Post Game Quotes
May 25, 2008
MIAMI HEAD COACH Jim Morris
Overall thoughts on the game…
“First of all it’s great to win our first ACC Championship. It’s an honor to represent the Atlantic Coast Conference. For our program and our players, I don’t think they realized how exciting it would be to win a Championship. I told them it would be a special day today whether we win or lose, and I wanted them to experience and see how special it is. I’ve been in these games (when I was at Georgia Tech) and I knew it would be a great day for them and it started off with everything from the National Anthem and the jets and everything. Our guys played well and Virginia has an outstanding club and it came down right to the end. Virginia fought hard, our guys played hard. I’m very proud of our players, our coaches, our program and I’m looking forward to the NCAA Tournament.”
On what winning their first ACC Baseball Championship means…
“I’m not sure our team understood because the success we’ve had going to Omaha. We’ve gotten a couple of those since I’ve been there and that’s where the expectations are every day in our program. Omaha is talked from day one in the fall, every single day and that’s what they expect and want to do. Our goal is to be there and this is part of the puzzle to get us back there.”
On their offensive success against Virginia early in the game…
“We were just trying to stay back and get on top and not hit fly balls. Our guys did do a good job of going first and third. That was good hitting by our players, our scouting report we had was to try to do that and we did a good job of that early.”
MIAMI’S Ryan Jackson (SO., SS)
On adjustments the team made since they faced Virginia’s Pat McAnaney in the regular season…
“The last time we faced him, he pitched pretty good against us. He held us to one run. He was around the strike zone and it was just a matter of putting good swings on. He mixes his pitches well and we were able to put some good line drives. We knew what we wanted to do and they fell for it.”
MIAMI’S Dave DiNatale (JR., OF)
On winning the ACC tournament and tournament MVP…
“It’s a great opportunity for our team and definitely helps us prepare to go to the next step in regionals. Competition was just amazing. You had the top three teams in the country in this tournament. I think it’s going to help us get us prepared and gave us a little momentum going into regionals. It was a great setting and good thing for our school.”
MIAMI’S David Gutierrez (SO., RHP)
On his team’s double plays…
“It’s a pitcher’s best friend. You always want to get double plays to get you out of big jams. Keep finding the zone, get ground balls and let the defense work.”
VIRGINIA HEAD COACH BRIAN O’CONNOR
Overall thoughts of the game…
“It’s obviously disappointing not to win the championship. Miami earned it. They’ve got a great ball club. We fell down seven runs after the first three innings and that’s a lot to overcome. I thought we continued to fight, scratched across four runs in the sixth inning to make it a close ballgame and battled at the end but it wasn’t enough. When you’re playing a team like Miami and the wind’s blowing in like it was, you’ve got to put so many hits together. When you’re down 7-0, it makes it tough.
“Obviously, it’s uncharacteristic of Pat McAnaney. I think he’s given us real quality starts all year long. For him to go out and give up six runs in the first three innings is not like him. I know he’s very disappointed as are we. Miami’s got a very, very good ball club and they earned it. They deserved to win.”
On McAnaney’s performance...
“I thought the last couple weekends that he was close. But, today, it didn’t have anything to do with his health. It had everything to do with his ball being up in the zone, whether it was a fastball, change up, slider, everything was up. Tekotte got that infield hit to lead off the game and Weeks was trying to bunt, and we couldn’t throw him a strike. You just can’t make those types of mistakes against a ball club like that because they’ll make you pay. I know Pat McAnaney’s got a lot of pride. I know he’ll be back next weekend to pitch us a great ballgame. We’re going to need to.”
On Miami’s approach against McAnaney…
“I thought Miami had a great game plan against Pat. He pitched very, very well down there four weeks ago or so and tied them in knots pretty good, mixing speeds and locating his fastball. I thought they had a great plan. They were hitting the ball the other way, and didn’t try to pull off balls. He left some balls up in the zone and they didn’t get overly aggressive with them and try to drive the ball because you weren’t driving the ball anywhere today. I thought they had a great plan against him, and unfortunately, ours wasn’t good enough.”
On whether the late game Saturday night impacted today’s performance…
“Not at all. It’s baseball, you play. Obviously, it was unfortunate that we had to play so late, but, that’s the cards that we were dealt. These players are young, they’re 18-22 year old young men, and they don’t need a lot of sleep. I think it’s the coaches that need the most sleep. They were ready to play, there’s no question. When you’re playing for an ACC championship, sleep’s overrated, I think. They were excited to play and excited for an opportunity to win a title.”
On the strength of the ACC Tournament compared to an NCAA Regional…
“Three of the top five teams in the country are in this league. Five of the top ten RPIs in the country are in this league. We’re somewhere around 20 or maybe a little higher now, but, it’s the number-one rated league in the country for a reason. There are great teams. I think both Miami and Florida State have the best teams in the five years that I’ve been the coach at Virginia. There’s no question about that. I think North Carolina has a very similar team to what they’ve had the last two years that’s taken them to the national championship game. NC State has a good club and Georgia Tech, and we do, so, I’ll take our conference up against any other conference. I think there’s great baseball and this league’s playing at a very high level.”
VIRGINIA PLAYER DAVID ADAMS (Jr. – 2B)
On whether they believed they’d rally after scoring four runs…
“Absolutely. We believed all weekend. We had a great game against UNC when we battled back and forth, the same with FSU, they were close ballgames. Just because they were up seven runs didn’t mean that we were going to let them walk away with the title. Especially after that four-run inning, it probably could’ve been five or six, but, a couple of things didn’t go our way here or there and we couldn’t pull through in the end.”
On playing better at the end of the year…
“I think the past couple of years have kind of opened our eyes. We played our best early in the year and then come post-season, we were out of gas, I think. Veterans have done a great job of keeping the young guys, their heads up and eyes open that the best is yet to come. We have yet to play our best ball. We played great ball against UNC, great ball against FSU, just couldn’t keep it rolling. If we just play the way we did against those two teams the last couple weeks, good things will happen.”
