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NCAA MEN'S BASEBALL REGIONALS: BLOOMINGTONJune 1, 2013Johnny MagliozziKevin O'SullivanJosh TobiasBLOOMINGTON, INDIANA FLORIDA – 4 COACH O'SULLIVAN: Congratulations to Valparaiso. I thought it was a well‑played game; like yesterday, it was a one‑run game. When you get to tournament settings like this, it usually comes down to an at‑bat here or a pitch there or a play there. Credit Valparaiso. Pleased with how our guys battled back today from a tough loss yesterday but that's what happens in tournament play, it comes down to little things and we were not quite good enough on the little things today. Q. Josh, wanted to ask about the grounder in the 8th, what happened to you on that play? JOSH TOBIAS: I just tried to keep it in front of me and just got off my chest and got behind me. I should have stayed down better. Q. What happened there in the 7th? JOHNNY MAGLIOZZI: Struggled to throw strikes. First three innings, I was pretty uncomfortable and I got in a rhythm and tried my best but didn't work out that good. Q. Josh, you were 4‑for‑4 at the plate today, after yesterday, the offense was pretty quiet and you guys seemed to come out swinging better sticks this time around. What happened that you were able to get that three‑run inning and after that, why do you think the offense quieted back down? JOSH TOBIAS: I mean, things started off with some hits and got some runs in‑‑ (indiscernible) ‑‑ more runs and more hits and trying to get guys on base and we just kind of settled down after that. We just got guys on base. Q. Seemed like you guys were getting on base a lot. What did you think about the situational hitting? Seemed like you had it early on but towards the end of the game it wasn't quite as good? JOSH TOBIAS: Just stuff we didn't do right, didn't do well, we've just got to work on. Q. Coach, going along with that, I think it was 11 runners left on base today. Is that just some of those little things you were talking about, just not being able to move guys over and move them in when you had opportunities? COACH O'SULLIVAN: We start the game off, we had runners on first and second, nobody out. We got Shafer up, and we don't move the ball. We end up striking out and we don't score any runs. We had first and third with one out, a few innings later, Shafer up again. And he's throwing an off‑speed pitch and didn't hit it hard and we hit into a double play. Those situations, where you can score a run without getting a hit, you've got to clutch up and put together a good at‑bat there. And those two instances kind of hurt us. And obviously Taylor there in the ninth, we had second, third and one out; they are giving us an opportunity to score both ways: Infield is playing back and ground ball scores or fly ball scores the tieing run. We just didn't quite do enough, and it's been that way all year long to be quite honest with you. Q. How did your message change as the walks kept mounting? What did you want him to do, attack the zone, challenge the hitters? COACH O'SULLIVAN: No. In that situation with the bases loaded, you've got no choice but to throw strikes. We were calling fastballs down the middle. Our players know, our pitchers know, I'd rather give up a hit than a walk. We were not trying to be too fine. You look back, there might have been two breaking balls called in the sequence. Just didn't throw strikes. Q. That three‑run fourth inning, I think Martin was up and it was a 3‑1 count and he decided to bunt, popped it out to the catcher; did that come from the dugout, or was that him trying to get out? COACH O'SULLIVAN: No. The talk was that he's going to drag on the first pitch, and if we got into an advantage count, he was going to swing. So he showed drag twice after that that we did not call; we were going to have him swing. So he did that on his own. But he's an aggressive player, and in that situation with a 3‑1 count, we did want him to swing. Q. Sort of an aberration year, rebuilding year and all that; what do you want the guys to take from this season and put forward to seasons to come? COACH O'SULLIVAN: To be honest with you, this season is not the standard we want in Florida and there's no rebuilding at Florida. I keep hearing that all year long. We've got young players but it's time to grow up. They are not freshmen anymore. The game comes down to pitching defense and hitting. To be honest with you, I think the thing that's most disappointing up to this point, I don't think we've seen improvement with some players that we thought we would at this point. You know, we have a standard at Florida, and I don't think we met that standard. Q. Magliozzi ran into trouble in the 7th but he got out of jams early on and had those nice few innings. What did it mean to have your normal closer come in and give effort like that? COACH O'SULLIVAN: Well, he's started a couple games. He started the game against the A&M in the SEC tournament and started the game against Auburn, the Saturday game. And he started a game in about the middle of the year against Mississippi State; so he's kind of done both. The bottom line about Johnny Magliozzi is if he doesn't perform like he did all year long, we would not be playing in this tournament. His numbers say that and his heart says that. He single‑handedly got us to this point. Q. You just mentioned, the guys had not improved as much as you would have liked. Were there specific areas where the guys didn't pick it up? COACH O'SULLIVAN: Offensively. I think we pitched fairly good all year long. We have to get better offensively and be able to handle the bat from top to bottom. I don't feel like we are a very good bunting team. We work on it constantly. I don't know if we handle the bat enough in situational hitting situations. We do not‑‑ we have not put good swings on offensive counts and did enough damage there. So there's a bunch of things that we need to improve on. But I don't want to sound negative. It's tough after a loss and your season is over. There were a lot of positives this year, as well. There were. It's just hard when you have expectations for your team, and the season comes to an abrupt end like it has. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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