May 30, 2015
Radford Head Coach Joe Raccuia
Opening Statement:
“It’s nice to survive and live another day. I’m proud of our team because it is the first time we have ever won an NCAA Tournament game. I’m happy for the community and I’m happy for Radford University. I thought it was a well played game. I thought Ridgely wad good. His fifth inning was really clean. I would have loved to have seen him extend the game. But the two guys that came in for us, Bridgeman and Meisinger were outstanding like they have been all year long. We got the offense moving a little bit. We executed and had a couple sac flies and a couple big hits and played pretty clean defense. That Lipscomb team is a solid baseball team. Luckily we had some decent at-bats and got Puckett’s pitch count up to 97 through five innings.”
On what made you decide to start Zack Ridgely:
“He’s been the best guy after Boyle. I think even if we hadn’t won the Big South Tournament, one of the reasons why we would have been an at large is because of all the mid-week wins he pitched against good teams like Virginia Tech and West Virginia. First game of the conference tournament he gave us 6 strong innings. He deserved the ball.”
On what was working today for the pitchers:
“They got ahead with their fastballs. If you don’t hit their fastball earlier on in the count it’s hard because they throw good solid sliders. So they each got ahead with their fastballs.”
On the attitude coming into today’s game:
“We are on our heels. The middle of our order is on its heels right now. But they get another day now. But Higgerson and Marshall get another day to get their feet under themselves and at some point we are going to need their bats.”
On the mindset of having to win two games tomorrow:
“I haven’t thought about it. But when you win 43 games in the regular season, winning two games is not a daunting task. We have proven that we can put winning streaks together. Really all it comes down to is playing good one day and seeing if we can extend it to Monday.“
Radford junior infielder Chris Coia
On winning the first NCAA tournament game in the program’s history:
“I mean it feels great. We have done a lot, we have accomplished a lot this year as a team breaking win records, streaks, overall record breaking those records. So, being able to add a NCAA regional win to our resume definitely I think was huge for us as a team. It took everybody. It wasn’t one big hit or one big pitch it took the whole team playing defense, getting quality at bats at times, getting the pitch count up like coach said, and then our bullpen coming out even (Zack) Ridgley coming out as he has been the last couple of weeks he’s thrown really well. Our bullpen coming out and picking him up and continuing to put zeros up on the board really helped.”
On his approach today at the plate:
“The ball definitely got on you. The scouting report said 84 to 86, and he goes up there and puts 90 on the board on the first pitch. Especially being that much closer to you as the ball comes out of his hand is definitely tough. What I’ve been working on is just staying short and I think a lot of guys kind of made that adjustment later on once they saw him one time. They realized, okay you’ve got to shorten up and put the ball in play. That’s what I did on the triple; I was just trying to fight everything off. I was seeing his ball really well, I was seeing his off-speed really well, and I was seeing his fastball really well, and I had pretty good confidence going up there through the first couple of pitches I’d seen. So, getting that triple I think was huge to kind of jump start the offense. It wasn’t anything like that was unexpected. Like I expect to pick my team up like that, and just to get everything going was definitely huge.”
Does today’s win give you confidence to carry over in to tomorrow’s games:
“Yeah, I think getting the win today, especially playing clean. When we win and don’t play very clean it’s not as exciting, but playing clean and making good pitches and having a bunch of quality at bats I think boosts your confidence for that game, and the next game you’re about to play. We’re just worried about the first game right now. We really don’t care who we are playing the second game or what happens tonight. We are just going to just show up to the field and play our game. Play against the ball instead of the other team.”
Radford sophomore infielder Danny Hrbek
On mindset after facing a two-run deficit early on in the game:
“I mean, it definitely put us back on our heels a little bit. It’s win or go home and we have been a tough team all year, and we knew we could handle the adversity, we just had to come together as a team and just stick to our plan. What got us here. I think we started doing that with the bats and then a couple zeros by Ridgley and our pitchers really helped us out and put us at ease. We just played our ball.”
Radford junior outfielder Shane Johnsonbaugh
On team’s mood/mindset coming into today’s game:
“I think just knowing what we had to do, what we learned from yesterday and we came out fine right off the bat, and with (Zack) Ridgley’s start you know pitching lights out gave us an opportunity to come out and get some hits and put runs up for him. I think that was the biggest part just learning from yesterday and coming out and doing the right thing today.”
On the rain delay and if that had any effect on the team:
“I mean, I would say that it wasn’t that tough you know. I mean he said Ridgley was coming out you know we have confidence in (Daniel) Bridgeman, he’s been a great reliever all year. I mean he does his job every time he goes up there. So, the biggest part was just getting back to swinging our bats after a long break. Once we got it going it wasn’t too bad. We could have put together some more hits and more clutch hits, but it didn’t happen. We relied more on our pitchers in that situation and they come up and made them.”
Lipscomb Head Coach Jeff Forehand
Opening statement:
“The finality of the season — you’re so high after the conference tournament and you play so well and you get to the point where you come into a tournament so excited playing a top 10 team. Talking in this moment is pretty tough. The reality of the whole thing is it’s just really difficult to let this group go. This group has been a big part of me for a long time. We’re talking about 11 seniors going out that really have made their mark and gotten Lipscomb baseball back to a spot where we’re fighting for championships again, back in regionals. Wins and losses are secondary compared to the people I get to be around every day that I send out of here — such a special, special group.”
On Puckett’s development through the year:
“You know, Brady doesn’t have a lot of nerves. He’s confident in what he does and it’s a combination of several things he does well. You can go back three or four games that he was just lights out in. Everybody knows how good he was at Vanderbilt–he pitched a complete game and at MTSU and a great game at conference tournament and has been beyond a freshman at this point. Just like in every game, coaches are going to take the loss and players are going to take the wins. He got the big double play in the fifth, and after a long inning and then a short offensive inning.
“When I go back and evaluate myself, what I probably should have done was have somebody ready for him. He got out of a big inning and a lot of pitches in the fifth. He’s had the ball all year long and pitched way deep into games and to see progress and I look forward to what’s happening next year.”
On Puckett’s pitch consistency:
“I think he put himself into some trouble. I think he had a leadoff double in the 6th and a perfectly placed bunt, and then the fire starts brewing. He didn’t make a pitch like he did in the fifth. Sometimes that’s how baseball goes. When you’re throwing it 90 miles an hour in that downhill plane that he throws, we have all the confidence in the world in him.”
On Lipscomb’s lack of offense:
“I look at their guy, Ridgely, he’s one of those left-handers that was locating so precisely. He was locating just off the plate and you take it for a ball and then you come back he was just precise — off the plate, off the plate, and on the black. That’s pretty hard to deal with when you have a guy up there 87, 88 miles an hour. He pitched really, really well, especially after we hit that home run. Their set up guy and their closer– I just have to give them all the credit in the world.
“He was making clutch pitches. He was locating so well and maybe the one pitch he didn’t locate well was the homer for Josh. In those first five innings, we had five hits and no walks. He’s not striking us out, but making quality pitches that were causing us not to hit the ball square.”
On the delay:
“We played in so many rain delays and this is such a veteran team and I just let them handle their situation. I don’t want to come in and give them the “rah rah” speech about what’s going on but when we left the locker room, I felt like that was what we needed. It hurt their momentum and helped our momentum. When we came back, their guy was just solid. Five strikeouts in three innings.”
On Vanderbilt’s ability to repeat the national championship:
“You look at that team, and you guys all know how well they’re coached. They’ve got such great leaders — Dansby (Swanson)’s such a dynamic player, but also a leader. Carson (Fulmer), when he gets the ball the first game of any tournament, you like your chances. I think they are just a solid, solid team. When you look at where they were this time last year, maybe a little ahead of where they are right now, but if you are going to like the odds, you got to go with the defending national champions. They are a very, very good team.”
Lipscomb right fielder Josh Lee
On hitting against Radford’s starting pitcher Zack Ridgely:
“He definitely settled down. He kept us off balance locating both of his pitches for strikes. We just never got that big hit. He minimized our chances.”
On performance from Brady Puckett for Lipscomb:
“If you’ve followed our program this season, you know that Brady has pitched extremely well for us. He got the win here obviously against Vandy earlier this season and in the conference tournament shut down a very good offensive team in North Florida. Up on the mound, you know what you’re going to get. We got a quality start out of him.”
On hitting his first home run of the season where he started his career:
“It’s definitely a full circle experience for me. I started my career out at Vanderbilt. We’re just blessed to have this opportunity to come back and for this program to get to what we achieved this year. It definitely put Lipscomb on the map in college baseball.”
Lipscomb shortstop Grant Massey
On his team’s mindset during the 1-hour and 20-minute rain delay
“I think at that point, it was almost probably a good thing. A couple of our guys were a little timid toward that big inning that they had. I think that let everybody get a little back on their feet and get their mind right. It was fine. We’ve played through plenty of rain delays this past month so it wasn’t a big deal.”
On quick ending to Lipscomb’s tournament run:
“You put all the work in through one year and it all ends in two days. I don’t think it’s really hit me yet. But I’m sure when I’m sitting at home with my family, I’ll be thinking about that. But I’m just proud of everybody and everything that we did this year. We turned it around a little bit and it’s going be nice to see what all those guys can do in the future.”
