June 1, 2013
Georgia Tech Head Coach Danny Hall
Opening statement…
“I thought it was certainly a very good game by our team, obviously Buck (Farmer) dominated the game on the pitching end of it. Brandon (Thomas) and some of our other guys had some timely hits. I thought it was critical that we get runs early because we certainly were expecting a tough pitcher on the other end with East Tennessee State. So I think getting runs early helped and then Buck just really didn’t give them anything. It was a good game.”
On the rain delay…
“I think you’re always concerned. I was glad we’d gotten those two runs in the top of the seventh so it was 5-0 lead as opposed to a 3-0 lead. I really felt like they weren’t going to score on Buck (Farmer). When you have to go to somebody else you never know what’s going to happen. I’m sure their dugout was extremely excited that Buck Farmer wasn’t going back out.”
On Buck Farmer’s performance…
“He was throwing all three pitches for strikes. He had a real good fastball. He had a good slider and a good change up. When he’s down in the zone and throwing all three for strikes, not many people will beat him.”
On ETSU starting pitcher Kerry Doane…
“Well we felt like he was going to throw strikes. If you look at his numbers I think it was something like 140 innings and 20 walks, so we wanted to be pretty aggressive early, and we felt like he’d give us some pitches to hit. I think he probably, in my mind, and I’d never seen him throw before, probably made some mistakes today, got some balls up that he usually doesn’t make those mistakes, and to our guys’ credit they hit the ball up.”
Georgia Tech Pitcher Buck Farmer
On what was working for him today…
“Today it was one of those things that I had most everything working. I could locate my fastball in the mound. Change up was really good with the lefties. I give credit to ETSU. They didn’t really go up there and just take fastballs. They were up there swinging the bat, and it just worked to my advantage.”
On not pitching after the rain delay…
“It was really frustrating, actually. It would have been a different story had we just had 30 minutes, but it was an hour fifteen, hour thirty so there was no question there that I wasn’t going to come back. It was really frustrating.”
Georgia Tech Center Fielder Brandon Thomas
On the team’s mindset entering the game…
“Obviously we were really confident with Buck (Farmer) on the mound but we had to play like it was our last game. If we lost obviously our season was over so we had to give 110% and see what happens.”
ETSU Head Coach Tony Skole
Opening Statement…
“First of all, I would like to thank Vanderbilt University and all the people that were involved in this event. It was a tough couple days for us, to run into two quality arms like we did, (Kevin) Ziomek last night and Buck Farmer today. I don’t know if there is a No. 4 seed in the country that had to face two guys like that. We really couldn’t get any offense started. I thought our guys competed extremely hard and it was a great experience for them. I know it is disappointing for our seniors and it will take some time for it to sink in when they look back and realize how special of a year it was for our program. It has changed the face of our program forever and I am extremely proud of this group.”
On if he expected his team to rally after the rain delay…
“I was glad we were going to get (Georgia Tech pitcher) Buck Farmer out of the game. It took lightning to get him out of there, and obviously (Jonathan) Roberts did a great job coming in. We’ve had some rain delays with the weather this spring and we seemed to come back and play well in those (games). That gave us an opportunity where I thought we could get them and get back in it, but Roberts came out and threw strikes and commanded the zone.”
On starting pitcher Kerry Doane’s chances to play at the next level…
“He’s going to get an opportunity. I would be totally shocked if he didn’t. He graduated in four years and has a bright future no matter what is out there for him. He’ll get an opportunity to play professionally and I’m just excited for him. He’s a tremendous young man and a tremendous story for us. He’s been a great teammate and leader for our ball club and on our campus and in our community, as well.”
ETSU Starting Pitcher Kerry Doane
On Georgia Tech scoring early…
“I’ve had that quite a bit throughout the year. A lot of teams look at my stats and look at the way I pitch and they’ll see I throw a lot of strikes. They will come out in the first couple pitches and barrel up the ball, which is understandable, I mean agree with the strategy. I started figuring out what they were doing and I was able to settle in and figure out what pitches to look for, but the outcome is the outcome.”
On ETSU’s season…
“It was awesome. Everyone wants to make it to a regional and obviously we hadn’t been there since 1981, so being able to do it this year, my senior year, is a great feeling.”
