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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 28, 2016Jim MorrisEdgar MichelangeliMichael MediavillaDurham, North Carolina Florida State - 5, Miami - 4 JIM MORRIS: First of all, it was a great game, hard-battled game. Holton pitched really good against us. He pitched good against us at Florida State, the game they beat us down there, too. Mediavilla pitched outstanding. It was a good, well-played college baseball game. We had a chance to -- we left some guys on base. But Edgar's gotten some big hits for us the last two nights, the last two games. For us, we've just got to move on. We've got to move on. I expect to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament which starts next weekend and go home and get on a plane tonight and head home, get rested tomorrow, be there for the meetings on Monday and be a No. 1 seed to go into the NCAA Tournament. This tournament's done a great job to prepare us for that to get ready for the NCAA Tournament, and I'm proud of the way our guys played, and they battled the whole tournament up here. It's a great league. It's a great league. So many good teams in here. There are some teams that I'm afraid they are going to get left out that deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament. We'll find out what happens on Monday. But I'm excited about the way our guys played, I'm proud of the way these guys played, and we've got to move on. Q. Great regular season, you come up short again here at the ACC. Just your general feelings of not bringing home a ring from here. EDGAR MICHELANGELI: I mean, I feel like we battled this whole tournament. I feel like we played really hard and we left it all out there. We happened to not win today, but I mean, that's not going to -- that's not going to be how we're going to be remembered or anything. I mean, we fought hard, and that's just -- we can't control if we win or not. We just could control our effort. MICHAEL MEDIAVILLA: Again, we fight every game. We take every game, every inning, serious, and we did it today again. We just came up short. Just the pitcher in the game changed the whole game. We were up two runs, home run, tied it. And then they went up two, and our team was able to battle back, tie the game, and we just came up short. But the whole season, that's what we've done the whole season, just battling, battling, every single inning, every single pitch, and it's worked out for us great. JIM MORRIS: I'd like to answer that question, too. You know what the next week's the most important thing. If this was any other year, Brian Garcia would have still been in the game. I did not want to burn our bullpen. I wanted to get him rested and I wanted to get him ready for the next tournament. Not that this tournament is not important; next weekend is more important, and that's the reason we did what we did, or I did what we did. Q. Can you walk us through that ninth inning at-bat, your hit that tied the game? EDGAR MICHELANGELI: I felt like a little déjàvu. I mean, I was just trying to be aggressive. Put the ball in play and just make something happen. It happened to go and hit a line drive between center field and left field. Q. Talk about your pitching performance. It was a great game out there for you, and a lot of pitches and just talk about your performance. MICHAEL MEDIAVILLA: It was good. I started the game aggressive and kept my pitch count low, but then I started battling with some command. Just left a pitch over the plate to Busby, and then basically, just tied the game. But I was able to keep my team there, keep them in a good spot to win the game. But again, they have been battling for me all year and they have done a good job, and it's amazing for a pitcher to feel that you have the confidence that your offense can just come up big at any moment. So they have helped out a lot, just with the confidence, every time I go out there, just making sure everything's going to be all right. Q. You talked about how you guys have battled this entire tournament; you've overcome a few deficits in this tournament. When you go into the ninth inning today, how much confidence do you guys have as a group that you're going to be able to overcome that 4-2 deficit there? EDGAR MICHELANGELI: I think the most important thing is to stay relaxed and let the game come to you. I knew yesterday that I hit a home run, a big home run, but I tried not to be too big or anything. Just think up the middle and stay relaxed. I mean, doesn't matter how many outs we have left. As long as we're still playing, we still feel like we have a shot to win the game. As long as that's happening, we're fine. That's how we feel. Q. Is this kind of the drama you expect from Florida State-Miami? Of course it's going to come down to the ninth inning, right. MICHAEL MEDIAVILLA: It's a good game every time we go out there. Of course there's a rivalry between us, but we expect their best and they are going to expect our best every game. It's always going to be high-intensity performance by both teams. It's just a great -- this is what college baseball is all about, just playing this type of rivalry game. They are a great ballclub and they just came up big today. Q. Dylan Busby had a big game for Florida State. What was he doing well today? MICHAEL MEDIAVILLA: He was just doing well and staying back behind the ball, just expecting the off-speed. I think during our series, he struggled a bit and he was able to make some adjustments today. So he had a great day. There's no way around it. Q. You had mentioned about Bryan's situation. Is there any inkling you wanted to bring him back out to start the inning? JIM MORRIS: Of course you want to. You want to. You want to bring it back and the same way with Bartow. But you know, I don't want to take a chance on those guys right now throwing a lot of pitches and make sure that they areal rested for next weekend because next weekend, we win, we forget all about this week. That's the real deal. That's the way this tournament works. That's the reason I like this format. I know some coaches don't, but I like this format. When we first went to it, I said, I like it because it gets you prepared for the NCAA Tournament; versus doing what the SEC does, playing a double-elimination and playing all morning and all night till 12 o'clock at night. I think that burns your pitching staff out, your players get tired, and I like the way -- the format that we have right now. It's to get you ready. Gets you ready. Q. You said you're very confident about your ability to be a No. 1 seed next week. Do you think this team had an opportunity to become the overall No. 1 seed had things gone right this weekend? And second part of that is, is this as strong as the league has ever been in your mind? JIM MORRIS: I'll answer the second question first. The league is, in my opinion, as strong as it's ever been. No question about it, and it gets better every year. It gets better every year. There are so many teams in the conference are emphasizing baseball and hiring new coaches, and if you don't win, you don't have a job. You've got a lot of pressure but people are spending money to make people better and make their programs better. It's a great league. I think if we won the tournament that, we had a chance to be the No. 1 seed. I don't think we have a chance to be the No. 1 seed. But you know, our goal is to be in the top eight, top five, something like that. Of course maybe you guys can vote us out, I don't know -- not to say don't. But the real deal is, is that I want to get us prepared as a team for this next thing, because at Miami, you know, sad to say or good to say, that we could win the ACC; and if we don't go to the World Series, then it's not a successful season. We have to get them ready there. Once in a while we've got to win a ring, and it's been too long since I've won one. So we need to focus on that. I've got two more seasons after this one, before I retire, and we need another ring, guys, before I'm out of here. But I'm very proud of our team. They played hard. Do we have a chance? Yes, we do have a chance and we go to Omaha. Q. 45 wins, seems like every year you're 45 wins or you come out of nowhere this time of the year. Is this team good enough to make it all the way to Omaha and get that ring that you want before you go off in the sunset? JIM MORRIS: Well, I'm not going off in the sunset this year quite yet, but I do think this team has a chance, because we have quality pitching. One of our strengths is our bullpen, and we play good defense. And different guys are coming up, getting hits, like Edgar, hitting in the ninth spot, hit the home run to win it; got the big hit today to tie it. Anybody in the lineup, one through nine, is capable of getting that hit, and that's what we've got to do, do that and play good defense. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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