Game 6: Quotes

June 5, 2006

Clemson Head Coach Jack LeggettThoughts on the win “It was a tough ballgame; Mississippi State is a good ball club. I thought Josh Cribb went out and did a good job for us. We didn’t do too well in middle relief. But (Daniel) Moskos came in and took over the pace of the game. We played some great defense and got a few big hits when we had to. We could’ve opened things up a little more had we gotten a few hits with a man on third base. But I’m real proud of the kids and how we played this weekend. We’ll take rest for a day, come back Tuesday night to practice, and then be ready to play next weekend.”

On the performance of Regional MVP Taylor Harbin “He deserved it. He played great defense. As much as his offense, his defense was just as important. He’s a great all-around player, a tournament-type guy. He plays better when the pressure is on.”

Clemson Regional MVP Taylor Harbin On the team advancing to a Super Regional “The thing about this team is that we never get down on ourselves. They came back and battled to get a lead. We came back in, stayed focused, and did what we had to do. We scratched some runs across ourselves. Our pitching came out, did a great job, and held it down.”

On next week’s matchup with Oral Roberts “We just have to keep doing what we’re doing. Oral Roberts is a great team that played in a good regional. They showed that they have the pitching and the hitting to win a tournament. We just have to stay focused and hopefully repeat what we did this weekend.”

Clemson Relief Pitcher Daniel MoskosOn getting the save in tonight’s game “Our offense stepped up for us. They’ve been doing it for the last couple of weeks. They did it again tonight. They gave our pitching a chance to shut it down. I got ahead of their hitters pretty well, kept them off balanced.”

On next week’s matchup with Oral Roberts “It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be great to be at home this time, rather than in Texas (2005 Super Regional at Baylor) or somewhere else.”

Head Coach Ron PolkOpening statement “I thought our guys battled hard. We could have one the first game if we make one play. Then we won the second and the third, and we had a chance tonight. It’s tough. The key to regionals has been to play at home. There have been a lot of home teams that have done well this particular year. This is a tough place to play. The crowd really gets the kids motivated. We just needed to get another hit here tonight, and (Clemson) got it.”

On the season overall “Well, it was a bit of a disappointing season, but not disappointing kids. You saw them; they played hard.”

On the pitching of Brett Cleveland “He did a good job. The first inning looked like we would have to make a move early, but he settled down and did a great job.

Brett Cleveland, starting pitcher “I knew going into this game that we were low on pitching. I knew I was going to have to give my best effort and give the team some innings, so I tried to give us six or seven innings and keep us in the game. I did that, but we just fell short.”

“I felt good going into the game. The first inning was a little momentum on their side, I think. The one homerun pitch was a fastball up, and (Demmink) just got it. The other runs, I felt like I could have avoided them. (Clemson) got the hits and the runs though.”

Thomas Berkery, shortstop “I thought we played fairly well. I made a throwing error that cost us a run, but we didn’t do anything to kill ourselves tonight. Clemson’s a good team. They are the number one team in the country for a reason. We gave them a run.”

“We knew that they came out of the gates swinging, and they did. You have to give them credit for that, but you play nine innings. We just played hard throughout.”