June 3, 2006
GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH Danny Hall
“A great day for our club. To have to play at 11 o’clock this morning and have a really tough game – as usual, we don’t do anything easy so we really had to fight to win that one. And then we had to face an outstanding pitcher from Vanderbilt. I thought it was key to get some runs early off him. Lee Hyde was outstanding, and we got big hits from Matt Wieters and Michael Fisher. We executed very well offensively. We were pretty patient by walking there a couple of times to get some runs. A very good day for our team. I’m very proud of them.
(get lead early) “It was very critical. He (Price) seems to be a guy who, if he gets it going, he can really get it going. We were very cognizant of that fact. In looking at the games that he maybe struggled in, people hit him a little bit early and got some runs on him early. We didn’t want him to get comfortable, so getting the lead early was critical. It seemed like every time we scored some runs, Lee (Hyde) would go out and put a zero on the board. And I think our bullpen got some big outs. We wanted to match Tim Ladd up against their two lefties, and he got some big outs there, and then Rulon was really good.
Michael (Fisher) has been phenomenal. He’s gotten better as the year’s gone on. He works extremely hard – he’s the first guy here at practice every day, and that’s the reason he’s playing so well. He’s gotten some huge hits for us in the last two weeks. He deserves a lot of credit because he’s worked his tail off to become a very, very good player.
GEORGIA TECH SS Michael Fisher
(to play well against Vanderbilt, hometown team) “It’s just fun to play against a team I’ve watched my whole life and heard so much about because my dad went there. It’s fun to get a chance to actually play against them.
“Each guy has a role and whenever I get up there, I know what my role is. Sometimes it could be just putting the ball in play, or laying a bunt down – there’s always a job to do.
“This has been a great ride so far. I learned so much last year from Tyler Greene. He was a great teacher, and this year I’ve been carrying forward with what he taught me.”
GEORGIA TECH PITCHER Lee Hyde
“I just go out there with the gameplan to try to give our team a chance to win. When I stuggled early in the year when I was starting, I was struggling with control. So that was my gameplan, to pound the strike zone and give the defense a chance to make plays. Fish made some great plays behind me, Whit Robbins, the defense played great.
Vanderbilt Quotes
Georgia Tech 7 – Vanderbilt 3
Game Four
June 3, 2006
Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt – Head Coach
“Ryan (Flaherty) and Pedro (Alvarez) have driven in a lot of runs and if I was asked who I would like up with the bases loaded, I would tell you I want Pedro and I want Flaherty. Pedro has power and Flaherty has been clutch for us all year. If the situation comes up again, these guys will be up for it.”
On Lee Hyde
“He pitched a hell of a game against Clemson last week and we talked about how we were going to work him. He ran in his fastball pretty well, but I do not think we reacted as well as I would have liked. Quite frankly, I thought we would have hit him a lot sooner than we did. I feel there are two sides to the story; he pitched well and I do not believe we were as confident as we needed to be.”
On Michael Fischer
“We recruited him, but I think Michael (Fischer) wanted to leave the city and play somewhere else. He is a good player and had a big day. He was very clutch at the plate and made some very nice plays on the infield.”
On David Marcus in CF
“I didn’t ask David (about the ball missed in centerfield). The ball got up there and I thought he had, he was waving his arms but it landed 20 feet behind him. That was a big play but it didn’t cost us the game.”
David Price, Vanderbilt – LHP
“I just didn’t make big pitches when I needed to. I gave them a few free passes and when I needed to make a big pitch, I didn’t.”
Ryan Flaherty, Vanderbilt – SS
On facing elimination tomorrow
“We have faced it before and I think it is a good opportunity for us.”
