June 16, 2001
Head Coach Mark Marquess
(opening statement)
"Obviously, we're disappointed. We didn't do much in the game today. They hammered us pretty good. They were definitely the better team today. I thought we could give them a good game. But, as they have in the entire College World Series, they just exploded on us with a couple of big innings and they took advantage of a couple of mistakes we made. That's why they're national champions. They jumped all over us. (Tom) Farmer did a great job of keeping the ball down. We had nothing going all game and that's a credit to Farmer. I was very impressed with their team. As far as our team is concerned, I'm very proud of this team. It's a very special team because of their work, dedication, youth and inexperience. I'm very proud of what they've accomplished. It was a heck of a season. Unfortunately, we came up one game short, but it was a great ride. I had a good group of players."
(on feelings compared from this year's defeat in title game to last year's defeat in title game)
"Last year was a little different game. We had the lead and the game was lost at the end. This year it wasn't really much of a game as far as the outcome is concerned. They jumped all over us. This year obviously disappointing, but we just weren't in this one. Last year, we were ahead and had a chance to win it."
(on how soon you can put this loss behind you and concentrate on next season)
"It will take a while, but we have a lot of young players and the majority will be back. There are some things that we have to do, but that's the way it always is at the end of the season, whether you win or lose in the national championship or you finish last - you're always planning for next year. We'll start that Monday. Right now it's difficult, but all in all it was a great year for us."
(on Mike Gosling's performance)
"I thought he had a pretty good fastball. It's been better, but he threw the ball by them a couple of times. The thing with Mike is that he's able to get back into rhythm. It wasn't a situation where he lost it all at once. The thing that hurt us was the bases loaded double, but we didn't play well behind him. His stuff was pretty good but his location wasn't as good as it sometimes is."
(on which drafted players may be back next year)
"We haven't talked about it. I know a couple of players were drafted pretty high. That's always a personal decision that they make. I'm sure they have some time to think about it now. That decision will be made by themselves and their family whatever they think is best. Normally, they will keep me abreast of what is going on."
Ryan Garko
(on the 2001 season)
"Our season was pretty gratifying. No one really thought we were going to do anything. It's very disappointing right now but if you go back and look at where everybody thought we would be at the beginning of the season, we have a lot to be proud of. I think I speak for all of the young guys, all of the freshman, that we accomplished what a lot of people didn't think we were going to be able to do. We all grew as ballplayers and got a lot better. Hopefully, we are building for the future of the Stanford Baseball program."
(on today's game)
"Miami was tough. They didn't let us get anything going today. We got a few hits, but we couldn't string anything together. We just didn't come up. Usually, we come through in spots. When our pitchers don't pitch well, we do a good job of picking them up. But, today we just couldn't do that. You have to give credit to Miami."
Mike Gosling
(on how he felt and the series of events in the third inning that led to four Miami runs)"I never felt great even in those first two innings when I had two zeros. I just never really got in a rhythm. I didn't have very good stuff, probably below average compared to the rest of the season. I made it through those first two innings, and I was hoping I would kind of get it going in the third. I actually started to feel a little more comfortable in the third inning. We got the first guy with the bunt and the second one unfortunately was a difficult play. (Andy) Topham has been one of the best fielding third basemen in the country all year. He's going to make that play 99 out of 100 times. We had some bad breaks in that inning - a couple of hits through the hole and then the ball that Carlos (Quentin) didn't see out there but that happens. When they got the bases loaded, I needed to come up with a big pitch. I made a decent pitch on the outside corner, but he did a good job of hitting it right down the line. They got the big hit when they needed it. They hit that ball hard. They got some other hits in places were we weren't. That just happens sometimes. It's unfortunate that it happened against us today in the championship game, but you can't do a whole lot about it."
(on Stanford's junior class)
"We've got a great junior class. When you don't have any seniors on the roster, the juniors have to step up in that leadership role and act like seniors. We had the experience as a group of being in Omaha our first two years and playing in the national championship game last year. We felt like even though it was only our third year that we could step in and be leaders just like seniors do on most team. It's a real fun group. We all get along real well. That makes it even more exciting for us this year. We've all grown as players over the last three years. Who knows who will be back next year and who won't, but it's definitely a good group. I would love to see everybody back and try to do it all one more times. Who knows if that will happen, but I think everybody's going to look back at this year and say that we came a long way."