June 4, 2005
Michigan Head Coach Rich Maloney:
“Nothing comes easy for our ball club that’s for sure. I take my hat off to Furman for the way that they played in this tournament. They played a great game against Georgia Tech yesterday and another solid one here against us. Fortunately, we were able to keep battling and find a way.”
“We left twelve men on and it was tough at times and weren’t able to execute a few of the things that we normally do very well. But late in the game, we finally got a few more hits and stayed the course and found a way to win the game.”
“A great effort from Paul Hammond in relief when we had to, getting their hitter out when we brought him in with one ball and two strikes and not allowing them to get any runs. There could have been a big scoring opportunity and potentially momentum shift for them. Fortunately, Paul (Hammond) pulled us through and I thought that Derek (Feldkamp) did wonderful. Kyle (Bohm) is playing well and one of the best players in the tournament and we were able to find a way to win.”
“Anytime you lose close ball games like both teams did yesterday, it’s tough. We have been on both sides of the fence. We have won 42 games, I don’t know what the exact physics is, but they are all close. The score might be 6 to 3 but you all know that game could have gone either way. That is the way that all of our games have been. Fortunately, for us, we have been able to come out on top.”
Pitcher Paul Hammond:
“When coach walked out to the mound and we have done that many of times, we will go out and there will be a different count, we will come in in the middle of the hitter and it has been effective for us the entire year. You have a one-two count and that is the best situation to be in as a pitcher, it’s got to be easy. Then I threw the first pitch and he didn’t even come close to swinging. He knew I wasn’t going to throw this guy a strike so then it was full count and fortunately he swung at the pitch. Yeah, I have never come in on that count before or in the middle of the hitter, but it was the right call at the time and paid off.”
Furman Head Coach Ron Smith comments:
“Well, we are obviously disappointed that we didn’t play, I don’t think as well as we are capable. I don’t know that Michigan played real well, either – it was kind of an ugly baseball game. Give Michigan some credit – they got some hits when they needed to down the stretch and we weren’t able to do that. We have 5 seniors on our team, two of them are with me today, and I”m just very proud of what they’ve accomplished. We have two seniors on the team who are receiving post-graduate degrees and the other three are graduating on time and that’s what we are about at Furman University.”
“From where we were three weeks ago, to end up in a situation where we are playing in a regional and going toe to toe with the number two seed in the country and then to play a pretty good ball game against the University of Michigan, I think our players deserve a lot of credit. I can tell you it was a lot of fun to watch for me. What they did at Davidson and in the Southern Conference Tournament, I was very proud of that. But, I can tell you that to a player and to a coach they’re disappointed that we didn’t do well here.”
“That was a long draining game, and I thought that we came out here and were a little bit flat, but Michigan had the same situation. They made some plays, got some hits at critical points and we weren’t able to do that today, and that’s baseball.”
On what the last few weeks have been like:
RIGHTFIELDER NICK WAJDA:
“It was a whole lot of fun. One of our goals coming as freshman was to get a ring and we accomplished that. It’s still disappointing to come here and lose two, especially as close as the first game was, but it’s been a lot of fun.”
DESIGNATED HITTER SAM MCCLAIN:
“I’ve had the best time these past few weeks playing baseball that I’ve ever had. We’ve played some great teams; College of Charleston, hung in against Georgia Tech, and that’s something special and I’ll remember coming in and playing at the level that we did.”
