2011 Corvallis Regional -- Game 5
June 5, 2011
Georgia 5, Creighton 4
June 5, 2011
Goss Stadium
Corvallis, Ore.
Georgia Post-Game Quotes
Head Coach David Perno
Opening Statement
"It was a grinder today. Our guys hung in there; we've hung in there all year. What do you say? It took a lot out of us, there's no doubt, especially from a pitching standpoint. We just need other guys to step up like Ben Cornwell did. He gave us a good start. He hadn't been pitching well of late but he got the tempo rolling. Then we did a pretty good job out of the bullpen and got some key hits."
On the team's mindset going against Oregon State...
"One pitch at a time. You can't really look ahead. You can't worry about tomorrow. You have to manage what you have now and put some guys out there. We feel good about our starter, Blake Dieterick. Now we just have to find a lineup that maybe can score more runs."
Pitcher Tyler Maloof
On battling back down two runs in the eighth inning...
"That's just how our season's gone. We come back and did that all year. Fighting back in the late innings is just how it's been. For Earl (Daniels) to come in and pick me up and for me to pick (Bryan) Benzor up, that was just a good outing from our bullpen and everybody. It's just a good win to finally come back and finish it out because we've come back a couple of times and not been able to finish it."
On the nerves when somebody is in scoring position...
"It's definitely nerve racking. But when you play the whole game and try to get as many runs across as you can, you see people in scoring position, but we pulled it off so it was good."
Catcher Brandon Stephens
On delivering the game winning RBI...
"It means a lot to our team and I'm just glad that I could get the hit that scored the winning run. I'm just glad for all our pitchers that worked hard and everyone else on the team."
On intentionally walking the previous batter before coming up to the plate...
"I think they just noticed that I was limping a little bit and maybe that I was hurting. If I was in their spot, I would have done the same thing."
On Georgia's pitching...
"All of our pitchers did a great job. (Tyler) Maloof came in and he battled. He usually doesn't come in until the ninth inning and they brought him in the eighth and he did a great job. (Bryan) Benzor did a great job working the middle innings there. Then Earl (Daniels) came in and got it done."
Creighton Post-Game Quotes
Head Coach Ed Servais
On scoring runs...
"We had a few opportunities with runners in scoring position. We made a few base running mistakes early in the game, too. You forget about them sometimes when you get into an extra inning game. What happened early in the game that may have cost you a run or two, but you probably needed to score another run or two early in that game to not get into this situation. The longer we played it probably favored them versus us, being what we went through last week."
On what he learned about this group this year...
"It's as much fun as we have had in baseball in awhile. The seniors are just tremendous, I feel so bad for the seniors right now because they are hurting. They wanted to play again and they wanted to play again tonight."
On starting pitcher Greg Hellhake...
"He did a tremendous job. He was very good. He gave up a home run to a very good player. He gave us a chance and that is all you can ask your starting pitcher to do. This is probably the last time Greg will get a chance to pitch. At least he'll have some good memories helping us get to this point."
On intentional walk to get to get to Brandon Stephens...
"Well he is a freshman and I'd rather go up and have a freshman hitting in that situation. It gave our infielders a force out as well. I liked the matchup, but you just have to give the kid credit, he hit a good pitch."
Leftfielder Alex Staehely
On all of the double plays...
"Yeah, I mean it is always fun to be part of double plays and they are big momentum swingers. We had a big one before the guy hit the home run."
On pitcher Greg Hellhake and his performance...
"Greg has been phenomenal the last two starts and he did well yesterday and today. They got those two runs and then he shut them down."
On returning next season...
"I think that we now know our identity and how to play our style of baseball. It has been amazing being a part of a team where every guy on the field has chemistry and how we have not had any sort of team dynamic issues whatsoever this year. I think that that is huge part with any ball club or sporting team; having good chemistry."
