Army Postgame Quotes - Game 1 vs Army - NCAA Regional
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2012 NCAA Division I Baseball Regional – Game 1
Army (41-14) vs. Virginia (39-17-1)
Davenport Field | Charlottesville, Va. | June 2, 2012 | 1 p.m.
Army Quotes
Army Coach Joe Sottolano
Opening Statement:
“I’d like to compliment and congratulate Virginia. They are a club that understands their strengths and understands what they have to do to win. They played the game well, took advantage of opportunities and put the ball in play when they needed to. I thought it was a fact of us giving them help in some situations and them taking advantage of it. My hats are off to them. I think they are a well-coached ball club. They throw strikes. They don’t try to dazzle you or do anything crazy. They just play the game the way it is supposed to be played so hats off to them. From our end, one of our goals when we got here was just to play well. Obviously, not our best ballgame, but we understand that it takes two and we haven’t lost anything at this point. We are excited about the opportunity and are ready to get back on the field.”
On Virginia’s pitching:
“I thought the Virginia pitchers just threw strikes. They did a nice job of that. There wasn’t anything overwhelming or particularly special. They pitched. They’re well coached and threw strikes. I think we tried to do a little too much and that is my fault if I can’t get them to relax and mentally prepare.”
On playing tomorrow:
“Tomorrow is an opportunity. That is the thing at this level – one bad game, one bad weekend can cost you. We understand that. You can’t always be at your best but we are still in it. They make it double elimination for a reason.”
On Kline’s pitching:
“I thought he did a nice job competing on his own. He didn’t give us many free passes. He threw strikes. He’s a nice college arm and he might get a chance to do some more. I thought he did a nice job. He was up in the zone a little bit and I think we took advantage of that but he threw his slider well. He has a pretty good slider. He does a good job of competing on his own. He made us repeat. We had to get two, three hits at a time. I thought he did a great job controlling the running game as well. He was quick to the plate and didn’t allow us to get big leads, which slowed us down a little bit.
Army Pitcher Chris Rowley
On how the delay affected him:
“It really isn’t different. The only difference today is that I start the game with a one-and-one count and a runner on first. We ended up getting out of that inning without giving up a run so then that goes out the window and we’re completely clear. I threw eight pitches yesterday so there shouldn’t be any carryover physically. I lacked focus and I take responsibility for that.”
On struggling to find the strike zone:
“I think that mentally, I didn’t prepare myself like I should have. Five walks and four hit batters – stuff like that doesn’t happen unless I’m not engaged like I should have been and the fact of the matter is that I let my teammates down by doing that a little bit. By doing that, I let Virginia expand on that lead. If you take away the free passes right there, I think we have a pretty good game because we hit the ball pretty well. Until the later innings, we fielded pretty well. If the other pitchers and I throw strikes, we have a pretty good ballgame.”
On how his performance compared to his performance against Lafayette in the Patriot League conference tournament:
“You could draw comparisons. I think you look at that the stage of the game maybe. That was in the conference tournament. This was in a regional tournament. I think this is something where you look back and refocus a to keep that from happening. Obviously if you take those [two games] that’s probably half my hit batters on the year. That’s something that’s unacceptable, mentally – for me to come out and produce four hit by pitches. That is unacceptable.”