Postgame Quotes - Game 1: Virginia vs. VCU

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Charlottesville Regional
No. 1 Virginia 15, No. 4 VCU 4
June 4, 2010

Virginia Quotes
Head Coach Brian O’Connor
Opening Statement:
“I thought we play a good opening ballgame. We obviously swung the bats very well, very aggressively. We had a report that (Seth) Cutler-Voltz could mix and match very well to keep you off balance. Fortunately, in the early part of the ballgame, we figured him out and tacked on some runs. I would have liked to see Cody Winiarski go deeper in the ballgame. I felt that when I went to Tyler Wilson, that was a critical part in the game and that they were starting to mount a little bit of a rally. I wanted to shut it down so I went with Wilson. For the most part, I thought we played a very good ballgame.”

On who is pitching the next game:
“I don’t know. Obviously it is going to be Danny Hultzen or Robert Morey but I’m going to have to watch this game and see the outcome. Right now, I’m leaning toward Danny Hultzen but I’ll make a decision by the end of the night.”

On Tyler Wilson’s three scoreless innings:
“Honestly, I was hoping that we wouldn’t have to pitch Tyler Wilson three innings but we did. Fortunately we were able to conserve his pitches and he was very efficient. He bounces back very quickly so he’ll be ready to pitch out of the bullpen tomorrow. He has been our go to guy all season long.”

On Virginia’s confidence facing VCU’s Seth Cutler-Voltz:
“This is a very confident bunch. They play the game the right way and don’t panic. We knew the kind of pitcher Cutler-Voltz was and that he would try to keep us off stride. When you’re facing a pitcher like that, you could look up in the fourth or fifth inning and realize you’re in trouble. I thought our guys made a good adjustment and did what they needed to do to win.”

On how typical this game was for his team:
“This wasn’t a typical game. We don’t score 15 runs very often but what we have done all year is play very fundamental defense, swing and run the bases aggressively. This day was a little unique. We had everyone in the lineup get a hit and had four guys have multiple hits is pretty spectacular. To win this regional this weekend we are going to have to pitch and play the kind of defense we played today.”

Junior Tyler Wilson
On playing against another Virginia school as well as against your father’s former teammate in Virginia Commonwealth’s head coach, Paul Keyes:
“There is definitely some background there between my dad and Coach Keyes and sure it was great to play another Virginia school during regionals but it is regionals. There is a lot of excitement no matter who we are playing. It is definitely nice to get that first victory out of the way and it’s a little bit sweeter to do it against VCU.”

On his mindset when he came into the game at such a critical point:
“Coming into a situation like that, Coach O’Connor just told me to make my pitches, stay down in the zone and let the defense play behind me – which they did. Steven Proscia made an outstanding double play to end the inning. I have a lot of faith in the guys behind to make those plays and they did.”

On the importance of this game:
“We treat every outing the same here. It’s definitely nice to have a good outing whenever you get a chance. This is kind of like the beginning of a new season though so it was nice to get off to the right start.”

On his mentality for the rest of the weekend:
“I always want the ball. Especially in an outing like this one, it’s really a privilege to be handed the ball in a pressure situation so you have to always want it. I think that everyone on our staff and every one of our hitters wants to be up there.”

Sophomore John Hicks
On batting well right away:
“Getting hot right away is definitely a good thing. It seems like it kind of started against Miami last week when we got the bats rolling a little bit. We were going to have to put up some runs. Their pitching staff usually keeps the game pretty low scoring. All of the teams here have a good pitching staff so to get confidence like that is really good for all of the guys.”

On his day batting 4-for-5 and making a crucial double play:
“I couldn’t have done anything with out the guys getting on in front of me, and (Tyler) Cannon behind me who was swinging very well. My teammates were setting me up and I was getting some good pitches to hit. It’s nice to have a hot streak in a game like this and hopefully we can keep it going.”

On the two double plays:
“They were both pretty big. They were both pretty close and like they say, ‘the double play is the pitcher’s best friend.’ It’s huge to get out of jams like that with a double play ball.”

On preparing for the next game:
“We’re definitely going to get off our feet and relax a little bit but I’m also going to watch a bit of the next game and see what each team has. We already have a bit of a scouting report on all of the teams here so we are ready for whomever we face in the game tomorrow.”

VCU Quotes
Head Coach Paul Keyes
Opening statement:
“I have to give Virginia credit first of all – we knew coming in that we were going to have to battle. They had their running game going today – and they have a lot of power.

“I thought for us the game started out okay – if we didn’t misplay the ball in right, I think Seth (Cutler-Voltz) would have settled in and been more relaxed and we could have stretched him a little longer. Our game plan was to try and keep him in the first half of the game and keep it close and see if the bullpen could come in and keep it tight and give us a chance to win. We stayed in there early and just couldn’t get the hits with the bases loaded that we needed.”

On inning-ending double plays that killed scoring opportunities:
“I thought there was a few situations where we could have started runners, but they [Virginia] are so solid behind the plate – I probably should have rolled the dice in a couple of those situations to try and pick something up and extend an inning.”

Sophomore Seth Cutler-Voltz
On facing the Virginia lineup:
“They have one of the top lineups in the nation with great numbers up and down the order. They can do special things – once you get through the lineup a couple times you start to notice certain things and I if I was able to execute pitches the way I would have liked to – I could have done better. I didn’t execute and they did.”

Junior Joe Van Meter
On hitting into double plays to end innings:
“I think they did a way better job of avoiding the big inning on defense and expanding it on offense. They put base runners on and were able to push four runs across. We were not able to capitalize on a couple bases loaded opportunities, managing one or two runs, instead of four and five like Virginia. ”