Miami Super Regional Quotes | June 5, 2025
June 05, 2025 | Baseball
Louisville Super Regional
Jim Patterson Stadium
June 5, 2025 | Thursday Press Conference
Miami Quotes
Head Coach J.D. Arteaga
(Opening Statement)
"It's great to be here, great to be one of the teams that have the opportunity to play for a chance to go to the College World Series here in a Super Regional. Long time coming for us, it's been nine years since Miami's been in this situation. It's a great group of guys, great place to play, a place that we're somewhat familiar with being in the ACC, but they're obviously on the other side of the conference. As familiar as you'd think we would be playing here, we're really not, we used to come here every three or four years the way it was set up. But still, it's an honor and it's great to be playing this time of year again."
(On being able to make it to this point and the team getting hot and finding its stride at the right time)
"I've been in college baseball for a long time and when you get to this point, it's never about the best team, it's always about the hottest team. Obviously talent is important, but being hot at the right time is what's most important. This team has had our peaks and valleys all year long and we played really good baseball last week in Hattiesburg and I feel like we're in a good place, we're healthy, we got some players back at the right time. We're just playing good baseball right now."
(Did you sense that the team would get hot during regionals and that they will stay hot?)
"You say 'stay hot and get hot,' that's looking backwards at seeing what our record was over the last six, seven games, 10 games whatever it is. But I can tell you that this team's mentality is one game at a time and that's our strength. No matter what happened yesterday – and you saw it in the regional, we got pretty much boat raced Sunday night against Southern Miss, but there was no hangover the next day and that's been our MO all year. We'll have a great game, or a bad game or whatever it is, we're 0-0 the next morning and anything can happen. So I'm not too worried about what the trends are with this team, because it's a brand new team, brand new attitude every morning when we wake up. I just hope we'll show up and be at our best on Friday, that's all we can worry about or think about right now."
(Is there anything unique about this team that's got them to this point?)
"Every team that's gone this far and beyond is unique in their own way. We've had some really talented teams, we've had some strong pitching teams, some strong offensive teams and this team is just balanced across the board and our strength is in numbers, it's not in individuals. So that's the uniqueness of this group and it seems to be somebody different every game. Of course [Daniel Cuvet] is as good as it gets and he got hot there when we went on that stretch in the middle of the ACC schedule, but he didn't do it alone. Everybody else around him also raised their game. When we're going good, it's somebody different. Someone different in the lineup, different pitcher, different arm, whatever it might be - different defender. It's a unique group and our strength comes in the numbers that we have."
(What does it say about the ACC and college baseball that the two teams that lost to the 15 and 16 seeds on day one of the ACC tournament are playing each other in a Super Regional now?)
"It's a crazy year. You look at this college baseball season and the preseason No. 1 and 2 teams didn't even make the tournament. Then you've got the No. 1 and 2 national seeds don't make the Super Regional. It speaks to the parity of college baseball. Anybody can beat anybody and it's great. I think it's the best it's ever been when you don't know who's going to beat anybody. Back when I played in the 90s it was a long, long time ago, but it seemed to be the same 12 schools would go to Omaha every year. Eight of those 12 would be in Omaha every single season. Now that's not the case anymore, it could be anybody. The regular season might be a tougher grind, but once you get to this point, anybody could be anybody. I love it – the parity of college baseball is great right now."
AJ Ciscar, Freshman, RHP
(Will you be the starter on Friday and what has made you successful this year?)
"I will be starting on Friday. I truly believe that J.D. and Laz [Gutierrez] have done a great job of developing me and really getting me to work down in the zone as a sinker baller with a slider that I have, it really plays down in the zone and really make sure that I live there and inducing ground balls."
How hard do you throw?
"Right now I'm sitting at about 91-93, somewhere around there."
How much do you feel like the ACC has prepared you to for the College World Series with five teams in the Super Regionals)
Daniel Cuvet, So., INF
"It's obviously a strong league this year, with the most teams in the Super Regionals, so I think that goes to show that we're prepared for whatever we have ahead of us and the challenges we've faced all year were at the highest level, so that prepared us for this weekend."
AJ Ciscar, Freshman, RHP
"Kind of coming off of what he said, we faced some of the top teams in the ACC as well, we played at [North Carolina] and were able to take one away when all three games arguably were pretty winnable. When we played [Florida State] and they came to town, we put up a pretty good fight against them on Saturday. Being able to face those guys and face challenges prepared us for this moment."
(Both Miami and Louisville won on the road last weekend, is there an advantage of playing at home in the postseason or disadvantage for the road team?)
AJ Ciscar, Freshman, RHP
"There definitely is somewhat of an advantage. Obviously Hattiesburg had a strong crowd, there were a lot of rowdy guys right there in the bullpen. I think we as a team did a very good job about matching their energy in the dugout and making sure they were still alive and awake even when we were down that nine-spot, we still managed to pick up a couple of runs back and just being able to stay alive and awake in that dugout, regardless of where the game was at, just keep pushing forward and putting up runs."
(On the depth of Louisville's lineup, what will your approach be on Friday?)
AJ Ciscar, Freshman, RHP
"I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing. Just because it's a higher stage doesn't mean I have to change anything, I'll still need to be perfect. I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing and pounding the zone, just keep inducing ground balls and let stuff play."
Daniel Cuvet, So., INF
"I know they have a strong lineup, but [AJ] Ciscar has proven himself and he's shown that he can get anyone out, so I think he's ready for this."
(While the teams didn't meet this year, do take anything away from last year's matchup and how Louisville pitched you?)
Daniel Cuvet, So., INF
"Not really. They're a competitive team. I honestly don't know how many returning guys they have or what their starting lineup looks like compared to last year or even their pitching rotation. I know [Patrick] Forbes is returning, [Tucker] Biven and maybe a couple of other guys, but I don't know who they're going to throw or what the situation will be. The situation could determine a lot of what I might see on that day or that at bat, so I can't really base it off of last year, I've just got to be prepared for the situation."
Jim Patterson Stadium
June 5, 2025 | Thursday Press Conference
Miami Quotes
Head Coach J.D. Arteaga
(Opening Statement)
"It's great to be here, great to be one of the teams that have the opportunity to play for a chance to go to the College World Series here in a Super Regional. Long time coming for us, it's been nine years since Miami's been in this situation. It's a great group of guys, great place to play, a place that we're somewhat familiar with being in the ACC, but they're obviously on the other side of the conference. As familiar as you'd think we would be playing here, we're really not, we used to come here every three or four years the way it was set up. But still, it's an honor and it's great to be playing this time of year again."
(On being able to make it to this point and the team getting hot and finding its stride at the right time)
"I've been in college baseball for a long time and when you get to this point, it's never about the best team, it's always about the hottest team. Obviously talent is important, but being hot at the right time is what's most important. This team has had our peaks and valleys all year long and we played really good baseball last week in Hattiesburg and I feel like we're in a good place, we're healthy, we got some players back at the right time. We're just playing good baseball right now."
(Did you sense that the team would get hot during regionals and that they will stay hot?)
"You say 'stay hot and get hot,' that's looking backwards at seeing what our record was over the last six, seven games, 10 games whatever it is. But I can tell you that this team's mentality is one game at a time and that's our strength. No matter what happened yesterday – and you saw it in the regional, we got pretty much boat raced Sunday night against Southern Miss, but there was no hangover the next day and that's been our MO all year. We'll have a great game, or a bad game or whatever it is, we're 0-0 the next morning and anything can happen. So I'm not too worried about what the trends are with this team, because it's a brand new team, brand new attitude every morning when we wake up. I just hope we'll show up and be at our best on Friday, that's all we can worry about or think about right now."
(Is there anything unique about this team that's got them to this point?)
"Every team that's gone this far and beyond is unique in their own way. We've had some really talented teams, we've had some strong pitching teams, some strong offensive teams and this team is just balanced across the board and our strength is in numbers, it's not in individuals. So that's the uniqueness of this group and it seems to be somebody different every game. Of course [Daniel Cuvet] is as good as it gets and he got hot there when we went on that stretch in the middle of the ACC schedule, but he didn't do it alone. Everybody else around him also raised their game. When we're going good, it's somebody different. Someone different in the lineup, different pitcher, different arm, whatever it might be - different defender. It's a unique group and our strength comes in the numbers that we have."
(What does it say about the ACC and college baseball that the two teams that lost to the 15 and 16 seeds on day one of the ACC tournament are playing each other in a Super Regional now?)
"It's a crazy year. You look at this college baseball season and the preseason No. 1 and 2 teams didn't even make the tournament. Then you've got the No. 1 and 2 national seeds don't make the Super Regional. It speaks to the parity of college baseball. Anybody can beat anybody and it's great. I think it's the best it's ever been when you don't know who's going to beat anybody. Back when I played in the 90s it was a long, long time ago, but it seemed to be the same 12 schools would go to Omaha every year. Eight of those 12 would be in Omaha every single season. Now that's not the case anymore, it could be anybody. The regular season might be a tougher grind, but once you get to this point, anybody could be anybody. I love it – the parity of college baseball is great right now."
AJ Ciscar, Freshman, RHP
(Will you be the starter on Friday and what has made you successful this year?)
"I will be starting on Friday. I truly believe that J.D. and Laz [Gutierrez] have done a great job of developing me and really getting me to work down in the zone as a sinker baller with a slider that I have, it really plays down in the zone and really make sure that I live there and inducing ground balls."
How hard do you throw?
"Right now I'm sitting at about 91-93, somewhere around there."
How much do you feel like the ACC has prepared you to for the College World Series with five teams in the Super Regionals)
Daniel Cuvet, So., INF
"It's obviously a strong league this year, with the most teams in the Super Regionals, so I think that goes to show that we're prepared for whatever we have ahead of us and the challenges we've faced all year were at the highest level, so that prepared us for this weekend."
AJ Ciscar, Freshman, RHP
"Kind of coming off of what he said, we faced some of the top teams in the ACC as well, we played at [North Carolina] and were able to take one away when all three games arguably were pretty winnable. When we played [Florida State] and they came to town, we put up a pretty good fight against them on Saturday. Being able to face those guys and face challenges prepared us for this moment."
(Both Miami and Louisville won on the road last weekend, is there an advantage of playing at home in the postseason or disadvantage for the road team?)
AJ Ciscar, Freshman, RHP
"There definitely is somewhat of an advantage. Obviously Hattiesburg had a strong crowd, there were a lot of rowdy guys right there in the bullpen. I think we as a team did a very good job about matching their energy in the dugout and making sure they were still alive and awake even when we were down that nine-spot, we still managed to pick up a couple of runs back and just being able to stay alive and awake in that dugout, regardless of where the game was at, just keep pushing forward and putting up runs."
(On the depth of Louisville's lineup, what will your approach be on Friday?)
AJ Ciscar, Freshman, RHP
"I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing. Just because it's a higher stage doesn't mean I have to change anything, I'll still need to be perfect. I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing and pounding the zone, just keep inducing ground balls and let stuff play."
Daniel Cuvet, So., INF
"I know they have a strong lineup, but [AJ] Ciscar has proven himself and he's shown that he can get anyone out, so I think he's ready for this."
(While the teams didn't meet this year, do take anything away from last year's matchup and how Louisville pitched you?)
Daniel Cuvet, So., INF
"Not really. They're a competitive team. I honestly don't know how many returning guys they have or what their starting lineup looks like compared to last year or even their pitching rotation. I know [Patrick] Forbes is returning, [Tucker] Biven and maybe a couple of other guys, but I don't know who they're going to throw or what the situation will be. The situation could determine a lot of what I might see on that day or that at bat, so I can't really base it off of last year, I've just got to be prepared for the situation."
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