2006 BSB vs. Minnesota -- Postgame Quotes
5/27/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Michigan Head Coach Rich Maloney
On his thoughts about the game ... "I told them we're climbing a mountain. We've climbed it near to the top and we're inches away. It would just be an unbelievable finish to the regular season to be able to climb that mountain, after losing that first game, playing so many games in a short period of time. It's going to take a total team effort. It would say a lot about resiliency. I've said all along we had great resiliency. There have been times when we've been smoked and then fought back the next day. I've admired that and been very proud of them for that. For them just fighting back to win these two games today we beat Ohio State five times. We went five-for-five. At Michigan that's pretty big. They were picked first and we showed them who was first. That was pretty good. That was fair and the kids did it. Five-for-five, I'm still amazed at that. That's hard to do."
On who is and is not available to pitch on Sunday ... "We're going to talk about it. It's probably going to take the help of many. I really believe that. Craig Murray started several games. We had him playing a little bit of catch. He'd be ready to go so that's a viable option. Michael Powers pitched in the first game against Minnesota I believe. He did a pretty good job, so he's a viable option. Michael Wilson is a freshman who hasn't pitched that much but has a really good arm and is lefthanded. That's an interesting option. That'd be a lot to put a rookie in right there. I wouldn't rule out anybody. I think even Drew Taylor could pitch. He didn't have it today but I have total confidence in Drew and maybe today wasn't his day. I think everyone needs to be on call. You might even see Paul Hammond pitch. I know that kid wants the rock. He wouldn't start, but if it's the championship in the last inning there is a good possibility that that could happen. Ben Jenzen, I'd have to see how his arm is. Andrew Hess, I'm not sure how many pitches he threw today. You have to look at all that. I wouldn't put it past anybody. It might be one of those where it's 'Johnny Wholestaff,' kind of like game four on a Sunday. We just have to grit it out and hope the bats go. I know Coach Anderson isn't sure who he's pitching either. The advantage for him is that they played on Wednesday and he has a really good pitcher, Cole DeVries, who threw a lot of pitches and had a really good game but can he come back on Sunday, I don't know. Coach Anderson wasn't tipping his hand. We're going to have to hit."
Michigan Freshman Pitcher/DH Adam Abraham
On what allowed him to be so effective hitting and pitching today ... "I don't know really. It was just one of those days when everything was going well for me. My arm felt good. I got a couple good hits."
On how he feels after the game ... "I'm pretty exhausted. I can't wait to go home and get to bed. I feel good and I'll be ready to go tomorrow."
On if he'll be available to pitch on Sunday ... "I don't know. We'll see how I feel when I get up in the morning. (I could throw) maybe one (inning). My arm feels pretty good right now. We'll have to see about how the heat affects things."
On playing for the Big Ten Tournament championship on Sunday ... "We've climbed a big mountain so far but tomorrow's game gets us over the top. We're coming out ready to play again tomorrow. We just need to swing the bats again."
Minnesota Head Coach John Anderson
On his thoughts about the game ... "We kept throwing punches back and forth at each other, there's no question about that. I told the team that we just wanted to get the game back to a point where our last at-bat might mean something being the home team and we did that. We were down 9-4 and we got it back together. We had a scoring opportunity to tie the game there and the first baseman made a nice play. Andy Hunter didn't quite hit the ball hard enough through there and that double play hurt us. Give Michigan credit, they made a play at the moment and if that ball goes through we might have a different game. That's all you can ask your kids to do is to battle back and to try to give yourself a chance."
On his pitching quandary for Sunday's final game ... "It's going to be our same situation. We're going to have to use all the guys we have left and get guys out there and see if we can execute some pitches and something good will happen."
