June 2, 2002
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STANFORD
Head Coach Mark Marquess
(Opening Statement)
I am very proud of this group. To win this regional, which I thought was the toughest in the country, was impressive. We had three difficult games, and I was impressed by Long Beach State and the way they battled back. We made a mistake on that bunt and they got right back and tied the game. I thought that John Hudgins pitched an outstanding game. He got a couple pitches up and they hit them, but he pitched a great game. He only had about 70 pitches by the 7th and finished with about 100. After they scored and tied the game I thought that (Ryan) Garko's double to get it to 3-2 was big, and then (Jason) Cooper's two-run homer was a huge lift for us. It was a tough regional. We could have lost Friday's game and yesterday's game, and today was a tight game. It's tough for Long Beach to come back after playing two games yesterday. I thought that their pitcher did a good job and kept us off balance. We only had two runs after about four of five innings. I was very proud of our senior group and I thought that Chris O'Riordan and (Arik) VanZandt and (Scott) Dragicevich and (Andy) Topham played outstanding. I thought that we made some plays that you wouldn't see even at major league games. You aren't going to see a better play than the double-play by Dragicevich and Topham's play in the hole. They don't make better plays in baseball, no matter what level. We have played great defense all year, and with the exception of that one bunt play, we played solid today and got some timely hitting and a good pitching performance.
(On getting to Josh Alliston in the 5th inning)
I didn't know much about him, and I wasn't sure if we were going to get to him. He came up with some big pitches. Honestly, we got a couple of jam shots that fell in for us, and we were very fortunate. But Garko's double and Cooper's two-run homer really set the stage for that inning. They pitched well, and they had good depth. I was impressed with all of the strikes that they threw, and they didn't walk many guys.
(On being on a mission for Omaha)
I have never had a group that has gone to the College World Series three straight years and play in two national championship games. Honestly, it's something that we shoot for. When you get to a regional, you remind your players that in the first meeting of the season you talk about getting to the College World Series. That's your goal, and it's a lofty goal. As our players would tell you, it is very difficult to get to Omaha, or to get to a regional, and then to win a regional and get to a super regional. And it get more difficult as you go. There is so much parity in college baseball. As I said, one swing of the bat last night in the ninth inning, and we're behind 2-1 in the ninth inning Friday night. And especially in this regional with so much parity every game was tough. So obviously it's a goal of a lot of people, and sure, we always want that. There are teams standing in our way, and we know that if we didn't play well this weekend and pitch and play defense that we wouldn't have gotten out of here to get to a super regional. The parity is great for the fans and tough on the coaches. And the other thing I'd like to say is that the fans have been great. We set a record for attendance and their support all season long has been great. And playing at home in front of our crowd was great. We drew great crowds all year long.
(On possibly playing USC in the Super Regional)
As I have said, we know a lot about them and we have a lot of respect for USC. But again, you can't take anything for granted. BYU could come up with two wins. But obviously they are the favorites and we know a lot about them and that they're well coached and won our conference. We tried to catch them in the Pac-10, but they won 10 of their last 12 and they played great and are solid. It's unfortunate that we have to play somebody from our conference in a Super Regional. It's not right. But it'll be a great match-up.
(On did you play this Regional any different because it was so tough)
Our strength is our starting pitching, so it's a little bit different. If I had a real ace out of the bullpen it would be a little different. But the strength of the team is the three starters that you saw this weekend. Since the regional was so difficult I wasn't even contemplating taking a chance, that being if you have a four seed playing you that you might roll the dice and save Jeremy for the second game. Because the second game is so critical. If you lose the second game, like Long Beach did, you have to win three games in 30 hours. That's crazy. We didn't play a double-header all year, and your most important games of the year come so close together because of the format of the regional. And if you come into the second game undefeated and lose, then you have to win three games in 30 hours to get out of here, and that's tough. We did it last year, but that's tough. It was a great regional, and it's a real test of the athletes.
Catcher Ryan Garko
(On the three Stanford starting pitchers this weekend)
With this kind of set up where if you lose you have to play a lot of games, it is great to have starting pitching go so well and so deep into the game. All three guys had great stuff all weekend. They all focused on getting ahead of hitters, and that's what they did all weekend. All of the guys had great stuff, and they won all of the big spots in the games, and that is why we won the games. You have to give credit to them, and hopefully they can lead up back to Omaha. We'll go as far as they take us.
(On stealing second base)
Most teams don't pay that much attention to me when I'm on first. They were kind of giving it to me so I took it. It wasn't that big of a deal. But I rather just hit doubles to get into scoring position.
Pitcher John Hudgins
(On the pitch calling)
Coach Kunis does a great job calling the pitches. I don't have to shake off pitches that often because they do such a great job with the selection.
(On Jeremy Guthrie setting the tone for the pitching staff)
The whole staff looks up to Jeremy. I think that he's the best pitcher in college baseball. We are out there to try to duplicate what he does, and he makes us better.
Outfielder Jason Cooper
(On his towering fly-ball home run)
I thought that I hit it well enough to get out. I got a little underneath it, but I thought that it had a chance.
Second Baseman Chris O'Riordan
(On playing with an experienced senior infield)
It's unbelievable playing in this infield. I watched those two plays today from my second base position, and they were two of the best plays I had ever seen in my life. I almost didn't know what to do when Scott threw the ball to me, when I turned the double play. It's unbelievable because not only to you have Scott and Andy on the left side but you have Arik on the right side, would used to be a shortstop. So he is going to make some picks and some great plays as well. Plus, we're all seniors, and it's fun to be out there with your buddies.
LONG BEACH STATE
Head Coach Mike Weathers
(Opening Statement)
Well, we needed to play championship baseball today, it's championship day all over the country. I think that the teams that get here today need to play like champions, and we didn't do that. I thought Stanford did, and they deserved the victory. They pitched, hit and make some good defensive plays, so I think that they were well deserving champions.
(On was fatigue a factor in today's game?)
No, I don't think that we were fatigued. We did have some depth at pitching. We hadn't thrown some of those guys at all. So we kind of thought that we had it OK. Josh Alliston did a great job. He's usually our closer, and he went out there for four, and sending him out in the fifth was probably asking too much of him. But he did a great job.
(On decision to send Josh Alliston out to start the 5th inning)
We scored two runs in the fifth, and it might have been an iffy inning to send Josh back out since we had some fresh arms in the bullpen. But we sent him out there and they jumped on us and did a great job. When we tried to get something going they would make a great play. Scott Dragicevich in the first inning with the great double play and Andy Topham did a great job at shortstop and they ran the ball down in the outfield real well. They did everything that a champion is supposed to do today.
(Reflecting upon first year as head coach)
I thanked the team for my first year. The transition was made very easily. I inherited eight seniors, and even though I had been with the program for nine years the transition was very easy. With those eight seniors we had a lot of adversity early. We lost three senior starters and our junior bullpen guy. So right off the bat we hit some roadblocks, but our young guys stepped up and the team became a team. We try to build that team philosophy at Long Beach that Coach Snow always started. Everybody wants to know what it is, and it's a style of play, but much more than that. And those seniors helped me in my first year, and we kept building and working at it and guys like Jeremy would had been here for three years and who's the best player on the team got everybody motivated and told them what it means to be playing here. I couldn't have asked for anything better. We had a stretch for about ten days that were rough, but other than that we played consistent. We led our conference in hitting and pitching, and we only struggled a little bit on defense. Edgar Varela got hurt in the opening series against USC, and he didn't play again until about a week ago. Our infield would have been anchored a little bit better with Edgar, but that's about the only bad part of the year. An old coach friend of mine told me that if you win everything in the first year there's nothing to look forward to. We didn't win it all, but it's going to be tough to top this one. We hope that we have a group coming back that has learned a lot and understands what we do. Next season starts right now, and they are the guys that need to step up and take this experience of playing here and seeing a team like Stanford that it on a mission, that got denied last year and returned everybody. They are a championship club, and they played like it today.
(On at the start of the season, with you have thought with your starting rotation that you would have made it this far?)
No, like I said, we had our star Matt Paz go down with Tommy Johns surgery, and Abe Alvarez, who threw two innings in the regional last year as a freshman, kind of a tenth pitcher, ended up winning twelve games for us. And Jared Weaver who won last night against Fullerton is going to be a good one, and should be a Freshman All American. We are proud of Abe and Jared and what they made of their opportunities, and we hope that it makes the team stronger when we get them back next year.
Centerfielder Jeremy Reed
(On thinking about yesterday's could-have-been win today and the differences it would have made)
No, we didn't look at it that way. We were basically where we wanted to be. We're a team that comes from behind, as we have all season long, and we were where we wanted to be. We fell a little short today, but we weren't thinking about yesterday at all.
(On the possibility of this being his last game)
I never really thought of it that way until you say it now. I gave everything that I could out on the field, I gave 110% and wasn't holding anything back. I have no regrets. I wish that I could have done a little more for my team today, but I have no regrets.