June 2, 2006
VANDERBILT HEAD COACH TIM CORBIN
“Obviously Matt Buschmann was very good. The seventh, eighth and ninth innings, he really go the job done. We were about to pull him before the ninth, but he wouldn’t let us. Offensively we had a few big hits, but we could never break the game open. Drew Taylor slowed us down a bit.
“We don’t normally go as high as 134 (pitch count), but he felt really good in the seventh, then made quick work of the eighth. We wanted to take him out in the ninth but he wouldn’t let us. He only threw 50-something pitches last week at Hoover (SEC Tournament). The only throwing he did in between was at ESPN Zone the other night when we were throwing that football around, but I shut him pretty quick. And I beat him, by the way.
RYAN DAVIS, VANDERBILT RIGHTFIELDER
“I’ve just tried to keep a positive head. I was disappointed with my play at Hoover (SEC Tournament), but it’s baseball so you’re going to have some down stretches. I just tried to take in a stride and keep working in the cage.
MATT BUSCHMANN, VANDERBILT PITCHER
[On feeling more comfortable in the last three innings] “I was really inconsistent with my slider early on and I really didn’t have my changeup at all early in the game. When that happens I know something’s not right, so I was just going out there between innings and messing with some things until I got it right.
“They had a chance to have a big inning in the second. I think what’s happened in the past is that I give a couple of free passes and then I really change my mindset that I’ve got to throw strikes down. I end up throwing it down the middle and you can’t do that, especially in the SEC. But today, D.J. (pitching coach Derek Johnson) came out and talked to me and told me there were some weak hit balls and it really wasn’t my fault. He told me not to change what I was doing and to just go after the hitters.
“I really wanted to finish the game. When I felt good in the seventh, that gave me the confidence to say to myself, I can finish the game so we can save our pen for the rest of the tournament.
Michigan Quotes
6/02/06
#14 Drew Taylor, Michigan * LHP
On pitching against Vanderbilt hitters
“Going into it, we broke down each player and took a different approach to everybody. If you had to sum it up, I tried to get ahead sometimes by dropping in a curveball and work away with a fastball and some changeups to establish the outside corner.”
On Pedro Alvarez homerun
“That was a curveball, we tried to start him out with an 0-1 count. The pitch was probably three inches outside and he just turned on it and hit it the other way. He put a great swing on a pitch that was out of the zone.”
On coming out of the pen early
“I have been starting the last four weeks in a row but when a guy goes down, you need a guy who can go in there and eat a lot of innings.
#35 A.J. Scheidt, Michigan * 3B
On facing Matt Buschmann
“He is a good pitcher; he was able to keep us off-balance. I fortunately got ahead in the count on several occasions and got some pitches in the zone to hit. His fastballs were tailing in on the right-handed hitters and he had good slider and change-up.”
Rich Maloney, Michigan * Head Coach
On Zach Putnam’s injury
“He felt a pop but we do not know what it is. It is too early to tell, he will probably need an MRI. We are obviously concerned and hope it’s not bad for his sake and the programs.”
On playing at Russ Chandler Stadium
“Sometimes this park plays smaller and today was one of those days. To their credit, they got the ball up in the air, though we did not get them up. You have to tip your hat to them. The real difference in the game was their ability to get the ball up in the air.”
On Matt Buschmann
“He pitched really well. To his credit he did what he had to do. He used both sides of the plate, had the ball running in on the right-handers and had the breaking pitch. I thought it wasn’t his best because he left a few breaking balls arm side and I thought we may catch one or two but unfortunately we didn’t take advantage of them.”
On Michigan down 0-1 at regional
“It is huge to have a chance in the tournament. One of our strengths is we have a lot of pitching. We just have to take it one day at a time and see where that takes us. We had to go through this last week at the tournament and fought our way back to the championship so I expect the guys to bounce and play well tomorrow.”
On game against Vanderbilt
“It was frustrating, I really felt there was an opportunity for us to score some runs. We just were not able to get it done.”
On changing the lineup
“No, when you play in as many games as we have, we have our lineup, we figured it out. It is about making plays now. You don’t change anything drastically, you just do what you do and roll it out there. That is how it is. Hopefully tomorrow we will make more plays than we did today.”
