June 4, 2005
Arizona State Quotes
Arizona State junior RHP Erik Averill
On avoiding the Elimination Game Sunday:
"It's a big factor as far as pitching to stay out of that game. It's important to play the game at hand, and that's what we did. It sets us up tomorrow to do what we set out to do. But just like any other game, tomorrow we have to play our butts off."
On The Complete Game:
"Our goal as a pitching staff is innings first, and staying out there tonight and saving the bullpen for tomorrow is the biggest key. Keep them fresh for tomorrow."
Arizona State senior C Tuffy Gosewisch
On his warning track double:
"The first pitch, I hadn't seen him yet, and I was ready for a fastball. I was ready for the next one and he left it about belt high, and I put a good swing on it. At first I thought he was going to catch it, because they have some pretty fast outfielders."
On the Fan's Ovation after the double:
"I had some serious adrenaline going once I got to second base. I felt it, but I was doing the same thing in my head."
On his overall game:
"I go up there and I'm not trying to get a hit, I'm just trying to get a good swing on it. I try not to worry about what the outcome is. Whether I hit a line drive right at somebody or I get a bleeder hit, I'm just trying to put a good swing on the ball."
Arizona State Head Coach Pat Murphy
On the performance of Tuffy Gosewisch:
"He was sensational. He came up big for us. It showed trust in his team; they pick each other up. I think this team is at a point where they are starting to believe in each other and know that they are a good club. Tuffy (Gosewisch) was sensational.
"He is (a good person to have at the plate in that situation.) Early in the season, he was in that situation a few times here and there and he was trying to do too much. If you trust the guy behind you and trust the guy in front of you, great things will happen. It couldn't have happened to a more fitting guy because Tuffy (Gosewisch) has done so much for our club that doesn't show up in the box score. I was looking at the box score and I thought it was a misprint: zero runs scored, seven RBIs. You don't see that very often, but he was sensational on both ends. It goes unnoticed how much he does for our ball club.
On coping without Tuffy Gosewisch next year:
"I've tried everything. A couple years ago, I sent his parents some wine and a free night at a resort. We talked about losing (Dustin) Pedroia last year. Every day you miss him, and we've been spoiled having so many Gosewisch's around. They are two different kids, but they have the same core; they come to play every day. He is a real underrated ballplayer. The position he plays is an unsung position and you don't realize how important that guy is behind the dish. It is crucial; he's like the quarterback of our team. Tuffy (Gosewisch) handles it really well and to see him do so well in the first two ballgames is pretty neat."
On the pitching outlook for Sunday:
"We had been saying, 'Urquidez and Averill and pray for a dust storm'. I don't know who is pitching tomorrow. This pitching performance today was absolutely crucial. It was against a number one seed, a team that runs and a team that puts up numbers. This team has 49 wins and Averill was unbelievable. He pitched in the clutch and he didn't get good defense.
"We did not play that great (tonight). We got thrown out at the plate, we got thrown out at third with no outs, and we had (Seth) Dhaenens throw a ball at Mach-3 standing six feet away from first. If I had a bow and arrow, I would have wounded him for sure after that play. Offensively, we didn't get some things done either. There were four or five things we didn't do so great, but we hung in there.
"Averill's performance tonight was one of the biggest of the year. To put us in the position to at least have fresher pitching, it doesn't always make the difference, but it put us in an unbelievable position. He wanted to stay in there, no qualms about it. He suggested that I save the staff and let him finish. He was on it and didn't get off of it. He was as good in the ninth and the eighth as he was in the first. That was unbelievable leadership."
Coastal Carolina Quotes
Coastal Carolina Coach Gary Gilmore
On game:
"The bottom line is you can't win unless you pitch great and play great defense, and we didn't do either today. We didn't do what we did last weekend that allowed us to win."
On the errors and tomorrow's game:
"The errors really killed us. We want to come out and show that win or lose we deserve to be in this tourney, though we haven't played the way we're capable of, even though we won yesterday, we didn't play our best. We have one more try tomorrow and hopefully we'll have an opportunity to show how we can play, and if they beat us, then they are the best team out there."
On ASU:
"They just kept coming up with big hits, they'd clear the bases with a couple guys on with a few hits and that's the ballgame right there. We just couldn't match that, we weren't coming up with hits when we needed to, and that was the difference."
Coastal Carolina junior 3B Mike Costanzo
On ASU:
"They can hit, and they're a good club, unfortunately usually our best is pretty good, this time however, it wasn't. We need to come back and make every play, every out, just take it one inning at a time and play like we can."
On ASU's pitching:
"They really kept us off balance, they were taking their time out there, and we just couldn't get any hits going. The six errors on defense didn't help either, which is no excuse, but things just didn't work for us today, we didn't play like we can."
Coastal Carolina senior INF Chris Todd
On ASU's pitching:
"Their pitching really kept us off-balance, which it was mainly change-ups, we just couldn't get a read on his pitching and get some hits."
Do you think you can comeback in tomorrow's game?
"I definitely think we can comeback, we're the number one seed here for a reason. We need to come back and play like we can, which we definitely didn't tonight, but we are definitely capable of winning tomorrow as long as we come out playing like we have all season."
Reason for the errors:
"Sometimes what you do offensively can translate into your defensive game, which may or may not have factored into all of our errors, you can get frustrated and it takes you out of your defense as well. Overall, things just didn't go our way tonight."