Game 2: Post-Game Quotes

June 3, 2005

NCAA Regional (Clemson, SC) Game 2: #2 College of Charleston vs. #3 Oral Roberts Post-Game Quotes

College of Charleston Head Coach, John Pawlowski “First of all, anything can happen in postseason play. Although we didn’t do a great job offensively, our kids battled back. We manufactured some runs. The whole tempo of the game was set by Ryan Edell. He went out there and did a great job for us and kept us in the ball game. That’s two years in a row that Ryan has gone out and pitched a great game for us in the postseason. We played good defense and we pitched and found a way to score some runs.

“We knew coming in that Bigley had tremendous numbers and he’s had a great career. We were fortunate that our guys were patient and worked some walks that led to runs. He did a good job and made big pitches when he needed to. We had several situations where we had guys in scoring position, but couldn’t get guys in. We have some veteran guys, and we found a different way to score some runs today.”

College of Charleston Starting Pitcher, Ryan Edell “I was working my fastball at first, then countering it with my change-up until about the fourth or fifth inning. Then, Oral Roberts started getting accustomed to what I was throwing. I started throwing my curveball some more to keep them off balance for a few more innings.

“I knew I’d have to keep us close today, until we got some runs. It was really great facing (Dennis) Bigley today.”

College of Charleston Second Baseman, Chris Campbell “We had to come ready to hit. We knew he (Bigley) was going to place the ball in and out and throw his curve and change-up. We kept the same approach all year we’ve had with any pitcher we’ve faced. Put in play and run, get some runs on the scoreboard.”

College of Charleston Centerfielder, Brett Gardner “I was having a bit of a rough day at the plate coming into the sixth. I was 0-2 I think at that point and Oliver Marmol was up with one out and the bases loaded. They brought in their side-armer and he had a couple of good pitches. I think he fell behind 3-1 I was just looking for a pitch to hit, and I was lucky enough to get a ball through the right side to pick up those two runs and extend the lead to 5-2. Ryan (Edell) was on today, and (Brett) Harker came in and closed the door.

“Last year we were just excited to get into postseason. All the guys have talked about this week was that the only way we were going to be successful is to come out of here on top this weekend. We came ready to play today, but we didn’t play our best baseball and still came out on top. I’m sure we’ll have a better day tomorrow.”

Oral Roberts’ Head Coach Rob Walton “The loss is obviously disappointing. The way we played was definitely not our best effort. Dennis (Bigley) struggled a little bit on the mound, which is uncharacteristic for him. Sometimes you might worry about a guy like that. For two and a half months he didn’t miss a spot with his command, so he was probably due to have a little bit of a shaky outing. He’s human just like everybody else. He’s a warrior and he’ll bounce back. Hopefully, he’ll be able to get the ball back here at the end of the tournament.”

“You have to give Charleston some credit for capitalizing on some of our mistakes.”

Oral Roberts’ Pitcher Dennis Bigley “I’m not going to blame anything but myself. It, by far, wasn’t my best start of the year. I had trouble finding the zone towards the middle innings and just walked too many batters. I gave up a lot of leadoff walks and it came back to hurt me.”