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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 22, 2014Nick HowardArtie LewickiBrian O'ConnorGREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA Maryland: 7 THE MODERATOR: Joining me on the dais head Coach for Virginia, Brian O'Connor, Nick Howard and Artie Lewicki. Coach? COACH O'CONNOR: You know, obviously a difficult loss. Maryland did an excellent job of taking advantage of their opportunities. I'll tell you, Stinnett, their starter was as advertised. We obviously didn't see him all year. The guy's got a great arm and a very, very bright future. I'm proud of our offensive club that we battled him for the opportunities that we did capture. The reality of the game is our recipe for success all year has not been if you give up 7 runs, we're usually not winning. We scored certainly enough runs to win this ballgame. We didn't do the job on the mound in the middle innings, 5 through 8, I believe. And to Maryland's credit they took advantage of it. They've got a very, very good ball club, really good athletes position playerwise and it makes it tough. They threw six left‑handed hitters up there and if you don't execute your pitches they make you pay. That's what we've done all year long is we've pitched really well. We didn't pitch up to our capability this afternoon. Q. Brian, the home runs, were they mistakes or good pitches that were hit? COACH O'CONNOR: How many did they hit, 4? Q. They hit 5. COACH O'CONNOR: If my recollection is correct, I would say probably three of them were‑‑ not mistakes, not to take anything away from them but they were up in the zone and they were in hitter‑positive counts. What you can't have happen is the last inning they scored 2 runs in the 7th inning. They had 2 outs and nobody on and Rosenberger hits the left‑handed batter and the next batter hits a two‑run home one. Those are the things that can't happen. You've got to limit the damage but to their credit they took advantage of it. Q. Did you notice the wind blowing right before the game? COACH O'CONNOR: Yeah, sure. This ballpark is not a big ballpark and the wind is blowing out Maryland still squared up a lot of balls and we did too. They hit a lot of solo home runs, one, two‑run home run, and unfortunately a couple of ours were multi‑run, but just wasn't enough. Q. The first batter, working 3‑2‑‑ (No microphone.) ARTIE LEWICKI: Bottom count, and the last one I left up in the zone. He connected with it, but you can't mess around with the count and I fell behind and they were able to get some balls up. Q. Did you have to adjust yourself? ARTIE LEWICKI: No, I didn't have to adjust my foot. I tried to keep my purchase and unfortunately I wasn't able make clutch pitches when I needed to and they were able to capitalize on them. Q. (No microphone.) NICK HOWARD: My Coach alluded to it, he's a great pitcher. He's one of the best arms in the league. I thought we had great bats all throughout the lineup and we fell 1‑run short. Q. Does it feel like a missed opportunity? NICK HOWARD: I wouldn't say a missed opportunity. I thought we had a good approach, that's just the game. It's only one game. We're looking forward to tomorrow. Q. You scored 6 and battled back and it's your first mini slug fest. Did you like that? NICK HOWARD: Yeah, both teams were throwing punches and we were trying to win the momentum and unfortunately during that, 5, 6, 7 innings, we fell short. Q. (No microphone.) Looked like the ball might have fallen through the gap. COACH O'CONNOR: Derek Fisher hit that ball hard. He hit the inside part of the ball and it was a smoked line drive, nice play by their guy. Certainly if he doesn't make that play maybe it's a different ballgame, maybe if he has a chance to get to the gap I'm not sure, it was a great at bat by Fish. There was a high percentage of quality at‑bats that we threw up there today so that's encouraging, you know? The reality is, you know, the game‑‑ we had chances and from a pitching standpoint, we didn't do the job out of our bullpen. It's pretty simple. If we do the job out of our bullpen, maybe it's a different result. Q. Were you worried about the six lefties at all? COACH O'CONNOR: No, not really. That's quite frankly why we went to Rosenberger, is the six lefties. There were guys on our club that were not available to pitch today for certain reasons, and we just felt like he was the best option based on who was available. Q. (No microphone.) COACH O'CONNOR: I'm not going to comment on why they weren't but we had some things going on and one of our main relief guys wasn't available today and we will see if he's available for the rest of the tournament. Q. We'll start Brandon Waddell tomorrow. Q. Can you talk about Austin? COACH O'CONNOR: I thought thought Austin did a great job, he came in there with a runner on and no outs and the next inning he made some clutch pitches. He gave us a chance. He really did. Just unfortunate that it was, you know, too far out of reach. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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