University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Postgame Quotes – Loyola Marymount vs. UCLA
POSTGAME QUOTES
NCAA Los Angeles Regional – Game Seven
UCLA 6, Loyola Marymount 3 (June 3, 2019)
UCLA Head Coach John Savage
Opening remarks
“Well, first off, I’d like to congratulate Loyola. Loyola made a hell of a run. Thought Gilly (LMU manager Jason Gill) did a great job with that team. The whole coaching staff. To come back and win that tournament in the West Coast Conference—that was a tough league this season. And they certainly played very well here in the Regional. Our team, it’s been resilient all season. It’s been a good team, clearly. Week in and week out, been a very consistent team. We’re very happy to come back out of the losers’ bracket—not an easy thing to do these days—win two games yesterday, win one game today. Very proud of our guys. Proud of our entire program—coaches, managers, players—just a lot of dedication. Certainly the first step in the postseason, but it was a hard-fought series and I thought we deserved to come out of it and move on to the next round.”
On what sets this group apart from his other successful teams
“Well, it’s a good question. I think depth really is the key to this team. No [Garrett] Mitchell today. [Brett] Pettway went down. [Jeremy] Ydens went down. [Nick] Nastrini went down. And the schedule didn’t feel it. Usually it feels it when guys go out. Offensively, we’re mature. We’re older, a little bit. I think it’s just a combination of pitching and defense and offense [that] really makes this team a special team.”
On difference between team four years ago and this one
“Well, I think depth, like I said. I think we just have more players on the roster. Left-handed, right-handed bullpen strength. I thought our bullpen was exceptional. We started the game today with really a bullpen guy. [Michael] Townsend picked us up. [Ryan] Garcia obviously came out and did a really good job and who’s normally our clearly our Friday guy. Just really good leadership on this team. We have three really tremendous captains in Jake Pries and Kyle Mora and of course Ryan Kreidler. Just a bunch of guys that have really fought hard in our program and been to three Regionals now as juniors and finally knocked the door down in the Regional. So, ’15 was hard to take. Very difficult Regional with Minnesota, Ole Miss, Bakersfield. And then this one was a tough one, as well. It’s hard to say right now because the season’s not over with, so I don’t really like comparing teams right now, but just to answer your question, I think it’s overall team depth.”
On the message to the team after the Saturday loss and the message going into the last two days
“Make sure you get external. We talk about being competitive; we talk about having a positive mindset. We talked about staying together. Pretty much your common themes that we had all season long but we were up against it. Saturday was a really tough loss, but Loyola played well all weekend. They were a legitimate postseason team, and their pitching and offensively they’re tough. It was more just stay together, we have enough to come back in this thing, we’ve been down before. Like Ryan said, we lost our fair share of Fridays, and we didn’t lose a series, so it just goes to show you that this team certainly never gives up.”
UCLA junior infielder Chase Strumpf
On what he was looking for leading up to three-run home run
“I kind of just went into the at bat looking for something elevated. I mean runners in scoring position, I believe it was two outs, so I figured I wasn’t going to get a great pitch to hit. First pitch that went by was kind of a changeup elevated, so I kind of just recommitted to my approach next pitch and he threw another changeup that pitch and it was elevated enough to allow me to get a good swing off. I was just trying to do a job. There’s two outs. Two-out RBIs are daggers and so, I know, it was a big moment…”
On if he was told he had been drafted by Chicago Cubs prior to three-run home run
“No, I was not. I was told that it happened right before the at bat. My dad maybe should not have come into the dugout right after and said that, but he did tell me. But in the moment, I was just kind of caught up in the game, caught up in the home run. It was a really exciting game, it was obviously a big home run for the moment. Obviously, I’m honored to be picked by them, but, as well as we have more priorities here. Still have a job to do here and that’s where my mind is at the moment.”
On being told by his dad about being drafted after hitting a home run
“I was actually coming into the dugout with all the guys, and he decided to take upon the moment to shout at me that I got drafted by the Cubs. So shout-out to my dad for kind of ruining the moment with my team, but he was excited.”
On if hitting a home run right as he was getting drafted is something he’ll remember forever
“I think I’ll remember the game itself more. Looking back at freshman year, sophomore year and this year, we struggled getting out of the regional. Winning this game was huge. This game was very exciting; emotions were very high. So I think not so much the draft, but I’ll remember the game more so, and then whatever happens after that is good. But the game was a great moment.”
UCLA junior infielder Ryan Kreidler
On the team’s resilience
“We’ve actually had our backs against the wall a few times this year. In our first road series at Georgia Tech we lost Friday night on a walk-off homer, and we came back to win Saturday and Sunday. So I think that resiliency, like coach said, has kind of been a theme of our team this year. Of course coming out of the loser’s bracket here is huge for us. It shows that we can win in a tournament setting, and it shows that our team is not done yet. We’ve got a lot more work to do. We’re just excited to get back out there next weekend and play the Supers at Jackie.”
On how much confidence he has in the pitching staff
“Tons. The way those guys work with Coach and in their weight room work and their mental game work. You see a guy like Nick Nastrini come back yesterday with one of the most impressive performances I’ve seen, regardless of age, in college baseball. The guy’s out for 100 days almost, and he comes back and throws a gem when we needed it. You see guys like that and you see the way those guys work and that staff and the connections they have, and it makes it easy on us as position players to go out there and have a lot of trust with them. We’re lucky to have a great pitching coach and also a staff that gets it with some veteran leadership in there too.”
LMU Head Coach Jason Gill
Opening remarks
“Well, first of all, I’d just like to thank UCLA for putting on an excellent event. Very well-organized. It was done first-class, top to bottom. I thought that everything was great. The umpiring was outstanding all weekend – the best crew of umpires I’ve ever been around in 23 years. It was very well-run top to bottom. About the game – look, we fought, we battled, we threw strikes. We hung in there with them. I know that wasn’t our goal. We felt the whole game we were going to win all the way up until the ninth inning. We just couldn’t get a timely hit. We did get the bases loaded and one out with arguably our best hitter [Trevin Esquerra] up at the plate and he scalded a ball right at their second baseman. Things like that, they turn games around. Our shortstop lost a ball in the lights behind home plate with the screen. That led to a [one-run inning]. Those things change momentum, but we don’t make excuses in our baseball program. They were the better team today. I tip my cap to John Savage and his coaching staff. They’re number one in the country for a reason. They’re really good. But, I’m extremely proud of my team. How we showed up today. How we fought. How we played. I wouldn’t trade one of them for one of them for anybody else in the country.”
On team playing pretty loose down the stretch
“We kind of laughed with each other quite a bit. Like when we got to the [West Coast] Conference Tournament two weeks ago, a lot of guys were saying, ‘We’re not even supposed to be here’. I think they were just having fun with it. I’d mentioned a couple days ago that we played pretty loose most of the year, with the exception of about four weeks toward the tail end of our conference season. When we got into the Conference Tournament, I think it was a relief and we got back to doing what we do. In the postseason, I think it’s time for them to shine. At that point, as coaches, we’re trying to stay out of their way. We’re trying to make decisions that help them succeed. It’s been Codie and Brandon’s team for over a month and a half. It’s their club and they’re running it the way they want to, to some extent."
On if team’s success is indicative of strength of West Coast Conference
“Yeah, one hundred percent. Our conference is overlooked every single year. I think a lot of it has to do with the RPI on the west coast. There are 27 teams out here; we have to play each other. The top [teams] get sucked to the middle and the bottom get sucked to the middle. We can’t avoid each other like other conferences can. Like the SEC, Tennessee doesn’t play the same midweek games that Florida does, so they don’t run into each other. They don’t cross-contaminate. We got the RPI system. We adopted it from basketball. Well, basketball plays half the games that we do. They don’t play common opponents. It affects the West Coast quite a bit. I believe that the ISR [Iterative Strength Ratings] is a better indicator of the strength of what happens out here because it eliminates common opponents. I’m kind of veering from the question a little bit, but our conference is a very difficult conference and I think we represented it well this weekend going toe-to-toe with the Pac-12’s best team in three straight games."
LMU senior infielder Brandon Shearer
On not taking advantage of early run-scoring opportunities
“Of course it does because we’re playing the best team in the country, so we want to take full control of those opportunities that we get. But that’s baseball. With a team like us, we just kept rolling and tried to roll with the punches as much as we could. To answer your question, yes – of course it affected the momentum that they had.”
LMU senior pitcher Codie Paiva
On team’s fan support during the Regional
“It was special. I’ve never experienced anything like that – that type of support for any team I’ve ever played on. I just want to thank Lion Nation for coming out and supporting us throughout the whole year and everybody just supporting this weekend. It was special. It gave us a lot of energy. It helped us play better. I just want to say thank you to all of them for all of the support. It was great to see and it was really good.”