|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: BLOOMINGTON REGIONALMay 29, 2014Danny DiekroeggerJohn HochstatterMark MarquessCal QuantrillBLOOMINGTON, INDIANA MARK MARQUESS: Yes, well, obviously excited to be here, this is beautiful. We are very excited to be here. We played a very difficult season and pitched well, played good defense, and had timely hitting, thought that made us a little bit stronger. Very proud of this group to battle back. I told them, the key is to get here, and we are thrilled to play here at this beautiful facility. Q. What do you admire the most of professional athletes? CAL QUANTRILL: ‑‑ ton of fun, I got to play catch with Derek Jeter. It was an honor traveling with him. Q. What was that like playing in the majors? CAL QUANTRILL: It was difficult‑‑ throwing a lot harder than I was back then. Q. Talk about turning it around since the middle of April. DANNY DIEKROEGER: I don't think much changed. We just kept working hard and didn't get down on ourselves. Definitely we played some of the harder teams and some of the best teams early on. Pour record suffered a little bit but we kept the same hard work mentality through the whole year, and it just so happened that we started winning more games later on. Q. John, how does that affect your preparation and what do you know aboutIndiana State? JOHN HOCHSTATTER: I think no matter who our opponent is, we prepare the same way and go out and play our game the best we can. So, you know, going in, I think it's going to be the same as we've been playing every game prior to that. Q. When did you know you could play at this level and what did your dad teach you the most? CAL QUANTRILL: Obviously getting to play bit‑‑ but other than that, once we got going a few weeks in, I figured out we were a good team and I would be able to pitch at this level, so it was good. Q. Were you small and at what age were you traveling? CAL QUANTRILL: He retired in '05, so I wasn't even in high school. Q. And you were not a Yankees fan? CAL QUANTRILL: No, not a Yankees fan. Q. Never? CAL QUANTRILL: No. Q. How do you approach this? You've been through this many times in a regional, when you have a team that you are really not familiar with? MARK MARQUESS: Yeah, we've played them‑‑ to make any difference. But to answer your question, you just look at their numbers and you know, they are really‑‑ I think that's the key. My most successful teams are made up of juniors and seniors, and I tell you‑‑ they are deservedly so. It's a little deceiving that‑‑ they say, well, who do they play. Well, you have such fantastic facilities in cold weather is because of the parity. Oregon State, cold weather, two national championships, won a conference easily, the best team in our conference, they are the best team in the conference last year, cold weather, nice facilities, commitment to college baseball. And I think that parity has brought about greatness for college baseball. I think in the coverage of ESPN and the college World Series and a beautiful facility, it's not because baseball is not in a better place. It's in the best place it's ever been. But to prepare for Indiana State who is a good team, we don't spend a lot of time‑‑ obviously I want to know the guys that can run, but I can see that in stolen bases. I want to know the guys that have power, I can see it in the batting stats. If I want to look at a box stat‑‑ it's mainly to play our game. Pitches, you can see a little bit of a tape on something, some games, but it's difficult. Q. Just so I got this straight, is Indiana or Indiana State is going to be playing? MARK MARQUESS: Indiana State is, okay. Q. You mentioned the top ‑‑ and after April, what things got turned around for this group, what did you see? MARK MARQUESS: Good arms. And Hochstatter, who had started the year before, we started him in the bullpen and another guy was in the bullpen, James, a sophomore. They were both in the bullpen and we started three freshmen and we opened up with Rice and played, we went to Texas, and then we went to Vanderbilt and we played Kansas and we opened up with SC, Oregon State and Washington. By the time we got to Washington, two of those freshmen couldn't‑‑ couldn't do it. It was a very difficult task. They would go three or four innings so brought in Hochstatter out of the bullpen to start and I think he was the biggest reason pitching‑wise, he's 10‑0. Mark Cappell (ph), first guy taken in the draft was 10‑0 and we had a better offensive team last year. Cal Quantrill survived that, okay, and he maintained and got better, and as we went along, Chris Viall, Brett Hanewich (ph) to the bullpen. We started Logan James out of the bullpen and he's given us four good starts. So really it's to those two pitchers, but I would say Hochstatter is the key guy. Cal obviously has maintained. And then the other thing is, the last six weeks, we've gotten (inaudible) and we got him with guys on base. Q. Is Hochstatter your starter tomorrow? MARK MARQUESS: No. We're not going to change it. We've been going Cal and Hochstatter and James and that's how we'll do it no matter who we play. I think that's how we'll do it. So Cal will start tomorrow. And the other thing; because we got rained outlast Saturday, we played a doubleheader on Sunday, even if I was thinking of putting Hochstatter first‑‑ Q. Do you think that changes the dynamic a little when teams are playing each other? MARK MARQUESS: Win the league‑‑ under 500 gets in, I understand that, that's a chance for everybody, but why do you play the whole season, what does it mean? Flipside of that is, you have a team that's a dominant team, an LSU, a Texas, Florida, and they go into that tournament and only two starting pitchers, they are in, they are going to host the regional so. One team that was never going to make the post‑season, wins that tournament, that takes the spot of another team, okay. So I think‑‑ I understand why you would, because it gives everybody an opportunity to win, but you take it, there's five or six teams that are taking spots that they wouldn't have a chance to take, which means other teams that I think are deserving don't get in because of that, okay. The other thing I'm not sure of, and the RPI is a critical thing, I'm not sure that, especially in the more dominant RPI, because you're playing‑‑ for us, you've been playing Oregon State and Washington, again, you know, I would prefer to play‑‑ I think the league should mean more. I think the league should mean more. That should be a benefit to ‑‑ and it does, for the teams that win normally they get to host and they had a good record. But new tournaments, keeps teams out if they are deserving. 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
|