Maryland Head Coach John Szefc Opening Statement: “Obviously this was a disappointing day for our guys, but Virginia played very well. [Brandon] Waddell was very good and made big pitches when he had to. I thought we had a lot of good swings. We hit some balls hard right at people. We had a couple of speed bumps on the base paths, but that’s going to happen at times. We’ve been pretty good about that for most of the year. I think it was one of those days where a lot of things didn’t go our way. Mike [Shawaryn] had a good start. If you look at some of the base hits early on, it’s not like he was getting hammered. There was a ground ball here and a blooper there, but good teams like Virginia will take those base hits and turn them into good things. It could have gone a lot better for us, but the bottom line is that it’s a three-game series and, realistically, it’s hard to come in here and beat these guys in the first two. We just have to re-gather ourselves and flush this really quick and come back mentally prepared tomorrow.”
On tomorrow’s matchup: “No matter who they throw out there tomorrow, it’s going to be challenging. It’s not like they’re going to throw a weak arm at you. We’ll have to have our best effort out there offensively and defensively to get it done. At this stage of the season, you know you’re going to face a challenging pitcher. We’re going to need to play well to be successful. We need to get off to a good start.”
On the difficulties of facing Virginia and Mike Papi: “You have to play very clean to beat them. If you look at the two wins we have against them this year, they were both one run games. They’ll take you to the end. That’s why they have all the accolades and rankings this year, because they do things the right way and they have good players. Mike Papi has shown who he really is in these past two days. That’s about as good as a left-handed hitter we’ve faced all year. He’s making us really work for an out against him.”
On Mike Shawaryn’s performance: “Mike’s stuff was okay, but he’s just a very tough kid. I’ve seen him in many adverse situations this year that he’s gotten through. Anytime I got Mike Shawaryn on the mound, I’m feeling pretty good about things.”
Sophomore Infielder Jose Cuas On what he saw from Virginia’s Brandon Waddell: “He was making big pitches when needed and his defense was making plays behind him. He had two runners on late in the game and made a big pitch and got a ground out to third base.”
On the team’s mentality after the game: “It’s a loss, but it’s not the biggest one of the year. We’re still alive for tomorrow. As long as we put this game behind us, we can come out tomorrow from the first inning on and attack.”
On the possibility of facing Virginia’s Artie Lewicki in tomorrow’s game: “If he can come out [and pitch] tomorrow, he can come out. He threw as many pitches today as we thought he’d throw. Our approach is going to stay the same. He throws with velocity. They still have a power arm out of the bullpen in their closer who can throw 96-97, so no matter if he pitches or not, our approach is the same.”
Freshman Pitcher Mike Shawaryn On moving past today’s loss heading into tomorrow: “We can’t dwell over it later tonight. We have to move on and put it behind us. We have to think of the positives and take tomorrow as it comes.”
On Virginia’s offensive performance: “They got to me early today and after that things kind of unraveled. It didn’t go the way I wanted to. They put the bat on the ball all day and things happen. That’s baseball. They are a great team and it’s tough to get those 27 outs. Virginia does a good job of making it tough on us.”
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