2019 NCAA DIVISION I BASEBALL ATLANTA REGIONAL
GAME 5 || JUNE 2, 2019
NO. 1 GEORGIA TECH 10, NO. 3 COASTAL CAROLINA 8
POSTGAME QUOTES
Georgia Tech Head Coach Danny Hall
Opening Statement:
“Obviously got off to a rough start, not the start we wanted. But as we’ve seen all year, if you’ve watched us play, we’re never really out of a game. We just kept battling, battling. We left the bases loaded, I think, twice in the middle innings. Then we got some hits finally with the bases loaded. Austin Wilhite had one of them, and then (Kyle) McCann obviously clearing the bases was huge, and then Colin (Hall) had a couple of RBIs late to give us a couple of insurance runs. I can’t say enough about Tristan English. You look at his numbers hitting, he was 3-for-4, two RBIs and then pitches three innings with one hit, no runs. He can’t play any better than he’s playing.
On having Tristan English on the mound in the ninth:
“He’s not invincible, but he’s going to go down giving everything he’s got, and that’s all you can ask. That’s what he gives us every time he steps on the field.
What explanation did umps give on balk:
“They called the rules editor, whoever is in charge of the rules for baseball. There is no rule for a fan yelling ‘Balk.’ Luke (Bartnicki) made a mistake and stopped when he heard balk. The guy who yelled balk was kind of positioned close behind the umpire so he thought it was the umpire who yelled it. Quite honestly, it’s more of a mistake on Luke. They called to get the ruling on it, and there’s nothing that would cover that in the rule book.
Did the delay hurt Bartnicki?
“He didn’t handle it very well, let’s put it that way. Whether he got rattled because he balked, they put some runs on the board in that inning, so I would say he did not handle it very well.
Starting pitcher vs. Auburn?
“We’ll start Cort Roedig and then we’ll try to put a plan together with guys who haven’t thrown, guys who have thrown. We’ve got to try to survive the game tonight and push it to the game tomorrow.
Describe feeling when team was down 7-2:
“We kind of felt like we were going to cut into it. We kept getting opportunities to cut into it. If you keep giving McCann and English and some of those guys chances to do damage, they’re going to figure out a way to do some damage. Thankfully Kyle hit the ball off the wall in right and we scored three runs. The ball came off the wall hard so it allowed us to score all three and he got to third.
Coastal Carolina Head Coach Gary Gilmore
Opening Statement:
“I was proud of my guys for how they dug deep all day long. It was frustrating what Georgia Tech did to us and what we did to ourselves in the seventh inning. It is what it is. I wish them good luck.”
On the performance of the team
“The thing that killed us were walks and hit batters in those middle innings. It wasn’t hits – not until the very end when they [Georgia Tech] put the five-spot on us. We created that all for them. At the end of the day, it’s why you end up with the record you end up with compared to having 45 wins and 15-18 losses. We’ve gone down this road. It’s not like we’re not trying. It’s just the inability to understand when we have a lead, of pounding the strike zone and making quality pitches. It’s been some we fought. Today was a perfect example of it. On top of that, we have a moment when we lose our composure and I’m very frustrated with all that. We had chances to win.”
On what got his pitching coach [Drew Thomas] ejected in the seventh inning
“I want to read the umpire…I know what he [umpire] told me. I’m not going to repeat what he told me because I want to know he writes it up that way. I need to know the true facts of exactly what went on. The part that was frustrating to me is…I’ve coached 34 years, and I’ll be the first one to tell you, I don’t know the rule book inside and out, but when you throw the guy out and you don’t allow us to change pitchers, I don’t understand that. That shouldn’t be.
“You throw him out, he’s out of the game. He’s out of the equation. He shouldn’t have the power to make a change of any type. When we were forced to leave the pitcher in there, it didn’t work out in our favor.”
On the pressure on the offense today
“We’ve been fighting the same things all year long. Once we lost one of our infield guys, it completely changed the complexion of our defense and it completely changed the complexion of our pitching. The only reason we’ve been able to cover up a lot of stuff is because the offense has been so good. There is no offense in the country that can spit out 10, 12, 14 runs every single game. We scored eight runs. In all honesty, if we’ve pitched the way we pitched and catch the ball the way we should catch the ball, you ought to win most of those games regardless of who you are playing. Eight runs should win most college games and we didn’t have enough to win today.”
1B Zach Biermann
On the seventh inning when Georgia Tech scored five runs
“I think it all started with the leadoff guy getting on….or one of the top guys getting on. And it just happened to be that the middle of their order came up with the bases loaded. There are two really good hitters there and it’s hard to do something with them when you’ve got the bases loaded, so you’ve got to pitch to them. I think the inability to make pitches and the inability to make plays hurt us in the inning.”
LF Kieton Rivers
On the team’s feelings after the past two weeks and today’s game
“Obviously it hurts. It is devastating we don’t get to hang out with each other every day like we used to. We were pretty much grinding just to see each other every day. It definitely hurts.”
On his career at Coastal Carolina
“I want to thank this man [Gary Gilmore] for giving me the best four years of my life. It’s a life-changing experience to be with the guys that I have been over the past four years. I’ve made a lot of friendships and enjoyed my time. I’d like to thank the school, the coaches…I thank all the coaches for the opportunity they gave me. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”
