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NCAA MEN'S BASEBALL REGIONALS: BLOOMINGTONMay 31, 2013Michael DavisKacy KemmerGary McClureBLOOMINGTON, INDIANA FLORIDA – 3 COACH McCLURE: Well, I thought it was a good ballgame. I thought that Zach Hall came out and did a great job for us: Established the strike zone and established the fastball right away, and I thought he did a great job making his pitches. And, you know, stayed in control pretty well until he walked, you know, the guy in the sixth. You know, we felt like it was time to make a move. Our guys played really hard. They did what they have been doing all year, really proud of them. Q. Mike, you're 0‑3 going into that at‑bat basically, how happy were you not to see Crawford again, and how did that at‑bat go and when you hit the ball, did you think it was going to go out? MICHAEL DAVIS: Well, not to face Crawford again, I really couldn't figure out his cutter the whole game and he kind of had me off balance. Then I saw they brought in the other kid and he was kind of the same‑type kid. Yeah, really, when I hit it, I didn't think it was going out and then I just kind of saw it get up in that wind and then I kind of knew it was. Q. This team has come back in this situation so much; were you thinkingabout trying to take a win today? KACY KEMMER: I was, I'm always trying to take a win when I'm in the game and the other team has the lead. I just wanted to go out there and keep getting zeros on the board. Because I know our team all year, we have come from behind and won the game in later innings, so all I needed to do was put up a zero. Q. Was there a panic; did getting all those runners in scoring position, did that give you some motivation? MICHAEL DAVIS: Yeah, it gave me some added incentive I guess. But we were battling the whole game and getting runners on, and I felt like it was just a matter of time before we could get that big hit finally. Q. When Mike hit that ball, when are you thinking? Did you think it was going to go out? Did it look like a pop‑up to you? KACY KEMMER: Right when it goes over, the dugout just exploded. I can't even express in words the emotions everyone was feeling, screaming. We actually talked about it right before he got up that he was about to hit one out, and about four or five of us were together. And right when he hit it, we knew; we knew it was going over. Q. Mike, starting to really hit for power the last two games, what do you think's been the difference? MICHAEL DAVIS: I don't think I've really changed anything. I think I've just kind of squared up the ball a little bit more and looking for my pitch a little more instead of the pitcher's pitch. Q. And then Tyler comes into the game, you guys are feeling pretty good, even after you hit the guy? KACY KEMMER: Yeah, he's done that one or two times before and we still have confidence in him. He was just throwing out a ground ball, he does that all the time (laughing). He likes to scare us a bit, so he did his job. Q. How do you guys feel going into tomorrow's game? MICHAEL DAVIS: I feel confident. I know Kacy is going to give us a good start on the mound and I feel confident in our offense to keep putting runs on the board. Q. When you win a game like and when you have to come back, when you got down to five or six outs, how much does it change the momentum when you win can win a game with that kind of drama? MICHAEL DAVIS: Yeah, that's huge to come back, especially against a team like Florida. I mean, they are a good team and they have got good arms. So to be able to get some runs late against them was big. So I think it's going to help out our offense and hopefully our pitching can just keep rolling off that. Q. Just wanted to ask, and how good does it feel to get a late rally like that when it looked like Crawford and their bullpen had your hitters' numbers for most of the afternoon. COACH McCLURE: Well, obviously it felt great. You know, I thought it was huge‑‑ you know, we gave up a three‑run homer and it really wasn't a bad pitch. I mean, I swear it wasn't six inches off the ground.  We wanted it in the dirt, didn't quite get it there, and the guy did a great job of hitting it. But I didn't think we were done, and our guys just kept battling. We kept getting baserunners, and that was what gave me hope that we could still get this thing done. And I knew we had some guys in our lineup that could hit it out any time. So, it was huge. Yeah, almost like I had a feeling that Mike was going to hit one out, and you know, I guess he didn't let us down. But he's a really strong kid. I mean, he's probably got the most power on our team when it's said and done. Did a great job. I can't think of the young man's name, Harris, he's very good. I mean, that kid's very good. I saw him pitch in high school and he's one of the better pitcher's I've seen and I know he's been very good for them. I'm really, really proud of the way our guys attacked him. Q. A great win over a well‑established program; what does that do short term and long term for your team, for this tournament and the state of your program? COACH McCLURE: Well, it's huge for this tournament, and that's all we care about right now is this tournament. We came up here to try to win this thing. We didn't come up here for any other reason. We didn't come up here to feel good about ourselves o, you know, anything like that. We came up here to win. So I mean, it's absolutely 100 percent huge. You know, they came up big with the three‑run homer and we came right back and did it. I think any time you're beating a Florida team, you're beating a good team. Are they a great offensive team? I'm certainly not putting them down. I don't think they are at their normal offense (ph), but they have got great arms. They are not an easy team to face out of the 64 teams in this; when you face Crawford the first game, you know you're going to have to get it done. Q. All of the missed chances with runners in scoring position, did you feel like it was a matter of time? COACH McCLURE: Yeah, I did, as long as we kept getting runner, I really did, and that was the big thing. You know, Crawford, I think he threw 60‑some strikes out of maybe 100, 110 pitches, so he helped us a little bit, got us in some hitters' counts and things like that. Like I said, he's very, very good. You can tell why he's going to be a first‑rounder. As long as we kept getting guys on, I felt like we were going to square it all up at some point in time. Q. On just the SEC in college baseball, their reputation, is it at all difficult to inspire your players to say, we can win this game and we expect to win this game? COACH McCLURE: No, no, it's not difficult at all, not this team. These guys have been there three years in a row. They have been in regional, beat Georgia Tech when they were all freshmen. We had four to seven freshmen start that year, and their sophomore year, they went to Oregon and got to the regional championship. Probably should have won the thing. We were unfortunate in that situation there(ph), that's college baseball. You know, like I said, there's no kissing your sister here; we came here to win. We have got a good ballclub and we are going to lay it on the line. We may get beat, somebody's better or does the job better, but we don't care if it's SEC or ACC or Horizon or what it is. You have to go out and beat a team. SEC is great, there's no question about that. They have got a great league, and it's the best league in the country, but you know, a team's a team. We have got a good club. Q. Can you just talk about Kacy's effort coming in, two innings of one‑hit ball; they were getting baserunners but you really shut them down towards the end. COACH McCLURE: Kacy, he's done what he's done all year really. Kacy, he's a great command guy. I mean, he pitches a lot like Greg Maddux. I'm not saying he's Greg Maddux by any means, he's a Hall of Famer, but he's a lot like him. He just commands the zone so well, and when he wants to go out of the zone, he does it and he goes where he wants. He can go up in the zone and get guys to pop up. He can pitch backwards, whatever he wants to do. He's just a really valuable guy to our club, and when he can follow‑up a guy like Lee, you know, or somebody that throws harder like that, he can tie some people up, and he did a really nice job today. He really pitched to his capabilities I thought. Q. He has not given up an earned run since early April. Did you see him being a dominant force? Did you think he could be this good? COACH McCLURE: When we recruited him, I didn't think he would be this good. I thought he could help our club a lot. This year, and the end of last year, I started seeing how good he could be. He works his tail off, and you know, he believes in himself a lot. He's a humble kid, though, and I think those are all good traits and really proud for him. Q. Lee only threw 15 pitches today; will he be available tomorrow? COACH McCLURE: Yeah, he'll be available. That's why we got him out. They took the lead‑‑ he did a great job, though, I thought getting the next couple hitters. Sometimes guys will just fold the tent when that happens, something big like that, but he came right back and showed the kind of kid he is and the kind of character he is and got the next outs and kept us where we were. We wanted to get him out of there and since we didn't have the lead any more and go to the next guy. Q. When a guy strikes out against one pitcher three times, do you get the impression that if you get him out of there, maybe that will just throw the game ‑‑       COACH McCLURE: Yeah, a little bit. You know, I think Crawford, he just figured out what he had to do to him, kind of had his number, and Mike kept saying: I'm just not picking up‑‑ he's throwing a cutter and I've just never seen a guy with that good a cutter and I'm just not picking it up . You know, I kept putting him up there because I know he can be a game changer; if he gets a pitch or a pitcher makes a mistake, and we all know they do at some time or another. And if he does, he's so dangerous, he's a really strong kid. Certainly glad I kept him in there (chuckling). FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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