Maryland Head Coach John Szefc
Opening Statement: “We’re obviously not really pleased with the outcome, but I really can’t sit here and lament a whole lot about what these guys have accomplished this season and certainly in the last 40 percent of the season. I really haven’t been around a better group of young guys in a long time, probably not since my days at Marist. As we continue to build this program, this group will really be one that is looked back on as a cornerstone of that process. I think every Maryland baseball team will look back at this one and try to aim to get where this team ended up and slightly further. This will be a hard group of guys to duplicate. We’re lucky enough to have a lot of guys coming back, but the guys we lose will be very difficult to replace. Although the result isn’t exactly heartwarming, I really have no regrets or negative things to say whatsoever.”
On the decision to start Bobby Ruse: “I don’t regret it. Bobby has been a strike-thrower for us all year and has been very effective. You’ve got to realize what we ran into tonight. [Virginia] is by far the most talented team we’ve played all year. Not even close. Sborz could be a number one starter for a lot of teams. We ran into what very well could be the national champion at home in their park. I haven’t seen a team like this in 13 years.”
On falling behind early in the game: “It’s tough. You obviously want to get off to a good start and get on the board first, which we almost did in the first inning. In a game like this, you can’t play with them and you can’t play behind them, and that’s the way the game went. We dug ourselves a bit of a hole and couldn’t get out of it. But the story of that game was Sborz. That guy was unbelievable. That’s as good of an arm as we’ve seen all year, and we ran into him on the wrong night.”
On if he thought he could get his team one win away from Omaha within two years of head coaching: “No. I think it’s a tribute to the work our coaching staff has put in. I wouldn’t trade any one of those coaches for anybody in the country. From a playing standpoint, you have to give greater credit to the players. You can be Tommy Lasorda in the dugout, but if your players are bad then you’ll be bad. We were lucky enough to have a combination of older talent, younger talent, and strong personalities. That led to something special. There are only eight teams that can go to Omaha. Unfortunately, we got matched up against an absolute monster in the Super Regional at their place. Every guy in their lineup is dangerous. That’s an absolute college baseball monster there. I’ll give our guys all the credit in the world for allowing me to sit here now. Without them, I’m not sitting here talking to you on June 9th.”
Junior Outfielder Charlie White
On what he saw from Josh Sborz: “He was throwing all his pitches for strikes and had pretty electrifying stuff while he was out there. We tried to stick to our approach but couldn’t really find holes.”
On the team’s late-season run: “We’ve made huge strides since we’ve been here. The first year Jake [Stinnett] and I were here, we won five games in the ACC. Now, we were one game away from Omaha. It’s been great. It’s been really fun.”
Senior Pitcher Jake Stinnett
On what he can take from the season: “I think we fell a little bit short of our goals, but we still made great strides as a baseball program and as a team. It says a lot about our team that we got this far when no one expected us to do anything in the first place. We have a lot of hard-working guys and a lot to be proud of.”
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Chris Graham
