May 31, 2015
Recap | Box Score | Howell’s Photos 
Vanderbilt Head Coach Tim Corbin
Opening statement:
“It was heck of a college baseball game. If you go back to the beginning, I think Phil [Pfeifer] helped us turn the game around from a momentum standpoint at least after I guess it was the third inning. The first couple of innings he couldn’t run his fastball and breaking stuff. But then he got rhythm and then we had the big inning that was clutch for us and got the momentum on our side. But I think for them, you have to give a lot of credit to [Scott] Effross because he was money. He made it very difficult on us. He threw the fastball and breaking ball and was very competitive. Then after that, it was just kind of back and forth. Bowden picked up for Phil. And the ninth inning was one of those innings–at least if you’re a Vanderbilt fan–that you’ll probably remember for quite some time. There’s things that have happened in this ballpark–at least in the 13 years that I’ve been here–that stand out. That was certainly one of them. Rhett’s hit, Dansby just leaning on a pitch and putting in the stands and backing that up with a play that’s tough to put into words really. And Bryan Reynolds’ play earlier in the game, which essentially saved a triple I would imagine. So we’re very fortunate.”
On Swanson’s game winning home run in the top of the ninth:
“He seems to come up big in crucial situations. He’s a great player and great players have a game twitch to them that doesn’t exist with a lot of people. As I’ve told him jokingly, I’ve gotten questions about whether or not he can throw and whether or not he can do this. I’m sure–and not to compare him to Dustin Pedroia or other guys–but there’s a twitch that exists with certain athletes that you don’t see until it means the most. And he’s got one in a lot of different ways.”
On Swanson’s big play in the bottom of ninth:
“I just looked at the play. Kids were going crazy but you still have a lot more game to play. But it was a great way to start off the bottom of the ninth. If he doesn’t make that play, it changes the complexion of the inning. You have to play it differently. But it’s one of those things where you leave the park and go I can’t believe I saw that.”
On navigating through tournament and having two wins already:
“It’s certainly better than the alternative because to win it you would have to play five games. Now at the most, we’ll play four games. But as I told the kids, you just play the tournament. It isn’t about winning one more, winning two more. You just play the tournament as it stands. You have to stay very centralized and just continue to play good baseball. But you’re right. We’ve come through it different ways. This certainly was a game that could have gone either way. They played very well. I thought Indiana was on tonight. They took good at bats early and pitched very well. So we had to tough that one out in many different ways.”Â
Vanderbilt shortstop Dansby Swanson
On his approach in the ninth:
“With the way they had been pitching me all night, with a base open, I was just looking for a breaking ball and they left it up in the zone and I was able to get a good swing on it.”
On feeling pressure to get a big hit late in the game:
“I don’t think that’s something necessarily you can think to yourself just because it’s the added pressure. I was just trying to go up there and get Rhett in and Rhett did a great job of getting to second to begin with and we were just able to string a couple together.”
On how he was able to field an improbable out:
“It’s just a lot of reps in our training sessions, with the live defense when we take BP and everything. It’s something most people say you can’t prepare for, but we’ve definitely been there and done that so, I credit that to all the hours.”
On getting a feel for home runs, especially tonight:
“Not this one. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to get high enough, especially in that situation. If it doesn’t get out, you want to be standing on second or third, so I was just running out of the box and when I saw the umpire signal I obviously slowed down. It’s just one of the ones where you can’t expect it to go out because you’ve got to be ready if it doesn’t.”
Right fielder Rhett Wiseman
On his confidence in Swanson to get the big hit in the ninth:
“I’m behind him 100 percent. That’s the type of player he is. I knew that all we were going to have to do in that inning is get a guy in scoring position, whether that was Ro for me, or whether that was myself for Dansby, or Dansby for Zander, we have a lot of experience in the top of that lineup–especially in situations like tonight. As soon as I got to second base, I knew it was going to happen early, and it did–first pitch.”
On Effross’ pitching:
“I thought he did a good job of moving the ball, more so up in the zone. I think we chased up in the zone a little bit more in than we should have in the beginning following that three or four run inning. But, as soon as we started shrinking the zone down and getting better swings we had some situations where we could have scored some runs and left some guys on base in some big spots. We had some breakdowns. Other than that, I think we did a good job toughing it out and I think we grinded it out.”
On his double in the 9th:
“That’s a situation, especially with one out where you’ve got to get to second base for Dansby and Zander. I knew right out of the box I had to get to second base and fortunately, the throw was a little bit high and I was able to get into scoring position.”
On Reynolds’ catch:
“Oh man, he’s incredible. Some of the plays he’s made this year are just phenomenal and honestly it reminds me a lot of Connor Harrell. I never thought I’d say this, but he is as good if not better — obviously Connor is incredible and Connor was a senior — but, I can’t imagine Connor was as good defensively as a sophomore. If you look at it even more, Bryan has been at center field for thirty-something games in his career in college. He’s so athletic, he does everything so well, and he’s a freak.”
Indiana Head Coach Chris Lemonis
Opening Statement:
“Tough loss. Give a lot of credit to Vanderbilt. I thought they played great and as well as our guys. I think they just got a big hit from a great player.”
On thoughts of walking Swanson:
“Yes, as it was going over left. But we were trying to pitch around him. We should have done an intentional walk, but we were just trying to pitch around him, but he just left the ball over the plate and a good player hit it. But that’s what we were trying to do we just didn’t want to give him a good pitch.”
On striking out a lot tonight:
“Against great pitching we pressed to try and do too much and swings got big. We had about ten check swings. It’s hard to win a game when you punch out that many times.”
On who starts in game one tomorrow:
“We have a couple options right now. I have to get back and talk to everybody. But we have a couple guys like Evan Bell, Caleb Baragar, Coursen-Carr who are just some of the guys with postseason experience that I feel like we could use. With Scott throwing so many tonight, we have some guys who are still pretty fresh.”
On the play of starter Christian Morris:
“I think he was a little flat. He would get ahead and then let them get back into some counts. It was a tough night for Christian. He has been pitching great for us and we probably wouldn’t be here without him. He just left the ball in some bad spots against some talented hitters.”
Indiana junior pitcher Scott Effross
On settling in early and slowing down Vanderbilt’s Lineup:
“I thought I was doing a really good job of locating my fastball and my changeup. My slider was a good pitch for me tonight, but really just locating everything. They are a fundamentally sound hitting team, but I was able to locate really well. So, I think that was the key for me.”Â
On mindset coming into the game:
“I came in the pen knowing I had to do a job. I knew we were down. I knew I had to keep us there. I just tried my best at that, but really just tried to settle in and get strike one on a lot of the hitters. That was important for me and like I said locating was big, but once you get going out there and in a rhythm you just start throwing your secondary stuff a lot better. I think that was important for me tonight.”
Indiana sophomore outfielder Craig Dedelow
On the difficulty of bouncing back for tomorrow’s game after such a tough loss:
“I mean we are a great team and the last couple weeks our backs have been up against the wall, and we responded pretty well to that. So, I think it will be pretty easy for us.”
On his view on the Dansby Swanson home run:
“You know, I thought we had a chance and then it just kept carrying. The wind was kind of blowing out so that helped it a little bit, but it was a hard hit ball.”
