Oklahoma Postgame Quotes - Game 5 vs Virginia - NCAA Regional
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2012 NCAA Division I Baseball Regional – Game 5
Virginia (39-19-1) vs. Oklahoma (40-23)
Davenport Field | Charlottesville, Va. | June 3, 2012 | 7 p.m.
University of Oklahoma Quotes
Oklahoma coach, Sunny Golloway
Opening statement:
“We want to compliment Virginia and Coach O’Connor. What a wonderful season they’ve had. I know it’s the second time we’ve been in here and eliminated them, but they were outstanding. It was great to see their players compete and some of the seniors finish up tonight, and as I was watching their seniors out there-my gosh, we’ve been here two out of the past four years for them. It was kind of tough even watching some of their seniors finish up. We tip our hat to them. Dillon pitched outstanding. Kindle Ladd had a great outing as things were falling apart around him. We didn’t play great defense. We realize we committed more errors but we happened to score more runs. We feel very blessed. Now we move on tomorrow to play a very worthy opponent.”
On Virginia pitching Shane Halley:
“I spent the downtime looking really hard at both reports. It was a peculiar situation because you’re trying to scout whoever either team would throw. As the game started to unfold and we were taking our batting practice across the road, we filled out our lineup card and we didn’t have our starting pitcher in there. Dillon was not going to throw against Appalachian. He didn’t fit their team. He fit Virginia better for obvious reasons as you guys saw. It was tough and I kept looking at who their potential starters would be…I looked at Halley’s numbers and, to be honest, hoped he wouldn’t be throwing, and I said my goodness 9-1 and that low ERA and kept asking my coaching staff why this guy didn’t have more starts. We heard news of an oblique injury. He didn’t show any signs of it. He was really good.”
On being displeased with his team after the game:
“I got after them pretty hard. If we are going to get to Omaha it’s still going to be a tough road. We have to win four games to get to Omaha, that’s kind of how we look at it. There are certain programs-like this one right here at Virginia-the goal every year is Omaha. The talk is Omaha. It’s not win the conference. It’s host, it’s be a super regional, it’s be a national seed. If we are going to get to Omaha we’ve got to win two against Appalachian State and two against [South Carolina]. To do that we are going to have to play defense because that is what our team is built on-pitching and defense.”
Oklahoma second baseman Jack Mayfield
On playing close games:
“We’ve just been a tough team and we’ve said it before that we have to be tough to start off. It is just kind of a theme we’ve had lately but it just shows the toughness that we have. We just play the full nine innings and play to the end.”
On his triple:
“I was fortunate to have three runners on base and I just squared up and luckily we found a hole. I was just running hard and made it to third base and just helped my team out any way I could.”
Oklahoma designated hitter Matt Oberste
On his home run:
“I suppose he missed a spot and he left the ball up a little bit and I put a good swing on it. I felt like it got us going a little bit”
Oklahoma pitcher Dillon Overton
On his outing today:
“The last few outings I’ve had have been pretty solid. Going out with a lot of confidence is what you need. Especially in times like this. I have confidence with my defense behind me. They struggled a little bit late in the game, but it happens, its baseball. You just have to be tough and obviously everything worked out.”
On striking out the middle of their order:
“It always feels good to strike out their hitters in the middle of the lineup like that because its not the easy part of the lineup and it makes it a little easier on yourself.”