Notes & Quotes
May 26, 2001
Stetson University
Stetson improves to 43-16 and advances to a regional final for the fourth time in school history.
The Hatters win back-to-back regional games for the first time sine 1996.
Stetson will play Miami on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Miami will be the designated home team.
University of Florida
Florida falls to 12-11 in NCAA Regional games played in Coral Gables.
Florida is now 42-32 all-time in NCAA Regional play.
UF ends the season with a 1-3 record against the Hatters.
UF finished the season 0-23 when trailing after eight innings.
Right fielder Peter Nystrom tied a career high with 4 hits tonight. He hit .778 (7 for 9) in the Tournament.
Pitcher Keith Brie hit three batters tying a season high for UF pitchers.
First baseman Aaron Sobieraj registered at least one hit in 11 of his last 12 games.
Center fielder Matt Goss recorded at least one hit in 18 of his last 19 games.
Left fielder Jason Dill hit 6-12 (.500) with three RBI in the NCAA Regional.
Alex Hart struck out a season-high six batters and walked a season-high six batters.
STETSON POST-GAME QUOTES
Head Coach Pete Dunn:
“Obviously, we’re very happy to get to the Sunday game after losing the first game to Florida. To watch these kids battle back the way they did today really makes me proud. I’m certainly proud of this young man (Roger Lincoln). Not bad for a walk-on JV guy. He showed up last year, we didn’t know anything about him. He started out on the JV team and worked his way up and went out there tonight and showed you what he’s made of. He has really fought through adversity from being a JV player to get to this point and I’m real proud of him. I thought we battled real well. We didn’t hit a lot, but we were pretty efficient. The one thing we did do was we got some bunts down. Back in that stretch where we weren’t winning, we weren’t getting our bunts down and we weren’t executing. Today we were doing those things very well and you see the results.”
On the pitching performance:”We were hoping for it, obviously, because we’re short of arms. To get almost two complete games was something we really needed. Certainly, we’re still gonna be short tomorrow. We’ll piece it together and see what we can do. But to have Roger go as far as he did (7.2 innings) and with Sully (first game pitcher Brian Sullivan) going the distance for us, that’s something we really needed and had to have and we got it.”
Pitcher Roger Lincoln:
“I just kept my pitches downstairs and I changed my speeds. And I knew that, if I made mistakes, that the guys behind me would pick me up. So I just made sure I focused pitch by pitch, kept everything downstairs, and things worked out. I talked to our pitching coach (Derek Johnson) and went over their hitters and went right after them.”
FLORIDA POST-GAME QUOTES
Head Coach Andy Lopez:
“I’m proud of my guys and the way they battled through some injuries and off-the-field adversity the last couple of months. It’s always sad to see something end like this, but that’s the reality. I’ve been fortunate to know what it’s like to win a national title, what it’s like to win your last game when everyone else in the country loses their last one. So, there’s some perspective there. Again, I am really proud of this particular group of guys.”
On whether the pitching performance was what he had hoped for:”Keith (Brice) wasn’t real sharp but, for the most part it was fine. I think we outhit both clubs (in two games today) and lost both games. They’re not machines. Many time I have wished they were, but they’re young people who are growing through the stages of life. They’re gonna have their ups and downs. We just didn’t get big hits, seemed like we were always one (hit) away. So, it was a very long day at the plate and we picked the wrong day to not get big hits, the elimination day at the Regional.”
First baseman Jason Dill:
On whether his team felt any fatigue from playing consecutive games today:”I don’t think we felt any fatigue. I know I didn’t. We’re used to it. We’re well-conditioned. We did it last year at Waco, playing twice on a Sunday after coming back on Saturday night. You just have to hand it to Stetson, they played really well tonight. Their pitcher really kept us off balance, he went in and out effectively. You have to give credit to them.”
