May 23, 2002
2002 ACC Baseball Tournament Thursday, May 23, 2002 – Duke vs. Georgia Tech Coaches Quotes
Duke head coach Bill Hillier: (On effectiveness of Georgia Tech pitcher Kyle Schmidt) “I was kind of surprised, especially after a few weeks ago when we down there and jumped on him early in the game. He did a great job of shutting us down. I think we only had three hits through six innings. He did a good job of pitching and getting ahead in the count, throwing strikes – he did a good job. I think he threw harder in Atlanta, I thought he was an upper 80’s guy but today it looked like he was in the mid-80’s; but he was pitching more today. He was throwing down in Atlanta and today he did a great job of pitching.”
“I told my guys after the first, and before the tournament started, we are going to have to come back on somebody. In order to get back you have to go right back and shut them down from the mound and you have to string some hits together.”
Georgia Tech head coach Danny Hall: “I think the thing for me initially was the fact that we caught some fly balls in the first inning. That was something I was really concerned about heading into the game. Schmidt got through the first inning without giving up any runs, and we caught some fly balls – then we were able to score those runs early, and I think it took the pressure off of him. He pitched great, and really didn’t give them a chance to get anything going. I thought we played good defensively behind them.”
(On what the team did yesterday after the game) “I came back and watched some of the games. The players I do not think did much of anything – went to eat and many of them have their families here so they had a chance to spend time with them. Nothing out of the ordinary just taking it easy, playing those 10:00 am games, we were up at 7:00 am the first day and 6:30 am today so you want to kind of get off your feet when you are doing that.”
“I am always concerned about our starting pitcher, I always know if our starting pitcher pitches well we have a chance to win. I worried about him a little bit being a freshman and this being his hometown, but he handled it great and pitched well. He actually pitched against them on Sunday at Georgia Tech and after a rough first inning pitched very well. I knew he was capable of pitching well, and he did. It reminded me of the game he pitched against Georgia when he shut them out.”
“It feel great (getting the win). We knew if we didn’t win today we were going home. Now, I think we are right back in the mix of it. We have not thrown Kyle Bakker yet, so we are sitting there with potentially our best pitcher for our next game. That is a bonus for us and gives us a lot of confidence.”
