June 3, 2016
UC Santa Barbara Head Coach Andrew Checketts:
Opening statement: “Shane (Bieber) gave us a great start and the bullpen did a great job of clutch pitching. We got two big swings. I am really proud of the guys about how they hung in there. There was a lot of runners in scoring position, but the bullpen did the heavy lifting for us.”
On what he will take away from this game: “I think the kids did a great job. We had a chance to hang our heads a bit and it didn’t go well at first. We had a guy at first and second and left them stranded. So I was really proud of the guys, the way they hung in there and gained some self-belief and seemed fairly relaxed.”
On the recent passing of Donny Everett: “It’s any parent or coach’s worst nightmare to get that news. I feel for Coach Corbin, his staff, the players and especially Donny’s family. I know our guys were well aware of it and were talking about it a lot this morning. They tried to figure out if there was anyway they could honor him. We are kind of waiting to see what Vanderbilt decides to do from that standpoint because it’s not our place. It’s terrible, tragic, and your never want to see that happen. We are thinking about them.”
Austin Bush
On the game winning home run: “I had faced the guy at my previous at bat. I was just hunting for that fastball again because he threw them a lot during my previous at bat. I fouled one off the pitch before. I was like ok I need to get on top of this next one and then I was and I put a good swing on it.”
Devon Gradford
On his game tying home run: “At first he was kind of working me away and I knew he didn’t have anything to beat me with, so I just kind of reacted to the fastball.”
Washington Head Coach Lindsay Meggs
Opening Statement:
“I want to congratulate UCSB. For the most part they blasted us, and that’s a credit to their toughness and how well coached they are. I felt good about the way we pitched. That really kept us in the ball game. The postseason is about one run games and we just didn’t get it done at the plate. We struggled, especially with runners in scoring position, but we will come back tomorrow and start over. It’s a crazy game and you never know what can happen.”
On the twists and turns of a game like today, a one run pitchers duel:
“We talk about one run games all the time. We talk about the fact that the people who get here are here because they could pitch typically, and you saw a pretty good pitchers battle on both sides today in terms of a low scoring game, guy after guy making pitches and guys picking up hitters that were struggling all day. Both sides pitched so well. You know, we haven’t been manhandled like that offensively all year in terms of what I can remember. So, really proud of the way we pitched and we’ve got to find a way to punch back tomorrow offensively and just get ready to compete a little bit more with runners in scoring position.”
On how crazy the game of baseball is, even on a day like today:
“Yeah, that’s how crazy this game is. You can give up 21 runs and wonder if you are ever going to get anyone out again, and then you can come back and have a performance like Noah (Bremer) had today, which is was really as good as we’ve had all year long, so it is a crazy game. You know, it’s a simple game it’s just that people complicate it. So, we just have to simplify things tomorrow, come back out and swing at strikes and take the balls and take our chances.”