STETSON HEAD COACH PETE DUNN
“The tale of the game was Paul Hammond. After a tough loss to Tech, we came out with some intensity and got a run in the first inning. They answered that run with four in the second inning, and then Hammond just did a great job. We never had any really good swings at him. Whenever we did have the opportunity to score runs, he pitched out of the jam and we just never could get anything going offensively. They swung the bats aggressively. We thought when we were down four or five, maybe even six, we had a chance to come back like we did against Georgia Tech, but they just kept tacking on runs. You’ve got to tip your hats to them.
“We don’t make excuses. Obviously we would have loved to play last night. You do what you have to do, and you can’t control the elements. The right decision was made last night. We just kind of ran out of gas.
“It’s easy to sit back and say, they wouldn’t have been out in our ballpark. Well, you know what, we’re not playing in our ballpark. We had the same opportunity offensively. As a coach, I’m never going to point to a short porch and say if that hadn’t happened . . .We’re playing in the same environment they are.
“These two guys (SS Brian Bocock and 2B Brandon Paritz) set the bar so high. They’re two of the best middle infielders in the nation, so when the do make an error, everybody gasps. But they have gotten us out of jams all years with their defense.
“I thought our attitude was good, and I didn’t think we were down mentally (after loss to Georgia Tech). But I did see some bats slow down a little bit. I think fatigue set in a little bit. Having to play two games back to back, our bats were a bit slow. When Hammond did make mistakes, we weren’t able to make him pay for it. I don’t say that as an excuse; when you get beat 11-1, just got beat, but it’s tough to do that.
STETSON SS BRIAN BOCOCK (on error)
“I went to go get it and then I didn’t go get, I waited it on it. As an infielder if you sit back and wait a ball, that’s never good. The last hop, it just scooted on me a little bit. Making errors isn’t fun, but it’s part of the game. If you play, you’re going to make errors.
Michigan Quotes
Rich Maloney, Michigan – Head Coach
“Today, the kids bounced back like they have all year. We have had a couple situations this championship season that the boys had to respond and perform not to their liking. Our team has responded well each time.”
“Paul (Hammond) pitched an outstanding game today. It gave us a huge lift to keep us in this tournament. We only had to use one arm the whole day. He showed why he is one of the best pitchers in our league today. He is our bulldog and if he was going down, we were going down with him.”
“I thought we hit the baseball and honestly if their shortstop (Brian Bocock) did not play as well as he did, we probably would have scored more runs. He was outstanding.”
“Defensively, we were very solid like we have played most of the year.”
On yesterday’s game vs. Vanderbilt
“We did not play as well as we would have liked. We are not just glad to be here. Last year we were glad to be here, this year we are competing for the prize and were very disappointed with our performance yesterday and very proud of our performance today.”
“We have a couple (pitching) options for tomorrow. We got some arms, in this tournament so far, I think we have only used three arms, so we are actually sitting comfortably. We got to hit the ball. We are going to have to score some runs. At least we have some arms that we are confident in.”
Paul Hammond, Michigan – LHP
“When coach Keller came out, he noticed I was not using my legs very much. Late in the game you definitely need to use your legs as much as you can to keep your velocity up and to keep pitches down. It worked out very well.”
“The thing that helped me the most was being able to locate my fastball. With that wind blowing in the way it was in left it makes it a lot easier to go in on a right-handed hitter. You have a lot more confidence going in. If they were going to starting dipping over the plate and going the other way with it, they may have given us a little trouble. Just the location of the fastball in and out was the key to success today.”
Eric Rose, Michigan – CF
On Homerun
“It was a hit-and-run and I missed the call, unfortunately coach was not very happy with me. Luckily I got another pitch to make up for it.”
“I am not a homerun hitter but I knew I could put a good swing on it and with the wind blowing out to right field, I felt like I hit a nice shot. It is always nice for me when I am not hitting my singles to hit a homerun.”
On rounding third during homerun
“Coach didn’t think it was a homerun. He was yelling at me to run.”
