Bucknell University Quotes
Bucknell Coach Scott Heather Opening Statement: “The story of the game was certainly Dan Weigel on the mound. I told the guys confidence and belief in yourself is an amazing thing and you could see that from early on. He believed in himself and I knew he was going to give us a chance to win and he certainly fought through some adversity early with not making the first play of the game and giving up a home run. He was pretty tough after that. He kept them off balance. He got all three of his pitches over the plate for strikes. He pitched to both sides and certainly benefited from the big ballpark and getting a lot of fly ball outs. Those are easy outs for us in a lot of instances. Offensively Krentzman came up with a big hit that kind of reminded us to relax a little bit and just play. We were able to get out to a lead at that point. Obviously Jon Mayer had a great game for us behind the plate and with the bat as well. His two-run RBI kind of broke it open for us.”
On today’s defensive performance compared to yesterday’s against UVa: “I thought our outfield play was certainly solid running the ball down and making some plays out there. Sam [Clark] was struggling there at third base. He is a freshman and played a little bit like a freshman. He has been pretty good for us all year, especially defensively. I hope he bounces back tomorrow because we need his bat in the lineup.”
On the team’s hitting approach: “Our approach is to always swing at strikes. We think that is the key to hitting. It is tough for me sometimes during bp when our guys will take close pitches. That is our approach. We are going to want to swing at strikes and they did a good job of that early on. I think the error early kind of put Parker [Bean] on his heels a little bit and he didn’t respond well after that. We were able to get a big hit to score some runs and take the lead.”
On Dan Weigel’s performance in the ninth inning and who will pitch tomorrow: “We started to look at the bullpen probably about the sixth inning. I was watching the velocity closely with Dan. It is nice to have it up there on the board. He was still 82, 83. It even showed 85 in the eighth inning. I felt pretty good that he was confident. He is a workhorse and he is strong. He has pitched a lot of pitches for us over the years, especially last year going deep into games. He said when he came off in the eighth that he was finishing it and when a senior tells you that, you are going to go with him and believe in him and he certainly finished it. We will go with Andrew Andreychik tomorrow. He was our number three all year and at times has been our best guy. We’re excited. He is a competitor and he’ll throw strikes as well and give us a chance to win.”
Dan Weigel On giving up two runs in the first inning: “When you give up runs and you put the team in a hole its good to see the team bounce back. They got three for me and they gave me a lead after the first inning. And then they tacked on two more. So pitching with a lead I was able to be more aggressive.”
On pitching at UVa again after a poor performance last year: “Man, I don’t know. They got to me last time. It was possibly my last college start, so I was confident and I figured I’d leave it all on the field. I’m pretty happy with the result.”
On what he was feeling in the ninth inning: “It was a chance to throw a complete game in a regional. I haven’t even been here before. Being able to come in in my first start in a regional and possibly my last college start and throw a complete game was pretty cool.”
Jon Mayer On his double that broke the game open in the first inning: “I was just trying to go out there and see the ball well and stay aggressive. Before the game we talked about being more aggressive at the plate and trying to see a pitch to hit that we could put a good bat on early in the count and not fall behind. So I just went up there and saw a good pitch and swung at it.”
Liberty University Quotes
Liberty Coach Jim Toman Opening Statement: “Obviously, we are disappointed with how the regional went. I am really proud of the guys for getting us to a regional. We didn’t play as well as we wanted to down the stretch. I don’t know exactly why that was. We kind of ran out of gas at the end. We had the best regular season in the history of Liberty. I am proud of these guys for that and winning the Big South Conference [regular season], going 23-3. We got the first at-large bid in the history of Liberty. We are proud to have gone back to our second regional in a row, but we wanted to take that next step, and it didn’t happen. Give Bucknell all the credit in the world. They went down 2-0 on Alex’s home run, but they came right back with a three-spot.”
“Today’s lefty is a lot like a couple of lefties we have. He was under the hitting speed and we hit a lot of fly balls, but they weren’t going very far. We hit four or five of them hard, but we didn’t really do much after that first inning.”
“All year, we played hard and, on and off the field, gave Glory to God and that is what our mission is at Liberty. I am proud of the guys for doing that. It hurts, because I love these guys, especially the seniors who are graduating. And we have several juniors who may not be back. It is difficult right now to put everything in perspective.”
On what caused the late season slide: “I don’t know if it was when [Carson] Herndon, our Saturday guy, went down or whether [Jared] Lyons’ shoulder wasn’t feeling well [or some other time]. When we had those guys going, we were winning [close games] and getting timely hits. I don’t know if it was the grind from winning so many close games or we just got tired or we didn’t condition them right or they didn’t eat right or we didn’t get enough rest, but we were a little worn out and beat up physically. We have a great trainer and a great strength coach and a good nutritionist, but we were beat up.”
First Baseman Alex Close On what Bucknell LHP Dan Weigel was doing to confound the hitters at the plate: “He was making pitches and changing things up. He had his fastball, change-up and curve ball going. We got to him early, but unfortunately, myself included, we weren’t able to make any adjustments. He was throwing all three pitches in all different counts, and never got into any pattern.”
On the errors in the game: “I missed the first one. I just short-armed it and [Dalton] Britt made a great play to keep that ball from going into left. It’s hard for a pitcher, when you get a double play ball like that and you have a junior at first base [who should have made the play]. They were just little mistakes, but those are going to happen.”
On what the team wasn’t able to accomplish down the stretch: “First, we have to thank the seniors. A lot of them came in with me three years ago. They have left their mark. For three years now, we have had three great teams in a row. It was kind of disappointing to not win. After we send the seniors off, I think we will step back and realize what a great season we have had. We had some special teams and it was great to be part of teams that have set the bar for Liberty baseball. This is a program that is going to continue to be in regionals, win regionals and be in supers. This has been a special year; it just didn’t have the finish we wanted it to. This program is definitely headed in the right direction.”
Pitcher Matt Marsh On being on the mound, striking out seven and whether he felt the run support was going to come: “I just tried to do the best I could and give my team a chance to win. When I came to the realization that we were still down so that this could be my last outing and my last inning, I got a little emotional. I just tried to do the best I could and give my team a chance to win, and unfortunately it wasn’t able to happen.”
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