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NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: BLOOMINGTON REGIONALJune 2, 2014Tommy EdmanMark MarquessCal QuantrillBLOOMINGTON, INDIANA STANFORD – 5 MARK MARQUESS: Obviously, a great win for us. It was a great baseball game. Especially after the delay, it was a long delay. I think it was tough for both teams, both starting pitchers it was difficult. I was very pleased with Marcus Brakeman, who came back and really surprised us to come back after the rain delay and pitch three or four really strong innings. They are a great team and they are tough to stop. We gave them‑‑ we made an error in the eighth inning giving up that run, and we just got a big hit by Tommy‑‑ actually, by Wayne Taylor, also, getting the lead‑off hit and then the big home run by Tommy. But I want to compliment the university, a first‑class regional, very well run, very organized, great teams and great baseball. It's a beautiful facility, and we are just thrilled. We've had two long days, you know, 12 hours at the ballpark yesterday and a long day today. It was a fantastic win for us. Very proud of our team the way we battled back, and we beat an outstanding team. Q. Talk about the hit, what were you looking for? What did you hit? TOMMY EDMAN: That at‑bat, I was just trying to get on base to be honest. Home run was the last thing I expected. Just a pitch I could drive, and luckily I got a good fastball to hit and able to put a good swing on it. Wayne did a good job of getting on base to set the table. Yeah, lucky to get a good pitch to hit. Q. Were you thinking going up there you were going to be that aggressive and look at the first pitch, or did it just happen that way? TOMMY EDMAN: Well, I expected the first pitch to be a good pitch to hit because I knew he didn't want to get behind with a runner on second base. Yeah, I was just‑‑ went up there, trying to be kind of aggressive, trying to take a good swing at a good pitch to hit, and got one right there. Q. Being in the dugout when you had that swing, curious, being the home team of this game, did it take you a second, you guys, to realize that was a walk‑off, and if so, can you describe that? CAL QUANTRILL: Took us a second because I think our lead‑off hitter just hit a home run. It was wild. It was incredible. Got us the win‑‑ wow. I'm at a loss for words. It was incredible. Q. What went into the decision for you to come back? What did you have left after Friday and what allowed you to be so effective? CAL QUANTRILL: Coach and I have a good working relationship. We talked about it. We knew what I had left.  I was begging to start, but they probably did the right thing waiting on that. That was perfect. That was fine. Good to go. Did it all high school and I was ready to do it now. Q. Obviously pretty intense game all the way through, got you a little bit there with Travis (indiscernible). Curious what sparked that, and did that kind of fuel you going forward? CAL QUANTRILL: That's just heat of the moment. He's a great competitor. That whole team is a great team and they fought and battled hard.  Obviously it was heat of the moment; I don't even remember what was said. I'm glad he didn't get after me, pretty big guy. Q. You've been coaching a long time but where does that one rank in your career? MARK MARQUESS: That's a good one, obviously, to come back. The year has been really special because we've really struggled. We were under .500 for over half the year with a lot of young pitching, especially, and some older position players. So to make it No.1, I think we had to win two or sweep. We swept the last conference game on the road, and very proud of them to come here and win a regional against a great team, No.4 seed.       It's good. It's special. But I've coached long enough, there's been a lot of special times, but it's all about the players. Again, I mention Cal. Cal wanted to pitch. He wanted to start. I said, you're not going to start; if we have a chance to win it late and you feel good. And he knows his arm. So I was real proud of him, but proud of everybody, because it's been a difficult year for us. We've had to really work and bounce back, and to come here‑‑ to get to the regional and to come here and win it is something special. And the way we did it, it's very difficult to win a regional when you lose one of those first two games and then have a long day. We were just going to try to mix‑and‑match and try to get enough pitching to get by. So it's a very special moment in our baseball program. Q. At what point over the course of the season did you really start to believe this team could ‑‑ the schedule to this point‑‑ because it took you ‑‑ to get back to over .500 for the league. MARK MARQUESS: One of the things, and I said this when I scheduled, and I was very concerned about it: If it doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger. It was a difficult, didn't work out the way I wanted. Didn't want to start‑‑ but we played Rice, Texas, Vanderbilt, Kansas, and then we opened with the league and we played Oregon and Oregon State and Washington in the first four or five weekends. We ran the gauntlet and we survived it and we started to get back. I think the turning point for us was John Hochstatter coming on and being a starter and pitching really well. Cal surviving that first half of the season and maintaining being a Friday starter and learning how to pitch at this level as a freshman, and you saw what he did tonight. And then Castellanos (ph) came out of the pen and he started the last four or five weekends for us and he did a good job. And it gets down to pitching and you've got to hit. We started to hit with ‑‑ well, we always got hits but we started to hit with people on base. The power numbers were‑‑ surprised me a little bit this weekend. A lot of home runs here. We hit a lot of home runs. We normally don't do that, and there's not that many in college baseball, especially ‑‑ now this team, Indiana, is a power team. We hit home runs but mainly with Blandino and a couple other guys. We hit a lot of home runs this weekend, this regional, which surprised me. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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