June 3, 2013
Recap | Box Score | Howell’s Photos 
| Russell’s Photos
Vanderbilt Head Coach Tim Corbin
Opening Statement
“It’s been a big week for Phil Pfeifer, and I’ll start with him. He had to pitch a championship game against LSU, and I was glad that he personally got the opportunity to pitch tonight and pitch so well. If you ask him, he’s very critical of himself, but just to keep a very good hitting team down (tonight). We thought it could be the right match but you never know. I thought he did a very good job and we played some good defense behind him early in the first couple of innings. We got ourselves out of innings because of plays, and Connor (Harrell) made a great run and catch. Xavier (Turner) made a nice play to lead off and take the fourth. So he was able to hand the baton off to Brian (Miller), and Brian was very good at the end. He pitched extremely well, didn’t allow many base runners or many hits and Brian was Brian. We had to get him in this tournament somehow and we figured we’d try to piece it together. We didn’t know if we’d have to use three or four guys, but we used two and we put some pressure on them most of the night. Offensively, we dug and scored in several innings and won a lot of frames. I’m proud of the kids. They responded like I thought they would and they’re a tough crowd to beat. I said that last night, and I always stand by them.”
On the Super Regional match-up with Louisville…
“I don’t know if I expect (facing them) but they’re common because we’ve run into them so often. We had that one game, the Battle of the Barrel, and there’s some importance put on that too even though it’s a midweek game that comes in between our conference. At the same time we’re close in proximity, and we’ve played each other a lot in some tough battles. We’ve had extra innings affairs; we’ve had wild games at the end. We’ve both gone to regionals from one another (home fields). This is another opportunity to play one another. As we’ve said, you can’t really concentrate on Louisville as much. We know they’re a good team, I know (Louisville Head Coach) Dan (McDonnell) very well. We have a lot of respect, but this is all about Vanderbilt, and will always be about Vanderbilt. We’ll just get back together tomorrow and start executing again and get ready for the weekend.”
On if winning the regional is a relief…
“It is a relief, because you’ve put so much into it. I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that all I can think about is doors closing behind you and this is the, as I’ve said before, I think it’s the cruelest game in college athletics.”
Vanderbilt pitcher Philip Pfeifer
On his feeling after the win…
“It’s a big deal. You think about guys like Yaz (Mike Yastrzemski) and Connor (Harrell) and (Jack) Lupo and people that stuck around and defended it up until now. They came back for this moment. Just being able to be a part of making it worth it for them is a huge deal to me.”
On his attitude entering today’s game…
“We had a meeting last night after the game. Coach (Corbin) said tomorrow is going to be about passing the baton. Today I went as far as I thought I could go and passed the baton to Brian (Miller) who did an incredible job. Being in this program it’s very fortunate. To be able to go out and hold them down to five innings and then have your reliever come in and give you four no hit innings of relief. He did an incredible job.”
Vanderbilt outfielder(Mike Yastrzemski
On this game reflecting “typical Vanderbilt”…
“I think today we came out and we weren’t so flat, especially right off the bat. Coming out yesterday, we didn’t seem to have our energy. We just needed to make sure we brought that back as soon as possible. That starts with guys’ attitudes and wanting to be there and wanting to come out swinging. You can tell there was a huge difference in our approach today.”
On enjoying the moment…
“There’s a moment where you look around the locker room, and you have to make sure not to hold your breath because you’re not trying to give off the vibe that you’re nervous to anyone else because we were playing for our season right there. Coach said to us yesterday that if you were to come in here and say there’s one game to play for a championship, every single person would sign up for it. That’s what we had. We just had one game to win the regional. Just coming out here and having fun and smiling and just being into each other was what we needed to do and we did.”
Georgia Tech Head Coach Danny Hall
Opening Statement
“I just want to congratulate our team and thank our team on the effort they gave this weekend. To lose the first game and battle back and force a (second) championship game at Vanderbilt. I’m very proud of what they did. Tonight was Vanderbilt’s night. They got on top of us early and I thought Buck (Farmer) gave us a great effort. We definitely intended to keep his pitch count down and go by what he said on how much he could give us. He gave us four innings and only gave up two runs. We were still in the game, but we didn’t quite have much success after that with the pitchers we brought in. Vanderbilt has an outstanding team and has a chance to go a long way.”
On Vanderbilt’s three bunts in the seventh inning…
“Honestly, the three bunts weren’t good bunts. Two of them were right to the pitcher and we threw one of them down the right field line and that’s what happened in the Vanderbilt-Illinois game the other night. A wild throw opened the floodgates, so we definitely had talked about that. We knew they were going to do it, just take the outs. Then the nine-hole hitter, (Jack) Lupo, fouls two balls off and then they do that fake bunt and hit and we hung him a breaking ball. We couldn’t have thrown a worse pitch in that situation, but to his credit he hit it. Then on the safety squeeze, he (Lupo) bunts the ball hard to (A.J.) Murray and I think we got the guy out at the plate and Murray doesn’t try to get the guy out at the plate. We just didn’t execute the way we should have defensively.”
On hitting into double plays early…
“I think Kyle (Wren) made a base running mistake. You have a guy on second in the first inning and you’re hoping somebody can step up and get a base hit, so that one hurt. I probably shook my head on the second one because if I could do it over again, I would have made A.J. Murray hit and run. The thing that made it tough to do that is (Philip) Pfeifer has a pretty good move and he’s left-handed. You don’t want to get picked off in that situation, but I credit him (Pfeifer). He had a little more fastball than we anticipated and threw it in on our right-handed hitters pretty consistently. I thought a key play in the game was (Connor) Harrell’s catch on Thomas Smith’s line drive because if that ball goes up the ally it’s probably 2-2 and now we have a ball game. Harrell made a real good play and he got a great break on it and made a very good catch.”
Georgia Tech pitcher Buck Farmer
On knowing he would be limited going forward…
“Like Coach Hall said, I wasn’t going out there to try and throw a complete game. Whether it be two innings, maybe an inning, or three innings and it turned out to be four. I just wanted to give our team a chance to win. I would have liked to not give up two runs, but I give the credit to Vanderbilt. They struck first with two runs and we couldn’t really fight back. That’s just the way the game goes.”
On the first inning…
“For any team to get a starter’s pitch count up in the first inning is huge. It was only one run in that first inning and it wasn’t really hurtful, but to strike first in baseball is huge.”
Georgia Tech designated hitter Zane Evans
On Vanderbilt’s Phillip Pfeifer…
“I thought we had some pretty good swings. He has a funky delivery and his fastball is pretty good. He kept us off balance and was consistently pounding the inside corner to the righty’s. I think that kind of gave us some trouble.”
On the double plays Vanderbilt turned early…
“Those hurt. Any time you get a guy on second, I know we hit a line drive to the shortstop and it looked like it might get over his head, but Kyle (Wren) got off the bag a little bit. It kills momentum and that was big for Vanderbilt too.”
