June 11, 2005

Recap | Box Score

Baylor head coach Steve Smith
"I thought both teams competed really, really well. There were some breaks that went both ways and it was a close game. In a lot of respects, it was a game of inches, and I thought both teams competed really well. Both pitchers made big pitches when they needed to. It was a well played game defensively, a good college baseball game."

On switching pitchers:
"It was the right time. I didn't want to take Trey (Taylor) out of the game, because his pitch count was pretty good, but it was at obviously a very critical time of the ball game. And our matchup was better, I thought, with (Abe) Woody against their right-handers, I thought, than it was with Trey."

On the uphill battle ahead:
"There's been a number of times this year where we lost a Friday ballgame and turned around and won Saturday and Sunday. The bad news is we lost game one. The good news is that's not the last game. More good news is that they've got to hit off of Mark McCormick tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. We certainly would have liked to have won this game, but it didn't happen, so we'll come back and play tomorrow.

Baylor Catcher Josh Ford
On being 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position:
"We hit the ball hard with guys on base, got caught, a couple ground balls didn't get through and then we just didn't have good at bats with people on base. You know that's going to happen. This year we've been the team that's gotten the big hits. Today we didn't, but hopefully tomorrow we can change that."

On getting tagged out at the plate in the seventh inning:
"It wasn't really a delay, I just wanted to make sure I didn't get picked off on an inside move, and the third baseman was crashing pretty hard. So I knew I had some time, but it was a little closer than I wanted."

Baylor Second Baseman Michael Griffin
On Clemson's pitching:
"I thought he did a good job all game. From the get-go their starter (Stephen Faris), I mean we got some hits off him but I thought he did a good job. There weren't too many balls that you saw across the plate He pitched a good game. I don't think it was any different when there were runners on base. It's just baseball, sometimes you get (hits) when the runners are on, sometimes you don't."

On starting the series 0-1:
"Hey, we went down to LSU two years ago and won the first game; we felt pretty good about ourselves and lost the next two. It's baseball. There's no telling what's going to happen. That's why it's a three-game series. If it was one game, we'd be in trouble and going home right now. But it's three games, and all it takes is two to win it."

Baylor Pitcher Trey Taylor
On pitching his last home game:
"I thought about that before the game, you know this is my last time pitching in front of these fans here at home. You know, I gave it my best shot, tried my very best and pitched my heart out here. It's been a lot of fun, and I'll miss this place."

Clemson head coach Jack Leggett
"It was a very hard fought game right from the very beginning. They are a very good ball club and they play extremely tough and we played very, very tough. I was very proud of our kids battling through a lot of tough situations. I can think of about three or four situations in that game that made the difference."

On playing small ball:
"We practice that a lot. We've done a very good job this year of moving runners around. A very high percentage of the time when we've moved runners into scoring position, they've scored. We're a very unselfish team. They know that it is almost automatic when we have men on first and second base and nobody out, we are going to bunt them over and we are going to put some pressure and put people in scoring position."

Clemson Shortstop Stan Widman
On returning to Texas:
"It's definitely good to be back in front of a couple of hometown fans. It takes a little bit of pressure off having a few people out there I know. I just went out there and played the best that I can."

On his game-winning 2-RBI single in the seventh inning:
"I was going up there swinging at the first strike, I guess, and it found a hole and got through."

Clemson reliever Jeff Haun
On facing Baylor's bullpen:
"You can't obviously say anything about what their bullpen has done all year. And we're not oblivious to what's around us, we definitely hear people writing around the country and talking about how they might have the edge with the bullpen. You hear it, but you just try not to let it affect you, there's nothing you can do. In our group, we know that we are capable of getting it done. We wouldn't have been in this situation to play for a chance to go to Omaha if we didn't have a bullpen that was capable of (winning) as well."