|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP REGIONALS: CHAMPAIGNMay 29, 2015John BrodnerGreg LoveladyMitch RomanCHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS Notre Dame – 13 GREG LOVELADY: They got the big hits when they needed them to you just have to tip your hat to them. It was a battle back and forth, neither team wanted to give up. I said it in the broadcast, that it was going to come down to the bullpen and who blinked first. In the end they just made more plays than we did. I'm proud of our guys. They fought. We were in this game until the end and they represented our program and our university extremely, extremely well. We didn't get the outcome that we wanted but that's the game of baseball and you understand that. I'm proud of the guys. Q. Look at the final score, it doesn't look that close, but obviously is was a close game ‑‑ MITCH ROMAN: We battled. That's all you can say really. We expected to go out there and win. Great program, I'd go out to battle over and over again with all these guys. I love them. It's a heartbreaker when you're up one run in the seventh. They just made more plays, hit more balls hard and just sucks, it does. But we're not done. We'll battle. We'll be back. Q. You guys obviously had confidence coming over here but to jump out to the 3‑0 lead did that settle you down a little bit? MITCH ROMAN: A little bit. We expect to score every inning. One of our mottos is win each inning. We expect to win every single inning. Q. Your hit, after looked like a horrible break, ball hit the runner. How big was that for you to get everything going? JOHN BRODNER: The triple, right? I was just looking for a pitch outside. I knew he had a lot of sink on it and I knew they were going to stay away from me. It was big to get a hit like that, but it doesn't count too much when you lose the game. But I mean, it's a good thing to start the offense like that and get everybody going in the dugout. Q. Your hit was one of the several home runs or long fly balls to the opposite field. Did wind play a factor in the game? JOHN BRODNER: Yeah, it was kind of a big factor. Not too much, but, I mean, when the wind is blowing out to dead center, it really helps to both sides of the field to really take advantage of it. I mean, if you can put it up in the jetstream and hit it decently hard, it will probably go. Q. Your first look at a power conference team in quite a while. Were you where you expected to be in terms of facing an ACC opponent? MITCH ROMAN: Yeah. We played, beginning of the year, we had two bigconference: Ole Miss and Miami we competed, every single inning out there against those two schools. We expected to go into this game, it's just another team, it really is. We are up there, if you look at our record, we can compete with anyone in this country and that's what we believe. So it really wasn't a factor. Q. You're a person that in the early innings against Kerrigan, looked like he was getting you guys to chase down and you were laying off. Is that something you were planning? MITCH ROMAN: We knew the balls he left up were going to be straight and the balls he was throwing a little lower were going to have a little sink to it. He's a sinkerball pitcher. That's his forte is to get groundballs throwing low. We were just laying off those and waiting for the pitches that are elevated so we could hit them and we did. We hit them pretty good. Q. Had been better down the stretch‑‑ GREG LOVELADY: No. We thought it was the better matchup, for whatever, two and two‑thirds, it looked like it was. He just lost some command there, left some balls up. We were planning on winning or losing this game with our bullpen. It went almost to a tee of where we thought it was going to. You know, I would have liked to get one more inning out of him, possibly two, but I knew that was all we were going to get on him. He made some great pitches early on in the game and it just kind of wavered after that. But he's been our guy for the last six or seven weeks, and really earned this start. In no way was it a reward in terms of, hey, we are just going to give you because you deserve it. In terms of just effort‑wise‑‑ but in terms of his results and everything, I mean, he's the guy that deserved to get the start today. Q. Did they adjust or did something happen with him? GREG LOVELADY: I think a little bit of both. Again, that's why we know that he's not a guy that's going to go deep in the count because once teams make an adjustment, it becomes a little bit more difficult for him to pitch. But like I said, I think we were hoping to obviously get through the third and hopefully the fourth and kind of see where we're at in the lineup. But we don't really want to turn the lineup over too many times with him pitching. I mean, that was the goal. Again, I know it didn't work out as well as I would have liked, but at the end we had a lead with our bullpen in there and that's our strength, and I can't ask for any more for any of the guys. Q. Must have been deflating standing out there in the ninth inning; are you worried about a carryover? GREG LOVELADY: We've done a good job all year of being able to bounce back from losses. One of the things we preach is going out there and trying to win innings every day. Tomorrow is a new day. We've had winning streaks of over ten games twice. So we understand the mountain that's in front of us but the only way that we can climb it is if we go out tomorrow and win the first inning. So I'm not worried. I'm sure the guys for the next couple hours are going to be, you know, pretty beat up.  But they understand, win or lose, that tomorrow is a new day and we've got to be able to come out and represent and compete and have a good outing again tomorrow. In no way is this thing over. We feel like we've got enough guys to get to the end if we need to. Just go out tomorrow and try to win the first inning and go from there. Q. Do you feel good about the way you hit the ball and played pretty good defense? GREG LOVELADY: Yeah, I thought we played really, really well. I hate to see the score the way it is because it doesn't really give a great representation of what the game was, but we had opportunities to win the game. I mean, a couple pitches here or there and we win it. So I'm proud of the guys. I mean, we knew‑‑ we just had to go out here and worry about ourselves today. Go out and when the ball was thrown at us, catch it and hit it; and when you field it, just throw it. I thought the guys did a good job. I mean, Notre Dame is a great team, but we showed all year that we can hang with anybody, and I think we did that again today. Q. After the bullpen's performance today, where are you in terms of your confidence and what's your plan for the next couple days going forward? GREG LOVELADY: I'm fine. They have done enough this year to build up enough equity to know that those are my guys. This wasn't the best matchup for us in the bullpen with four switch‑hitters and two other lefties. It's a really tough team to pitch to in terms of matchups with only one lefty in the bullpen. But I mean, I would do it all the same. It would have been a lot more fun if we got just a couple more outs and got the ball to the end but that's baseball. Our guys competed. They weren't scared. They went out there and tried to do their best and execute and I felt like, again, just Notre Dame did a better job of being able to execute. It wasn't any of our guys doing something poorly. It was just them doing a lot of good things; Notre Dame I'm talking about, obviously. Q. Eleven hits, and two of those being home runs; is that the type of game you typically feel you could win with that kind of offensive production? GREG LOVELADY: We always talk about first of seven en. We get seven runs, usually win those type of games. So, again, but we just didn't make enough. We had some more opportunities obviously getting hit by the ball, and we had some opportunities with runners on base, so we didn't get the big hit. Just didn't make enough pitches. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|