Postgame Quotes - Game 5: St. John's vs. Ole Miss

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Charlottesville Regional
No. 3. St. John’s 20, No. 2 Ole Miss 16
June 6, 2010

Ole Miss Quotes
Head Coach Mike Bianco
Opening statement:
“Obviously, when you lose and when the loss ends the season – certainly want to congratulate St. John’s on a terrific job today. We couldn’t stop them – we have swung the bats very well all weekend and to give up eight runs in the first and try to battle back – and we did, we kept fighting. Throughout the game it seemed every time we got close they would answer. If we scored one – they would score one – then the big five spot in the sixth inning. We come back and score four in the eighth – they score five – we just had no answer for them offensively today, they were just so locked in. But I am proud of our guys and how they fought. Certainly it’s an uphill battle as we talked about last night in the postgame with three games to win. To go down eight runs in the first and for them to continue to compete and fight until the ninth inning, I am very proud of them.”

On his team’s pitching in the NCAA regional:
“To pitch like we did I think it is a surprise – I think it sums up the year that we were too inconsistent. There have been times throughout the year we pitched really well and couldn’t hit. And there were times when we could hit, even the stretch where we won 10 games in a row during the middle of the season, when we didn’t pitch really well. The team has been too inconsistent. Of course they competed throughout the season and I think that is why we had opportunities towards the end. If we had been a little more consistent maybe we wouldn’t have even been in Charlottesville – the reason we are here, is the reason we didn’t have success this weekend. Too much inconsistency. We couldn’t put it together in all three aspects of the game – pitching, defense and hitting.”

Sophomore David Goforth
On St. John’s eight-run first inning:
“You have to give credit to St. John’s. They were really swinging the bats well today. I kind of made the situation worse by walking guys – I think I had three walks – so when a team is swinging the bats like that you can’t afford to give those guys free base runners and that was what I thought was the biggest problem.”

On if it was nerves that led to the eight-run first inning by St. John’s:
“I don’t think I was nervous. I didn’t throw the ball were I wanted to. I couldn’t get my breaking ball over for a strike. I was leaving a lot of fastballs up. When you get in bad counts, it makes it easier for those guys to hit and that was the biggest problem.

Junior Matt Smith
On how Ole Miss’ potent offense stayed hot despite being down early late:
“Down eight runs, we had a good feeling about it. This is it – what are you going to do? It is either win or go home, so we did all we could do. We battled and stayed in there. I was proud of how our offense and everyone stayed in there the whole game and battled. At the end of the day it wasn’t good enough.

St. John’s Quotes
Head Coach Ed Blankmeyer
Opening Statement:
“It was one of those elimination games where the wind was blowing out so it was a hard day for pitching. The bottom line is that we swung the bats. You have to give a lot of credit to Ole Miss. We were throwing good pitches but they kept fighting to get back in the game. I have to give equal credit to my guys for keeping them at a distance. It was a hitter’s day and a pitcher’s nightmare.”

On Matt Wessinger’s performance:
“He’s locked in. He is on the ball. There are a couple of guys who are really on the ball right now. We have a pretty good lineup. Ole Miss had to decide whether to throw (Drew) Pomeranz against us or against Virginia and the better matchup was Virginia. He certainly couldn’t overlook us though whereas VCU wasn’t as good a team. It was a tough decision for him but I know that we’re going to have a tough one tonight against Virginia.”

On Bruce Kern’s performance:
“He persevered. He hung in there. The way the wind was blowing, he was throwing quality pitches and the ball was flying out. He fought it out though with the help of a few double play balls. It was just a tough game to pitch. Late in the tournament, you get games like this where there are a lot of hits and you just have to hang in there. He wasn’t getting hit hard, they were just finding the green for base hits. We had a cushion to work with and we tried to ride that cushion.”

On player availability for the Virginia matchup:
“All hands on deck. It’s tough playing our fourth game of the tournament. We have young pitching. We’re throwing Matt Caraciti – a right hander. He has to give us a chance to catch the ball. All hands on deck.”

Senior Bruce Kern
On his mentality when pitching:
“I just tried to get through as many innings as I could. It was a tough day to pitch so I tried to keep the ball down. Anything that was up in the air could leave the park so I did my best to get groundballs.”

Sophomore Matt Wessinger
On going 4-for-5:
“It definitely helps when you have guys around you that are hitting the ball too. It makes it tough on the pitcher because he has to attack the strike zone. After I hit the ball in the first inning, I kind of knew he wasn’t going to throw me any more fastballs so from that point on I just tried to get some good pitches to hit. It’s just nice to have everyone hitting the ball because once what guy hits it, it builds everyone else’s confidence.”