Postgame Quotes

May 25, 2005

ACC Baseball Championship Wednesday, May 25, 2005 Game 5: #2 Clemson Tigers vs. #7 Virginia Cavaliers

Clemson Head Coach Jack Leggett on the play of Virginia: Virginia is a good, solid team. They pitch well and play good defense. They made two very good defensive plays that really helped them out. We didn’t play very good defense today, I didn’t think we played very well in making decisions in the outfield, throwing to some wrong bases. I thought we didn’t play very well in the infield at times too. We just didn’t put together our best game today and they played well.

On the pitching performance by Stephen Faris and the overall play of his team: Up until those last two innings, I thought Stephen pitched great. He and Kamrath did what I expected was going to happen, a low scoring game. They both pitched very well. There were four critical areas in the game especially in the first inning when we had runners on first and second and bunted them over and couldn’t score. It would have been nice to have broken the ice there and gained some momentum, but we didn’t score in the first inning. (Ryan) Zimmerman made a real nice play on (Adrian) Casanova’s ball and turned that into a double play, that was a great play for them. They made two huge defensive plays and we just didn’t relief pitch at all in the eighth and ninth innings. It’s a shame because we had a great performance by Stephen (Faris). We string together ten hits and one run, it’s a funny game. The other day, we had nine hits and eight runs. Ii just didn’t piece together for us and we didn’t look very sharp in the latter stages of the game. Up until that time, we were fine, but we just couldn’t get the big hit when we needed it.

On the disappointment of losing in the ACC Tournament after winning nine straight games: It is frustrating to me because we had been playing so well. But, it is like Stephen (Faris) said, there are two teams that have to play at ten o’clock tomorrow morning and we’re one of them. We’ve got Miami again. We know them and they know us. We can’t whine about it and complain about it. We just have to go out and play. If we want to play bad enough and stay in the Tournament, then we’ll come out ready to play first thing in the morning. I’m hoping the team reacts that way.

Pitcher Stephen Faris on getting the first two runners on and not being able to execute in the first inning: It was tough, we didn’t catch very many breaks but that is just the way it is. That is baseball, we just weren’t on our game today. Stuff like this happens; you can’t take anything away from Virginia, they are a good team. They played small ball early and we tried to take the game away from them by playing the same. We battled hard too, but just couldn’t get the runs late in the game.

On the break (between end of regular season and ACC Tournament) hurting the momentum of the team: It does in a way, but there are two sides to it. It’s also a kick in the butt to show us that we just can’t show up and play. At the same time, I feel we can bounce back. It wasn’t the route we wanted to take, but it is what it is now, so we just have to go out and work hard to win tomorrow.

Centerfielder Brad Chalk on having chances early: We missed our chances today, we had quite a few early to change the ballgame. Some things didn’t go our way, while other times we just couldn’t execute.