June 1, 2002
2002 NCAA ATLANTA REGIONAL
Russ Chandler Stadium
Georgia Tech 3, Georgia 0
Georgia head coach David Perno
“I thought it was a tremendous effort by Mickey to give us a chance and that is all we asked of from him. I thought we executed defensively and made some good plays but we did not get the timely hits like we did yesterday. I think definitely a home field advantage worked against us today.”
“Goodman is really good. Chris has been very effective against us all year. I thought we made them (Tech) work a little harder today defensively and made some good adjustments, but they made some good plays. We didn’t get the timely hits today like we did yesterday. And it’s always good to have a guy like Watchko to come in behind him because he’s very good.”
[Menocal’s play in eighth inning] “I thought that was a big point in the ball game. I would have like to see David Coffey come up with some runners on base and see what he could do. If that gets through the middle, it’s probably one run in and runners at the corners with David Coffey up.
[Playing on Tech’s home field] “It’s really tough. The ball carries different here than it does in our park, and they do a great job playing to it, which is a credit to them. The ball carries to right whereas at our park it carries to left. I thought we hit a couple of balls hard to left but just had nothing to show for it. They hit a couple of balls to right that seemed to carry and get out of here.”
“It’s tough to beat anyone on their home field twice, but you don’t approach it like that. You approach it one pitch at a time and see if you can get them on their heels a little bit and get the momentum going our way. We could never get the momentum today.
Georgia pitcher Mickey Westphal
“I just made a couple of bad pitches and one thing leads to another. I made two bad pitches and they hit them well.”
“It’s pretty difficult and they had the home crowd and we had a good crowd come out today but it’s a lot different when the ball carries even though the wind blows a lot. It just seemed like the ball was carrying out to right a little bit.”
Georgia Tech Head Coach Danny Hall
“It was a great performance by Chris Goodman and Jeff Watchko. Any time you don’t give the other team a run, that’s just an outstanding performance. I’m proud of the way “Goodie” pitched and then Watchko came in and did a great job. Westphal matched it, but we were fortunate to get a couple of balls in the air to right field. Murton’s triple was a big hit, and Menocal’s play in the eighth inning off the pitcher was an outstanding play and kept them from scoring a run there.
[Pitching tomorrow] I don’t know yet. It will either be Brian Burks or Kyle Schmidt. We’ll watch this next game and decided which guy is best suited to pitch that first game tomorrow.
[Success at home] “Number one, it’s a great facility, and our guys are excited every time we play here. The playing surface I would put up against any professional playing surface, so I think our guys are very comfortable playing on it. Our pitchers are comfortable because they know if they put the ball where you’re supposed to, you’ve got a chance to get some outs. It’s not an easy park to hit home runs, particularly in center and left center. Our fans have been great in supporting us, so it’s a combination of a lot of things.
“I don’t know if you ever imagine throwing back-to-back shutouts in college baseball. I guess that would put Mark Bradley’s theory on the aluminum bat out the door. Kiddingly I say that. I’ve Chris pitch great against them at Georgia, and I’ve seen Kyle Bakker pitch well against Coastal Carolina. Those guys just elevated their performance and had great concentration, and as a result, they pitched two great games for us.
[Moving Goodman to pitcher] “Coach Moranda, our pitching coach has had a history of converting position players to pitchers. When Vic [Menocal] came back for his senior year, Chris saw that his playing time at shortstop was probably not going to be great. He came to us and said, “Coach, at Lassiter [High School], I used to be a pretty good pitcher. Would you give me a chance to pitch?” I think the first day he threw in intrasquad, he was 90 miles an hour, and then two or three days later at our scout day, he was 93-94. So we can thank him for coming and asking if he could pitch.
Georgia Tech Shortstop Victor Menocal
[On play in eighth inning] “I was in the right place at the right time. Jeff did a great job of giving me the assist. I think we had it planned the whole time that it would go off his leg and come to me. Our defense played really well today, and that’s what Coach stresses to us every day before we go out there. He tells us that we’ve got to have good pitching and good defense and then everything will go from there.
[On his homerun] “It felt good when it came off my bat, but the wind always helps me out there. I don’t have too many homers this year. I think it was a little bit of the wind and the adrenaline that I had flowing that got that one out.
Georgia Tech pitcher Chris Goodman
“My success was from just hitting my spots. The last couple of starts I’ve been rushing my delivery, which has caused me not to be able to locate my fastball where I want it. So today I just tried to slow everything down. I hit my spots and not worry about strikeouts and everything came together.”
