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Baseball:
Nebraska vs. Eastern Illinois: Post-Game Quotes
May 30, 2008
Eastern Illinois Postgame Quotes Head Coach Jim Schmitz Opening Statement "If we were wide-eyed yesterday, we're really wide-eyed today. I thought we battled really well. Obviously we got over the first-inning hump with the two-run home run, which we knew was probably going to happen, just coming in here with the excitement. When we started scoring, I thought we really had a chance. I thought (Dan) Jennings wasn't really sharp, and we got them to make a move right there, so we battled. What we talked about today was coming in here and battling the whole game. These guys did a great job. Obviously Nebraska did a great job also in terms of coming back after we did well, so you have to say good things about them, but I'm very proud of these guys and the way they came out and swung the bats today." On being 'wide-eyed' "The paper said we were 'wide-eyed,' so I guess I'm saying that again. I felt we would have a first inning like that. We've been here before; we've been at big programs where you just don't start well. We got over that hump, and I was like 'wow, we're over that hump.' Then we got the lead, and I felt that was a good sign. You get over the hump and it's a long day from the beginning. I mean, we got over the hump. I thought we did a great job of attacking them each inning, and obviously they did better at the end." On pitching to Jake Opitz on his first home run "He didn't make a good pitch. You're never happy going in 2-0. Obviously it could have been a lot worse. Brian Morrell came in and got the big out there with bases loaded, and we came back and responded right there. Nine innings is a long time, and it's a big pitch here and a big pitch there. We just didn't make enough good pitches at the end. I thought we were in the game for a while." "I actually said to my assistant 'good job' and put my head down, and he said 'you might want to look again because it's out of here.' A good friend of mine called me yesterday and told me how the wind blows in, and he called me again and said 'hey, I lied to you; it's blowing out today.' By that home run, we knew it was going to be a long game. We talked about that in the dugout in the sometimes. It's one pitch. It's getting more. We kind of called that home run, saying he's going to hang a slider. The dimensions here, we kind of knew it was going to be that kind of day. That's what we were hoping for."
On pitching to Nebraska's hitter "I thought they did a great job with two strikes, really battling and going away with some pitches, hitting the ball the other way. We tried to get in on them a couple times and get hit by a pitch. We kind of knew that's what they would do. They had good counts early on, but when they have two strikes, the guys put the ball in play. Those at-bats kind of hurt us, where they were able to go the other way. It was pretty much what we thought. The scouting report was going early, stealing bases. I think we put too many guys on base, and that resulted in the high scoring." Outfielder Brett Nommensen On Nebraska taking an early lead "Right off when they scored, we kind of put our heads down. We were kind of nervous and saw it in everyone. But I felt that everyone just needed to get up there for their first at-bat and get the jitters out. For my first at-bat, I didn't even get the jitters out. Once we noticed that we could hit this guy and started hitting, it was back and forth on both teams." On having confidence for tomorrow's game "Like I told all the guys after the game, it was a tough loss. None of us like to lose, but we battled both ways, offensively and defensively. It shows we can hang with the very best in our regional here, so we can come in with some confidence. I think we can go tomorrow and go right at them." Infielder Zach Skidmore On preparing for tomorrow "I think we battled well. I think the game went pretty much as planned. We just need to score a few big innings like that. We have to come out and slow them defensively. If we had done that, the outcome could have been a lot different today. That's what we have to do tomorrow - put some runs up early like we've been doing - and hopefully shut them down."
Nebraska Postgame Quotes Coach Mike Anderson On the win "It was a good win. Any win at this point of year is a good win. I'm proud of the kids for fighting back. I don't know if I've ever used the word 'never' as much; I've never seen the park play like this in the whole time I've been here. Some of our home runs, I was amazed that they were home runs because of how they were hit. I would say the same thing for them. I've never seen this ballpark play like this. It added a lot of challenges to us today. I'm proud of the kids. We had a lead. We lost that lead. We got down, but once we got down, we learned how to fight back again. At this point, I'm not overly concerned about how we do it, just that we get it done." On adjustments to his strategy considering the hitter-friendly conditions "Early in the game, I'm going to run, hit-and-run, bunt and do some things that way. I think it changed that immediately. I didn't want to put ourselves in a position where we were giving up outs when someone might hit one up in the air and get it out of here, so, from an offensive standpoint it (the conditions) changed that. I tried to get these guys together just to tell them, 'keep scoring'. We got ourselves a lead and we stayed on top after that, so that was a good thing." On Nebraska's pitching situation "I think the only person that we'd be hesitant to do that with (bring back) tomorrow is Dan Jennings. It would be nice if we had won 13-1, but 13-10 is the same win and we got guys in that we didn't need to get in, but it allowed us to do what we want to do tomorrow. We have Johnny Dorn, Zach Herr; Michael Nesseth is available. We have basically everyone available. I'm not going to say we did it for this reason, but in hindsight, it was sure nice to get some of those guys up in a regional setting and (have them) pitch for the first time rather than them being in a close game tomorrow or the next day." On this game compared to Anderson's expectations for the next game "I think if we win, we win it 5-3 where we see what we can do to punch some runs across. I think it'll be a tight game whether we face Oral Roberts or UC-Irvine." On preparing for the next game "We have our scouting reports done, and then what we do is that each coach has a scouting report, and we'll go that scouting report and watch each guy and either confirm a tendency or check it off and say, 'we should try to attack him this way'. We have our scouting reports done, and now we're just going to work on it and see if we can make it a bit better." Catcher Mitch Abeita On adjusting Nebraska's pitch-calling to today's hitter-friendly conditions "Overall, we had to stay low in the zone. A couple of pitches that they hit out were pitches that were up. It was blowing out to right, center and leftfield, so it was a difficult day for pitchers. They had to stay down in the zone and work both sides of the plate." On the performance of Nebraska starter Dan Jennings "Some of the balls they hit out, they were good pitches. They were good pitches and you have to give them credit for putting them out like that. He works well, and he'll come back out again and have a better outing." First Baseman Tyler Farst On the four-run fourth inning "We were trying to get a couple of runs that inning and even the game up so we weren't down. Anytime they score, our objective is to score back and go ahead or just chip away at the lead. Luckily enough, we were able to put up a four-spot and go ahead that inning." On his fourth-inning home run "I hit a fastball, a little bit low and away. I was just trying to put the ball in the gap and get that run in, but luckily enough, I hit it out." Second Baseman Jake Opitz On the uniqueness of today's conditions at Hawks Field "I didn't think (my first home run) was out. Like he (Coach Anderson) said, this field has never played like this in my four years here. If you got that ball in the air, you had a chance to get it out of here." On today's offensive outburst as a potential spark for the NU offense "I think so. I think 1 through 9, I think everybody contributed with a hit or base on balls. Everyone got their opportunity and took advantage of it, driving some runs in today. It was a good collective win." |
