Postgame Quotes – Baylor vs. UCLA
POSTGAME QUOTES
NCAA Los Angeles Regional – Game Five
UCLA 11, Baylor 6 (June 2, 2019)
UCLA Head Coach John Savage
Opening remarks
“A lot of runs. A lot of opportunities for both sides. We did a good job of Jake (Pries) with the two-run homer and then we got one in the third and then three and then three, then two. It felt like we needed to keep putting up runs. It wasn’t a safe game. It felt like Baylor’s very, very offensive; very experienced middle of the lineup, one of the better hitting lineups in the country and certainly in the Big 12. They’re dangerous. All hands on deck right now and, fortunately, we did enough. Felix Rubi, I thought, gave us three really good innings. That was huge. And then Kyle (Mora) did his thing and then Holden (Powell), but I think Rubi really was kind of the unsung hero in the whole deal. Made some pitches and gave us those three solid innings. We need everybody right now. It’s a losers’ bracket. I think everybody realizes that. So you don’t want to leave anything in the bullpen. It was a good win against a good team. Now on to the next game tonight.”
On the character of his bullpen
“If you just look at what they’ve done all season, we’d never be in the position where we are now without that bullpen. With long guys and setup guys. Nate and Kyle and Holden certainly in the seventh, eighth and ninth. I think it’s one of the best bullpens in the country, clearly. I think we have one complete game all season and we’ve won a bunch of games. A lot of credit to them—their durability, their toughness and their ability to bounce back is essential. At the end of the day, we really leaned on them and they gave us what we needed today.”
On what he knew about his team’s resiliency and what he still hopes to find out
“I think every coach is constantly trying to learn more and more about their team responding from adversity. Last night was a big blow, certainly, whenever you lose that second game in the winners’ bracket. This group has shown resiliency all season. We lost a few Friday night games and ended up winning the series. We didn’t lose a series all year, so I think that speaks for itself. This time of the year, you want to keep on improving and you want to keep on getting a little more and more familiar with each other, I guess you would say. And at the end of the day, we survived and moved on to tonight.”
On preparation for day game after night game
“Just sleep. I’m talking about for the players. We had to do a bunch of work on Baylor last night and this morning. Not scrambling, because we had it prepared for the week. But at the end of the day, you don’t know who you’re going to play, what matchups and so forth. I’ve got to give the players a lot of credit. We got home around midnight last night and early wake-up call and BP in The Giff this morning. I thought we certainly got after it today.”
On preparing for Baylor’s offense following 24-run performance yesterday
“Well, when you watch a team that is that offensive, you really are looking out who’s getting them out and how they’re getting them out. I looked at the Loyola [Marymount] a little more than the Omaha game, no disrespect. When you give up one, we watched that game and we had all kinds of video previously in the Big 12 Tournament and so forth. It’s all video now. The scouting reports are really not moving around as much as they used to, and it’s all video. That’s the best scouting report you can grab. We played them last season, so we had some familiarity with them. Last season, they came in and played us three games. They’re an older, tougher, better team, but at the end of the day, we had a little history with them – not much. They had a little history with us as well.”
UCLA senior designated hitter Jake Pries
On levels of confidence and messages to the team entering today
“I mean, Coach [Savage] nailed it. We’ve been in a similar situation where we have to win some games. The biggest thing that we do is we trust each other. When we’re trusting each other, that’s when our confidence builds and we get a little momentum, just within ourselves. We have a tight inner circle. We’re always communicating with each other and that always helps us trust each other.”
UCLA sophomore outfielder Garrett Mitchell
On pushing across 11 runs
“I think the biggest thing for us is approach. Using middle of the field is big for us. It keeps us on the most pitches and I think we did a really good job of using the middle of the field today. I think that is just the biggest thing for us. I think we’ve done that a lot all year, as you can see. It’s shown throughout almost 60 games this year. When we have a unified approach and we work together as a team and we pass the baton on to the next Bruin up, constantly one through nine, we have a lot of success.”
Baylor Head Coach Steve Rodriguez
Opening remarks
“I’ll tell you what, that’s probably one of the reasons why UCLA is the No. 1 team in the country. We were trading blows with them for the first few innings, but we had a hard time getting in front of hitters and they took advantage of that. They have a great offense, and you can see by their pitching staff, there is a reason why they have one of the best ERAs, the most strikeouts, and stuff like that in the country. I’m really proud of our guys for dealing with the kind of adversity that we had to deal with this year. It is really rare that you have three All-Americans on your team and then you lose one of them for the season, one of them for the beginning part of the year and then one for the tail end of the year. Watching these guys step up when you lose your starting rotation, and then have other guys step in, I’m really proud of the effort these guys put in on a daily basis. Knowing that they weren’t at 100 percent, and you know what, they didn’t care, they went out there and gave everything they had.”
On what the seniors have contributed to the program
“When I came in, I brought Josh Bissonette in with me. He was my one recruit. He’s a senior this year and obviously I inherited Richie (Richard Cunningham), who you all are going to be working for at some point in your career, so you better be really nice to him, but I’ll tell you what, when you have these seniors and you see the type of attitude and approach, what’s great for me, as a coach, is the type of men they are. When I could leave practice and know that everything was going to be handled appropriately – when I know that they are not going to do anything foolish and they are going to represent this University that has given them so much, the way they have both on and off the field – I wish I could share with you the amount of emails I get on a consistent basis when we travel – just the politeness that they show at hotels or on airplanes or airports – when you see those things, that just makes me really proud. Like I tell a lot of people, one the field, that’s one thing, that’s the easiest part of my job, but making sure these guys are going to be great humans, great men, great fathers, and great husbands, that for me is a really big deal, and watching these two (Cole Haring and Richard Cunningham) especially, kind of battle it out for different homeruns and watching how they have grown from when I got here to where they are now, I’ll tell you what, that’s what makes me proud.”
On how he came to the decision of starting pitcher and what problems UCLA caused
“I thought Tyler (Thomas) was a good matchup for them. We just did. We talked about it and we were trying to get him through at least three, four, or five and then we would go to the bullpen. You know, UCLA is really good. Those are the problems that they caused us. They are good hitters, and when you put good hitters in offensive counts, they have a tendency to do some damage with it. You have to tip your hat to UCLA, they didn’t miss those pitches.”
Baylor senior outfielder Cole Haring
On what Baylor can take moving forward
“I wish we could have done more for the team. I wish we could have done more to win. The goal today was to win. We all had it in our minds this morning that we were going to win two today and one tomorrow, host a Super and then go to the World Series, and we fell short. UCLA is a good team and we really battled. That’s all you can do.”