Missouri-UC Irvine Quotes
6/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 3, 2006
UC Irvine Quotes
Head Coach Dave Serrano
"You heard me say yesterday that it was a great college baseball game and unfortunately I'm going to say that again, but be on the opposite side today. There was a lot of amazing things that happened in that game that easily could have helped a team win earlier. But it was a battle; a battle we came up short in the end. It's always tough to end the season and get eliminated from tournament play. I don't think that will hit some of these players until later tonight because we had the taste of victory right there from about the eighth inning on and it just kind of escaped us. But I will say this, as disappointed as I am right now I'm very proud of this team and this coaching staff. We might not have ended up as champions on the field, but we were definitely champions as people. As a coach I guess that's all you can ask. I think we were overachievers this year. This regional will definitely be a building block for this program."
On the many chances of winning:
"That's a tough one. They were all tough. I would be wrong as a coach to single out any of them because I think we win as a team and we lose as a team. I think we did that. I don't think it was just about the offense. I think we made some key mistakes defensively. We didn't get some things done on the mound that we had to. I think it was a culmination of everything. I think there was a lot of body blows that we had to continue to take, but we kept fighting until the very end. It's just unfortunate we came up short in a tough battle. It's kind of how our day went; a little bit here and a little bit there-a game of inches."
On the edge of today's game:
"I think the edge we had was that we were the home team. When we were putting up a zero and we have runners on that's always an edge. I thought the best thing that happened was that we won the coin toss because I wouldn't have wanted to be the visitors in a game like this. We went down to our last at-bat and Ben Orloff hit a ball that almost found a seam up the middle and they turned it into a good double play to end it."
On the differences of the game:
"It's a game of adjustments and I think they did a better job at that. They looked foolish at times on some pitches from all our pitchers. If they got that pitch again they made the adjustment and committed to it and put it in play and that's what this game comes down to-putting the ball in play more than the other team. I think both coaches are disappointed as to how many strikeouts there were on both sides-twelve on our side offensively and 16 on their side offensively. They just put it in play more when it counted."
Second Baseman Cody Cipriano
On a player's perspective going into extra innings:
"There's a ton of excitement out there and we didn't end it in the ninth and that's fine. It's disappointing, but that's 25 guys that laid it all out there. Every guy gave every ounce of baseball and you can't be upset about that."
Missouri Quotes
Head Coach Tim Jamieson
"I thought it was a great game and we're happy to still be playing. It was a hard fought battle. Ryan knows he's the first pinch hitter off the bench and it's great that he came out there."
Pinch hitter Ryan Lollis
"It was a long game. I think we just stay focused out on the field and we're just happy to be playing tomorrow."
