May 30, 2008

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UC Irvine Postgame Quotes
2008 NCAA Lincoln Regional
Friday, May 30, 2008

Head Coach Mike Gillespie
On the game
"Now that it's over, that was fun. It was hard. It was a grind. I'm really proud of the number of different guys that did something to pick us up on the mound, at the mound and on defense. There were a lot of things that happened in that game that, perhaps without any one of those kinds of things, the game could've been different. Oral Roberts was all that was advertised. We were led to believe they could really hit, and they didn't disappoint in that regard. They really can hit. It was drama and we love it."

On the performance of UC Irvine's bullpen
"I really think all three of the guys that came in really picked us up. (Tom) Calahan was only asked to face one guy and he did exactly as we hoped he would do. Both Christian (Bergman) and Eric (Pettis) have really been in these roles all year long. We really trust them. We have confidence in them. They respond when it's tough and they haven't given any indication that they've backed down, even if something goes wrong. I'm thrilled with what they did."

On the effect of Ollie Linton on the bases
"There is no secret about him. His reputation precedes him. His statistics are what they are. Even though people in your own conference aren't supposed to give up scouting reports, some one is giving them up. He is certainly is a guy that people know does run and can run and likes to run. You have to deal with him if he gets on. If he leads off an inning and gets on, it's a factor. There's no question about. I think that even if he's not able to steal, he has to take a bit of the pitcher's brain, and that results in a ball, maybe a base on balls, maybe a pitch to hit."

Pitcher Eric Pettis
On the tumultuous ninth inning
"What happened mechanically was that I started falling off the mound a little bit and I tend to do that time to time. Mentally, I was in the game with a tough at-bat against the No. 2 hitter. In a two-run game, you have a little more leeway than in a one-run game, and sometimes that can get into your head. Sometimes you don't make the pitches you would in a one-run game. After the two-hitter got on, the next two batters are dangerous, so you just try to pitch around them as much as you can while trying to get them out at the same time. I walked those guys, but I managed to get the next two, so it worked out."

Pitcher Christian Bergman
On his mindset coming into the game
"My job is to come in and minimize damage and get out of a tough situation, so my mentality really doesn't change. It's still the same 60 feet, six inches, so my job doesn't change."

Outfielder Ollie Linton
On the tough conditions for the center fielders "At the start of the game, the sun was pretty much right behind home plate and it came down right behind home plate as the game went on. It was just tough to see. I had to switch out a couple different pairs of lenses just to get the right glasses for the sun. On the ball (a fly ball to center in the second inning), I looked toward Ben Orloff, our shortstop. We've done this before where he points to an area and I get a late jump on the ball. Luckily, I was able to get over there and make the catch."

Oral Roberts Postgame Quotes
NCAA Lincoln Regional
Friday, May 30, 2008

Head Coach Rob Walton
Opening Statement
"I think the biggest key was that we didn't pitch. Michael came out and he hadn't thrown the ball like that in a year. In this type of situation, as good as Irvine is, if you're going to spot them a six-spot early, it's tough to recover from. If we had put up some zeros, I thought we could make a run. I thought Mark (Serrano) really threw the ball well and gave us a chance and an opportunity to make a run and had a chance to win the ballgame here in the last inning. But if we don't give up those runs early, obviously it's a different story. I thought they did really well, and the game was basically won by their first inning."

On UC Irvine starter Scott Gorgen
"Basically he could throw his off-speed pitches for strikes, which are his cutter and his change. Going into it, I think what you're trying to prepare for is their starter who has been special. Obviously, he's up for pitcher of the year. You need to have a solid approach against him, and then you need to be able to control some of their running game and skill game. Basically what can happen to a guy is that he ends up focusing on the runners and not the execution of the pitches. You wouldn't think that would happen with Mike. He's an older guy, a senior, but basically that's what it came down to. He was focusing on not executing his pitches and worrying about runners. If your mind wanders, then you lose focus on the execution and you can't throw a strike. It's a bad time for Mike because he's had a good year, and he only threw 34 pitches. I expect us to pitch better tomorrow and rebound and hopefully Mike will have another opportunity in this tournament to throw again and focus on what's important."

Pitcher Mark Serrano
On Irvine's six-run first inning
"To be honest, the first inning, you're not really ready to come in. Once you sit in the dugout after their fourth hitter, they sent me down to get ready as quick as I could. Nobody saw 'Jar' pitch like that this year; it was unexpected. But I got ready pretty quick, and coach knew I could throw a lot of innings because I had a couple of starts this year over good teams."

Infielder David Genao
On Scott Gorgen
"We knew he was a good fastball-changeup guy. We worked hard on that in practice with the fastball-changeup. We just expected him to throw a lot of changes, and we let those changes down when we needed to and make good moves on fastballs like we have all year. Whenever he left something over the middle, we covered it."