Postgame Quotes: Michigan 4, Bradley 3
5/31/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 31, 2015
Michigan Head Coach Erik Bakich
Opening statement ... "Prettiest win of the season right there. You know, what can I say; backs against the wall, fighting for our lives. Our guys just grinded one out is how I could best describe it. Gutsy performance by Evan Hill. For him to be able to pitch into the seventh like he did, escape the jams that he escaped, it says a lot about his character and his ability as a pitcher. But, those are some tough situations to pitch out of. There were numerous scoring opportunities on the other side. I want to first, should have opened this thing up by congratulating Bradley on a tremendous season; one for the record books. What (Bradley head coach) Elvis (Dominguez) and his staff and that team have done is great. So, we knew we were going to be in for a battle. We knew that they were going to give us everything they got, and they fought, and battled, and competed until the end. Luckily, we had a guy standing in a spot where he was standing because that was a double with the tying run written all over it. Credit them for a hard-fought game, and they had a great season."
On what it means to get the win and get the opportunity to play in the regional final ... "That's all we're trying to do. We're just trying to keep playing the tournament. We're just trying to go one day, one game, one pitch at a time. You could see, you could feel it, after such an emotional high last night of the back-and-forth, intense game, today just kind of, you could just feel like it was something. It wasn't quite that level. So you knew it was going to be maybe a low-scoring affair, but credit to our guys for just finding a way. Whatever it took, just find a way to come out on top, and we did. Now we get to live on and fight for another game, and that's what we're going to do. We're going to not save a thing. We're going to empty the tank. We're going to give it the best we got for this game right here, and that's all you can do."
On giving up runs late in the game and if he mentioned it to his team ... "No, I think that's more a credit to the starting pitching we've gotten. We've gotten some really good starting pitching. It's not like we've been facing some average teams for the last couple of weeks. Everyone we've played since Oklahoma State is a regional team that is playing in the postseason. And then this weekend here, everybody's good. Bradley is an outstanding team. Obviously Louisville, they are who they are. They're one of the nation's best. So I look at that and I say, wow, we've got some really quality starts from our starters that have gone deep into the game, that have held down good offenses. Bradley's got a good offense. You can see it there at the end. It shows you how good Evan was to be able to escape those jams. Good teams fight back at the end, and that's what everyone we've played has found a way to do. When we've made mistakes at the end of the game, they've hurt us, and that's really all that's happened."
On what the starting pitchers have done well this weekend ... "Nothing different than we always talk about. It's just attack the zone, with quality pitches, be tough on the mound; those three things. You could see that today. You could see Evan in attack mode. You could see his toughness on the mound, escaping jams. You could see the quality pitches. He got some swing and misses, some weak contact. He really did a nice job when he needed to. When he needed to make big pitches with runners in scoring position, he made them. And we got that same thing from our other starters as well. Brett Adcock last night, sensational with the exception of the one mistake pitch to (Danny) Rosenbaum. Matt Ogden, same thing. He did a really good job in those three areas as well."
On the pitching plan for the next game ... "Keith Lehmann."
U-M Junior LHP Evan Hill
On if he had a particular outpitch when getting into those jams ... "I thought my changeup was most consistent. I obviously was battling to command my fast ball on the inner half of the plate to righties. So most of the time I just go to my changeup. And it happened to work pretty well for me for the most part. A lot of my off speed was in good control today, I was happy about that. It helped out."
On his performance today ... "In the recent games that I have thrown, I haven't gone as deep into games. So I was happy like coach said to be able to grind out at-bats and make pitches when I needed to. There were a lot of scoring opportunities. In an elimination game like that, you are just trying to throw strikes, play the percentages, fill up the zone any way you can and let them get themselves out. That was what I was trying to do for the most part. I was happy that my off speed was as good as it was. I still have to work on my fastball command unfortunately. Because I usually pitch off my fastball. It made it a little tougher today, but I was happy with what I did."
On the team's ability to bounce back after the loss ... "I thought we did a good job. We have struggled in the past against lefties. So obviously teams are going to throw as many lefties as they can against us. I thought our hitters did a really nice job of adjusting to the guy's breaking ball on the offensive side and just trying to hit the ball to the opposite-field gap. From my side of the ball, the defense has never played better. It is easy to pitch when you know you have a good defense behind you. I just let them work."
On the fifth inning with bases loaded ... "A lot was going through my head. I was pretty frustrated with how I got myself in that jam. And I kind of just stepped off and told myself to calm down a little bit. It is never as bad as you think it is; you still have the upper hand on the hitter. The pitcher always has the ability to play the percentages. That was exactly what I was trying to do. I was going to fill up the zone one pitch at a time, and I was trying to make sure I made quality pitches and not make a mistake. It worked out. I worked out nicely, but it could have gone both ways."
On wiggling out of the first inning to help him settle in ... "That did. Also down the road I had more jams like that, but for the most part, the next few innings that helped me to relax and calm down and know that I can make pitches when I need to. I don't have to press. So I think that helped a lot."
