. There's a reason he's the Big East pitcher of the year. What a warrior. He competed out there. You could see he was fighting through. He left it on the field. I was really happy he was able to walk off the field with a standing ovation. Unfortunately, Neil, when you're the closer you don't get to do that. Neil put together one of the greatest seasons I've ever seen. I hope he wins Closer of the Year. No disrespect to the guys up for the award. We won 50 games; I don't even have the stats in front of me. The number of saves and the wins are unbelievable. If you look at the last five or six loses in the last month, Neil Holland was not involved in those games. It's unbelievable what he did this year. It was one of the greatest pitching performances in a season that I've seen. But that's the life; you got to live on the edge. I know it hurts. You out there sometimes when you lose. How many times was he out there this year and got to jump on him? It was an unbelievable season."
on Offenses Performance...
"I wouldn't call it frustrating. They have great pitching. It's always been their strength no disrespect to their defense or their offense. They pitch, they got plenty of arms. It makes them a complete regional team. Their team is geared for tournament type atmosphere. They just run arm after arm after arm. We saw that in that 17 inning game down there. Their pitching numbers speak for themselves. We competed. We're two feet this way and two feet that way from having a six spot on the board rather than a two spot. We were that close other than Drew Haynes ball up the middle that kind of found a hole. We jumped on some balls off of some really good arms. It wasn't frustrating. That's baseball."
on Going Forward...
"That's what I told the group in the outfield is to how proud I am of them. What Jeff Arnold and this group of guys did is unbelievable. Look to where our program is now, I get too much credit for. It's players, it's great people and great administration. We have a great coaching staff. I say it all the time the highest honor in the NCAA is to host a regional; to be one of the 16 sites to be chosen by the NCAA. We've hosted three out of the last four years. There is a lot of momentum in this program. We have a great class coming in. We'll lose a lot of great players. Kids that come to the University of Louisville know it's all about championships. It's all about that. It's all about playing in the NCAAs and playing well. You can't always win, but we've played very well in the post season. You chant your conference and you can do things like that. We've proven that we're going to win. We're going to compete every year at the highest level. That's where Louisville baseball is at. A lot of credit goes to these guys sitting to my left and all those guys on the field. The expectations are very high here - and they will continue to stay that high.
Senior Catcher Jeff Arnold on the defensive strategy on the game winning bunt...
"I heard Coach McDonnell yell at Andrew Clark, he told him to be ready for a push bunt and I think Connor Harrell laid down a good bunt, put the pressure on us, a do-or-die play. Andrew Clark tried to make a bare-handed play, but he wasn't able to successfully get it to the plate. We definitely anticipated the play."
on not getting the breaks in the game...
"I just really have to tip your hat to them, they made all the plays. As Coach McDonnell would say they stuffed us defensively. We had a couple of hits, but for the most part they made it very difficult to score. I thought we did a great job defensively by putting pressure on them and making it hard for them to score as well."
on if He Thought Andrew Clark's Line Drive was Through...
"Definitely. Automatically. I was running full speed towards home and I just looked at the crowd's reaction and I just knew it was caught."
on his hit that was caught at the wall...
"That's tough off the bat. Coach McDonnell put on a hit and run, but I wasn't trying to do too much. I was really looking for a fastball, but he threw a slider and got a lot of the plate. I put a good swing on it and it carried. Like I said, their guy made a couple of good plays; he ended up winning the game. Maybe it was his day, but I just tip my hat."
on his career at Louisville...
"I definitely know that I'm a better person because of it. I had a lot of success and got to play with a bunch of great guys, a bunch a great players but even better people and played for one of the best coaching staffs, if not the best coaching staff in the country. I'm just glad I got to be a part of it."
on the crowd and the momentum shifts...
"I thought the crowd was awesome the whole day. I think it was probably the highest attendance game of the entire weekend and that says something on Monday night, so we really appreciate the support and towards the end of the game I definitely thought when we tied the game there was a good chance we were going to win. It would have made it easier if we were the home team right there, but unfortunately we weren't and Andrew got robbed of a hit. I just tip my hat and congratulate them."
on the growing rivalry with Vanderbilt...
"We definitely respect them a lot. They have a great pitching staff, a solid lineup and obviously they have a great defensive team. Both teams are competing at the highest level, as you can see from the 11 inning or 10 inning game, I can't remember right now, but just a lot of respect for them. They're a great team."
Junior Pitcher Thomas Royse on his inning with the bases loaded...
"I really don't remember the game that much at all. It was more of a blur. I don't even know, I'm not that good with percentages. That's why I dropped out of engineering school because I don't like numbers anymore, but that inning was fun. Especially when you look, I don't feel like I was throwing the ball. I had Coach McDonnell, Coach Williams, my teammates, the city of Louisville, and God helping me throw those pitches. I don't really remember much."
on what was going on with him throughout the game...
"I have no pain honestly. I was dead and I had no energy inside me, but like I said I had everyone behind me, the crowd pumping me up, so they kept me going throughout my entire outing."
Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt Head Coach
Overall Statement...
"I don't know where to start, from an emotional standpoint, I am just really, really happy for the kids and the coaches who put so much time into it. To come into an environment that is difficult and to get through this thing -through the back door actually - and to lose to them and then come back and beat Illinois State again and then beat Louisville again to get to the championship game. They are a very good team. Besides UCLA, they are the best team we have played - those two teams. What they saw out there was a gut check with a lot of emotional swings; some good and some not so good. We pitched very well and played great defense and just hung in there. And it is just a credit to what we have gone through this year. We have gone through this several times and I can remember telling them that these game will come back to help us from the stand point of confidence. We will have been there before and know how to win them. With the defense on both sides of the ball, no one deserved to lose. Connor Harrell's catch over the fence early, the play that Brian Harris made early was outstanding. He got every inch he possibly could off the ground to catch that ball. The guy to my left Sonny Gray, what he did in coming back another day. Grayson Garvin was injured early and has gotten better and better as the season has progressed. A huge game for him and it was huge for his confidence ... just happy for the kids."
About the last three years VU not advancing to Super Regional...
"You get to the final stage and you knock on the door and you just want to bust through the door at some point. But we have been there, and I felt like going into this tournament if we could get by Illinois State, I thought the kids played very, very loose as I said yesterday with the second Louisville game. I really had a good feeling coming into today, I think a lot of the kids did too. That was the tight ball game, but there was a feeling that I thought we were going to take that next step and move into this. It wasn't easy but I felt everyone was on board and the confidence started to grow. That was one of those games where people were getting in scoring position but no one was giving in. Thomas Royse is a tough kid... out there pitching on fumes. What he did in that one inning, to go through the middle of our order with the bases loaded, that is very, very tough to do with three good hitters. Credit him too. It was just a brawl. A good battle with punches exchanged and people got off the mat and kept on fighting."
Centerfielder Connor Harrell
on Game-Winning Bunt...
"I kind of had an idea that it was going to happen. It kind of freaked me out. I think I bunted once this season. I got the sign, laid the bunt down and we won the game. Pretty simple. I saw it get past the pitcher and I was already in celebration mode.
on Catch...
"I was going back and I did not now hard far I was from the fence and I actually did not even know once I caught it that I was at the fence. So I catch it, run into the fence and I see that my glove is over the fence."
Third Baseman Jason Esposito
on Game-Winning Bunt...
"It is a play you practice to win the game. We do it a lot in practice. It hardly shows up in competition. We put down and we had a lot of confidence in it. You get it down just like you practice, just like you draw it up and you win the ballgame.
on Top of Ninth Inning...
"We thought we had it there at the end but that is how baseball goes. We have been on both sides of it before. That is why you keep playing the game that why you keep focused mentally and you just keep pushing runs across, try to get runners on. We know how it feels, they did it to us last year so it is finally good to charge out of the dugout as the winning team.
on Brian Harris' Catch in Ninth...
"That is the story of our defense, that is the story of our shifts. That is the story of our year, defense plays a big part in our game and it shows up tonight."
on Clutch Hitting...
"Clutch hitting has been the story of our team also. We have had a couple of walk-off wins, a lot of comeback victories. Hitting is one of the most difficult things to do in sports. Sometimes that don't fall, sometimes when you don't square them up they fall for you. It doesn't really matter because we are going to advance and play some more baseball games."
Starting Pitcher Grayson Garvin
on Harrell's catch to rob Arnold's home run...
"It was unbelievable. It was a mistake slider that I made. I threw kind of a get-me-over slider. He had done a good job all day of being on my pitches and he hit it. The park plays kind of small so I looked back and I see Connor going back and I'm like 'it's gone, it's gone, it's gone.' He goes back and makes an unbelievable play. He has been playing a great centerfield all year.
on Starting...
"I am always nervous before I pitch. I just approached it like a relief appearance trying to give our team a chance to win: not trying to do too much, not trying to be more than I can be, or trying to strike everybody out. [I was] just trying to go in and stay within myself and go out and give our team the best chance to win."
Pitcher Sonny Gray
on Rebounding After Louisville Tied the Game...
"I knew coming back out in the ninth inning it was going to be a tough inning. There sixth, seventh and eight hitters coming up which are good hitters. I knew if I got the first guy out everything would be alright. Then the first guy reaches on a walk and then batter interference and from there things just seemed to skyrocket. I knew Arnold would be sitting on first pitch fastball and then he ends up hitting curveball. [Assistant Coach Derek Johnson] came out and said 'Just get this guy, we will win the game.' I would not say I got the guy I would say Harry [Brian Harris] got the guy with a great catch. That is just what this team is about, just picking each other up."
