June 5, 2011

Recap |  Box Score

NCAA Baseball - Los Angeles Regional
June 5, 2011 - UC Irvine 4, UCLA 3
Postgame Quotes

UCLA Head Coach John Savage
"It was one of best college baseball games you'll see - a bunch of players going at each other, coaches, players, big moments, it was a remarkable game with young players stepping up. Weiss was really, really good. Thurman was good. I just want to congratulate UC Irvine for moving on. I have the utmost respect and admiration for Coach Gillespie. I wouldn't be where I am today without him. I think he's the best college baseball coach in the country. If we were going to lose to anyone I'd rather it be him. I love to compete against him, and I love to beat him, but the bottom line is that they did a little more than we did. I congratulate the players and coaches, and I have ton of admiration for their program."

(on bullpen): "Nick (Vander Tuig) had a good year. You look at his numbers, we lost (Mitchell) Beacom to a freak injury, (Jordan) Haver to a freak injury. It was just one of those situations where Nick didn't pitch his senior year (of high school) due to Tommy John surgery. He was still trying to get his feet on the ground. But he's going to have an unbelievable career. I have a ton of trust in him. Nick will be fine."

(on leaving runners on base): "That was really the story of our season. We could not get people in. It seemed like we'd get them on, but at the end of the day we just for whatever reason didn't produce enough runs for how many baserunners we had. It's frustrating. Everybody's frustrated, everyone was trying, and sometimes they'd try too hard. That's nature of game."

(on what he said to Mike Gillespie after the game): "I have the upmost respect for him. I said he deserved it. He's got a very good team. I think they will play well at Virginia. I told him it seems like the last couple years we've been matched up. It'd be nice to get separated once in a while, but that's the nature of the regionals. I just congratulated him. (Associate head coach) Pat Shine is another close friend of mine on the coaching staff. I'm just not happy it was at our expense."

(on what he told Vander Tuig after the game): "I told him he's going to be a great Bruin. He needs to learn from this season. I'm sure he'll be one of our starters next year. He was put into a role he wasn't totally used to, and I thought he did an outstanding job throughout the season of accomplishing his role."

(on taking Weiss out of the game in the 9th): "I thought he was done after the seventh. In the eighth inning, he came out guns blazing. I'm so proud of him. He just stepped up in a major way. You saw a pitcher grow up tonight, a guy you're going to have to deal with over the next two years. Was he done? That's a hard thing to tell, but he didn't want to get out of the game. But I thought it ran its course, and we needed to give the ball to Nick."

(on reflecting on the season): "Whenever you win 35 games and play in the regional finals, it's a good season. The expectations coming off last season - they are what they are. We fell short of what we wanted to do. The toughest thing is to get out of the west. Everyone knows that. There's no secret to that. It's tough. (If) Fresno State gets sent to another regional, they have a chance to win, but they went 0-2 here and face (Trevor) Bauer in an elimination game. I'm not complaining, but whenever you get four west coast teams in the same regional it's always going to be difficult. But, like I said, I'm very proud of our seniors and the juniors who are moving on. UCLA saw two of the best pitchers we've ever seen pitch in this program. They made an unbelievable footprint for the younger guys and for the future. I think everyone will see tomorrow, where Gerrit (Cole) and Trevor go (in the draft), how good they are. I just can't say enough about those two guys. They are future major leaguers, front-line starters and I just want to thank all the guys moving on because they had unbelievable careers."

UCLA pitcher Zack Weiss
(on UC Irvine): "They're a good team. They battled. They swing at fastballs early, they will make you pay if you make a mistake. It just worked out that way that I pitched them three times - twice on a Tuesday and once tonight. I think they're a very good team, they do the little things right, they put the bunts down, they're scrappy, and they're tough outs. There's no easy out in that lineup."

UCLA designated hitter Jeff Gelalich
(on if the team was trying to do too much): "I'd say we tried a lot this season. Tonight we had a consistent plan throughout the night. We got guys on base. (Cody) Keefer's ball he hit to the warning track, if it's daytime the ball goes out."

(on this year's team compared to last season's): "Last season was a great season, but coming into this year we said the past is past, we need to move forward. We're disappointed we didn't get to where wanted to go. I know that guys who will be coming back will remember this and will hopefully learn a lot from this."

UC Irvine head coach Mike Gillespie
"It was a really good college baseball game that had a lot of everything, a lot of different things. Not all of it was so pretty. There was a lot that went on. It was a grind, a battle between two really good teams that wouldn't give in. Of course I'm really proud of our guys. I think that Andrew Thurman hung in there and endured and survived. He kept the game from getting away from us. The thing that really helped us have a chance to win was that we played sparkling highlight defense a half dozen different times. That has been a trademark of this team."

"It's a special achievement for us at this regional. For me personally, I have a real legitimate genuine very close friendship with John Savage and his family. We have a healthy competition and respect for each other, and I love that we did this, but it's a little harder to enjoy this because it's (against) him."\

(on Cody Keefer's bases loaded fly out in the eighth): "When it left his bat, I did not have a sense that it was an easy out. It's better to be lucky than good. We had that heavy mist at the time, and I'm sure it was a factor."

(on closing out the series): "I certainly wanted to get it done tonight. If it had gone to tomorrow we would've felt good having Crosby Slaught out there. He's our most veteran pitcher and one of our two most veteran players and has done well for us. We all would have been comfortable with him out there, but I think all the players agree, we didn't go in here saying we wanted to win one of the next two. We wanted to get it done tonight."

UC Irvine designated hitter Jordan Leyland
(on missing the bunt in the ninth inning): "Once I missed the bunt, I was just thinking 'crap.' My mind was going. I was just looking for a pitch to put in play. Luckily he left a slider a little up, and it went over the third baseman's head."

UC Irvine catcher Ronnie Shaeffer
(on his game-winning hit): "I was just trying to get the guy in from third. We had charts on these guys. They threw me a lot of fastballs the last couple of games. The double I hit was an offspeed pitch. I was ready for some fastballs, and fouled a couple off. I watched some go by that I should've tried to hit. I tried to battle, and I stuck the bat out and got it by the first baseman. It felt great."

"It was kind of a grind the whole night with shifting momentum. We came out in the ninth, and the first at-bat was huge - we got the leadoff guy on, and it just happened from there. Things just went our way."

(on Phillip Ferragamo's relief appearance): "Phil had to be nervous. I could see it in his eyes. I tried to make him laugh a bit. His first pitch, he hits a guy. I went out there and tried to ease him more, and he got back up there and got in the zone. When Keefer hit that ball to center, it made me worry a little bit, but i knew we had a good guy out there who catches everything. He tracked it down, and it was good."

(on facing UCLA and Virginia): "It's kind of weird how it lined up this year with UCLA knocking us out last year. We got to get some payback on them in the Regional. A couple of years ago, Virginia knocked us out, and we'll hopefully get some payback too. They have a good club, good pitching, and we'll be up for the battle.