Wake Forest / Virginia Post-Game Quotes
5/23/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 23, 2003
Virginia Head Coach Dennis Womack: (On team moral after the grand slam)
I told the team we needed to get some runs. What was great was that when they came off the field they didn't have their heads down. They knew we needed to come back and score. I think one of the biggest hits was Paul Gillispie's double to start off the inning. All the sudden you get a guy on base and it makes a difference. We have been a resilient team, that doesn't say that we always win but we will play until the last out. It did look bleak, but we did rebound.
(On his middle relievers)
They have jobs and responsibilities and they know what their responsibilities are. I thought Greg Hansard did a nice job and as you go down the line Alan Zimmerman didn't give up a run in 3.2 innings. That was huge. We kept saying that we needed to put up a zero so we can close the gap and we put zeros on them. For a little while we couldn't do that, but we finally were able to and we got ahead of them. That is what their job is and they know what their job is. We use them and we are not afraid to use them.
Virginia First Baseman Joe Koshansky: (On his last at-bat)
I want to say that I wasn't thinking homerun, but I was trying to hit a homerun. This game was back and forth all day and I just wanted to get up there and hit one out. I knew I hit it pretty well but I thought it was going to be a line drive or a double. I wasn't sure if it was going to get out or not.
Virginia Leftfielder Matt Dunn: (On his two-RBI hit in the 9th)
The pitch I hit was a fastball down the plate. They had been pitching me inside the whole game and I figured he (Adam Hanson) was going to come back inside but he left it out over the plate. I just trusted my hands and hit it up the middle.
(On playing in this atmosphere)
Being around this atmosphere, I feel like I am in the pros. I am from a small high school and it is great playing around all of these great teams that I have watched on TV growing up and idolized. There is just nothing better.
Virginia Pitcher Adam Laird: (On the pitching performance today)
If you look at the box score we had 7 pitchers today going out there and doing their job. We had one unlucky swing in the top of the 9th inning, but this is a team effort. A couple of plays didn't go our way, but Joe (Koshansky) came through for us tonight. It was a complete team win here.
Wake Forest Head Coach George Greer:
I thought it was an exciting game and I thought both teams played hard. It was exciting for the fans, but disappointing for us that we lost in extra innings. Sometimes that happens in baseball.
On the Demon Deacon's 29-24 season:
I don't want to sound like we are making excuses and I didn't bring this up earlier in the year, but we had hoped that Nick Blue would be able to play. He was an All-Conference player who hit .370 and had 25 stolen bases and his surgery prevented him from playing this season. Ryder Mathias also had surgery, so right-off-the-bat, we had to go with two freshmen playing second and catch. Our number two pitcher broke team and university rules, so he is not a part of the team. We started the season with our first baseman (Jeff Ruziecki) with a broken thumb, so he couldn't play. Just when he was starting to come back, Ryan (Johnson) hurt his ankle and was out for 14 days. Ryan Hubbard played all year with a torn rotator cuff in his left arm and could not hit right-handed. And Jeff Ruziecki played part of the season with a partially torn MCL in his right knee. These guys played all year without complaining and we did not use it as an excuse at all for any shortcomings that we had. These are fine guys that go to bat, go to play games and practice and never complain. I would ask Hubb (Ryan Hubbard) every day, "how you feeling?" and he couldn't even touch his shoulder. That's why he tried to bunt right-handed, because he couldn't swing the bat right-handed or even left-handed some times. It's a credit to these young men that we won as many games as we did, a credit to their talent and the perseverance that they have.
Wake Forest Third Baseman Jamie D'Antona on today's game:
It was up and down - a roller coaster. Like coach said, it was a great game played by both teams. Unfortunately, we came up short in the end, but you have to tip your hat to both teams in the end for playing hard and it didn't end until the last run was recorded. When Ryan (Hubbard) hit the home run, we were all going nuts, because we thought we had it then. And then they came back and battled like we did against them and we didn't have that last push.
Wake Forest Outfielder Ryan Hubbard on his grand slam in the 9th inning:
It felt pretty good. I have dreamt about that situation forever. It worked out, but we didn't get the win. I cannot imagine the way the other guys felt when I hit the ball and the way they battled back shows a lot about their character. I have to tip my hat to them.