Pre-Tournament Quotes From the NCAA Baseball Oklahoma City Regional
May 25, 2000
Oklahoma City, Okla. - A press conference was held Thursday afternoon at the Southwestern Bell Bricktown Ballpark in preparation for the NCAA Baseball Regional in Oklahoma City, Okla. this weekend. The No. 1 seed UCLA baseball team, who will take on No. 4 seed Delaware tomorrow at 1 p.m. Pacific Time, was represented by head coach Gary Adams and players Bill Scott, Chase Utley and Rob Henkel.
Head Coach Gary Adams on the postseason: We're very happy to be here. We're pretty confident from the time we started to get hot, we would make regionals. It was a roller coaster for awhile, but we're hot at the end. We have peaked at the right time.
Adams on being on the road: I like being shipped out. It's a wonderful tournament atmosphere here in Oklahoma City. At the time bids were due, our team wasn't doing that well so we didn't entertain the thought of bidding (to host a regional).
UCLA junior left-fielder Bill Scott: The whole team is excited to get out of town. We were hoping to get out of California. Everyone had a good time in Wichita last year and we expect the same this year.
Scott on being a No. 1 seed: When things are going good for us, we are a pretty tough team to beat. We all believed we deserved a No. 1 seed.
Adams on the high seed awarded to UCLA: We are Pac-10 champs. We're tied with Stanford and Arizona state and we beat some good teams to become Pac-10 champions.
Adams on the upcoming draft and the distractions of scouts: Our UCLA players are used to dealing with scouts. But I tell them, let's play well as a team. Let's think of team goals right now and our players have handled that well. We'll have 11 or 12 drafted this season and eight or nine sign.
UCLA junior pitcher Rob Henkel on the draft being a distraction during postseason play: It's there, but you have to be aware of the task at hand.
UCLA junior second baseman Chase Utley on the draft: You know the draft is there, but you can't do anything about it. You just focus on winning now.
Scott on UCLA being labeled an underachieving team: I wouldn't consider us underachievers. We start to peak at the right time and come together at the end of the season. We always believe we have a chance to win with our ballclub even if we are down.
Utley: We have the talent to play great baseball. We have a mature team.