June 1, 2002
LONG BEACH STATE
Head Coach Mike Weathers
(Opening Statement)
"It's been a long day, we needed a big pitching performance after that tough loss to Stanford and that's what Jered [Weaver] gave us, he's been real tough down the stretch, played way beyond his years, being a freshman. We needed everyone to come up big, especially if we're going to play two tomorrow, we're going to need some healthy guys to pitch. And Jered did a great job, tomorrow we're just going to have to play everybody who's healthy to get through two games."
(On Fullerton having an advantage with extra rest)
"Well, it was good and bad; the bad part was having such a tough loss, we just needed one run and we had come back and it's kind of tough to get over that. But what we did is come together and fortunately we had to change uniforms, so we just told the guys that we didn't want anybody talking about the last game once they put on the new uniforms. I think that helped because we didn't have anybody talking about it, I think that was a real plus. And as it turned out with Jered's performance, the first couple innings unfolded and I think everybody just fell in too. Jeremy [Reed's] homerun got us ahead 3-0 and after that I don't think you're thinking too much about being tired anymore."
Starting Pitcher Jered Weaver
(On his first Regional game)
"It was definitely different than the regular season, with emotions flying, things going different ways. The first few innings were a little tense, I just wanted to try and do my best out there."
CAL STATE FULLERTON
Head Coach George Horton
(Opening Statement)
"We gave it everything we had, honestly - weren't up to the challenge. We had some good defense during the game, Darric [Merrill, starting pitcher] and Travis [Ingle, relief pitcher] gave us a chance, we just weren't up to the challenge of Weaver and DeMaria. It's frustrating, but the good news is that we've still got a Big West team that's still alive and certainly we'll be rooting for them, I know they'll play well and hope that they'll come out of this tournament."
(On the advantage of having time off between games)
"I think we had the advantage on paper, I commend Coach Weathers and their staff, we thought we had a little bit of a psychological advantage, having some rest and a little more time to focus, but with Reed's homerun we really couldn't get it done."
Starting Pitcher Darric Merrell(On his feelings about the game)
"Obviously it's disappointing, it wasn't a horrible outing but it wasn't a great outing. I thought it was okay enough to win, but we didn't win - but we did alright. I had some great defense behind me, but we just had a little trouble swinging the bat against Weaver."
Centerfielder Chris Stringfellow
(On tonight's game being different than last night)
"I just think we were a little dead today, we definitely didn't get enough swing today, we took a lot of fastballs. We were coming off a four-hour break, some of the guys were just a little dead."