June 1, 2002
Louisville vs. Coastal Carolina
Louisville head coach Lelo Prado:
“Again, we only had one run and our pitching was awful. You can’t fall behind when you are not swinging the bat. I give Coastal credit. They came out swinging the bats.”
“It’s the first step. We have to get here before we can start making strides. I am proud of them for what they did during the year. Hopefully we’ll be back and have a little more experience next year and play a lot better than we did here in two games.”
“I said from the beginning that he team that swings the bat during this tournament is the team that is going to win. I guarantee you that. It’s just so sad that it has to end that way because hitting was one of our strengths all year. It didn’t happen and you have to give the other teams’ pitching credit. It’s a learning process. We made it here for the the first time in our school’s history and I’m of proud of that, but it’s disappointing the way we were swinging the bat.”
Louisville First Baseman Morgan Bojorquez:
“We’ve got a strong senior class coming back, and I guarantee that we will be back in a regional next year.”
Louisville Centerfielder Dave Williams, Jr.:
(Motivation for next year?) “I don’t think you could ask for more motivation than this. It’s kind of like reaching into the cookie jar and getting your hand slapped. Next year we’ve got something to look back on and hopefully we can go further next year.”
Coastal Carolina Head Coach Gary Gilmore:
“This was a great game for us to be able to play the way we’ve been playing all year. We got some timely hitting, we ran the bases well and got great pitching. Now we’ve just got to cool down and relax for a little bit. It’s awfully hot out there today. For whoever is the unfortunate loser of the next game, it’s going to be tough for them to turn around and play another game. It’s nice that we get a 2-3 hour break to recuperate.”
“Seamus (Donovan, starting pitcher) keeps me on the edge of my seat every time he goes out there. There always seem to be guys on the bases, and he wiggles out of it somehow. He’s done a great job making good pitches when he’s had to. He just kept throwing strikes, and as we expanded our lead, it just made it that much tougher on them.”
“We got one of our bullpen guys up at one time, but Seamus rolled a double-play ball and got out of the inning. Then we weregoing to use another guy but decided right there at the end not to use anybody else if he could throw another 10 or 15 pitches and just throw it over the plate and hopefully we could get guys out. At this point we’ve burned two pitchers in two games. We have plenty of pitching if we execute.”
Coastal Carolina Pitcher Seamus Donovan:
“Right now I’m just trying to go out there and throw strikes. I’m not trying to overpower anyone. I’ve had great defense behind me, so the more I got out there and throw strikes, the easier it is for everyone else. It’s something I’ve learned as the season has gone on. In the beginning I was trying to throw it by people, but you can’t do that here. It’s so much easier (when offense is scoring runs). You know you don’t have to go out there and make a perfect pitch every time. I could get away with mistakes. I had baserunners every inning but I knew I could get away with a mistake here or there because we had the big lead.”
Coastal Carolina Catcher Randy McGarvey, Jr.
“That first game is the one where you’re a little anxious and you try to do more than you’re capable of at times. Today we just relaxed. Myself, I know I was a lot more relaxed at the plate today, and I just tried to follow the ball and make good swings.”
