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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 22, 2014Jake StinnettJohn SzefcLaMonte WadeGREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA Maryland: 7 THE MODERATOR: Joining me is Maryland, Coach John Szefc and student athletes, Jake Stinnett and LaMonte Wade. Coach? COACH SZEFC: I wasn't sure how we were going to come out after having eight days off. We intersquaded twice, I knew before those eight days we were very hot and felt good about ourselves but you still come off an 8‑day layoff and play what more the most part has been the No. 1 team in the country. You never know how it's going to go. I thought we were sluggish and after about the third our guys settled in. The thing that made me proud is our guys played pretty much the whole game. We were up 3‑‑ those guys are tough, they battled back to tie it, and had a lead for a while and we just kept answering and I thought Jake was his normal outstanding self and he bent but he didn't break. What we try‑‑ what we try to talk about a lot of not giving up 3‑run innings, not giving up a big inning. I don't think either team gave up a big inning today, but if you can limit that kind of lineup to 1 run, 2 runs, if you stay away from 3 runs you can have success. That's what we did. He was outstanding and Moon came in and he be hasn't pitched in‑‑ I don't know the last time he pitched. He kind of‑‑ it's nice to come in well a 3‑run lead. I know pitchers pitch differently if they have a 1‑run lead versus a 3‑run lead and he if you look at the save opportunities he's had, he's been dynamite in save situations. Sometimes it won't look super pretty but that's exactly what he did today. Q. Could you talk about the home runs? You haven't been a home run team this year? COACH SZEFC: We haven't been, you're right. Charlie got us going, and Monte added, and Martir, probably one of the hottest hitters in the country, I know in the last 9 games coming in he was hitting .414, he's clearly at this point the hottest 9‑hitter in the country, I can tell you that. That was a big 2‑run home run he hit there. You're right, we are not a home run‑hitting team but obviously this ballpark plays differently than our home ballpark does. We were able to take advantage of it. You don't normally go out and expect to score 7 runs against Virginia. Karl does a incredible job with those guys, I gotta give our guys credit. We only struck out six times which is good against those kind of arms. Q. Jake, when your coach was talking about not giving up, did you know you needed a big inning? JAKE STINNETT: We knew going into the game they have a high offensive lineup and against teams like that you really have to minimize and I felt like every time we scored a run. My goal was to go out there and put up a 0 and they would fight back and get a run but it wasn't more than 1 run so we kept our heads high and the offense continued to pick me up over and over again, and at the end of the day we came out on top. Q. When you're a pitcher and you come into a park like this, and then you get here and you start seeing the ball flying out. What are you thinking of as a pitcher? JAKE STINNETT: You can't really control that. After that first home run, he hit it well, I didn't think it was going to go out but you have to realize that sometimes you need to be more fine with your pitches and you can't make mistakes and give hitters pitches‑‑ I'm sorry, hitters pitches. That's just baseball and you gotta deal with that. Q. Monte, can you talk about your home runs? LAMONTE WADE: First one was a 2‑0 count and I was able to get my swing out and second one, it was 1‑0 and he hung a slider and I was able to elevate it. Q. Did you know they were out immediately? LAMONTE WADE: I did not know they were out right away. Q. Looking at the numbers of both these teams similar in terms of style play, pitching dominated, surprised that this turned into a slug fest? Is that the nature of the ballpark? COACH SZEFC: I really do, I think it's the nature of ballpark. I'm friendly with their coaching staff, I've been friends with those guys for a long time. I've tried to model what we're doing a little bit after what they have done over the years, a lot of respect for those guys. Our staff has done a very good job of preparing our guys. I think you gotta give the credit to our guys. Like I said, after that 8‑day lay‑off, if you go down you could pack it in but our guys kept coming. This is about as loose and as talented of a team as I've been around in a long time. It's just a fun group to be around. You know, when you put that much time in since Augustand you see guys playing loose and having fun and obviously having success against these kind of people, what's what you work for the whole year. Q. When you've made‑‑ haven't been in this tournament for a long time. When you make the tournament and look like you're on the brink of NCAA qualification, does it take the pressure off coming in? COACH SZEFC: This win, you mean? Video. Q. Just coming in when it's been so long since Maryland has played in this tournament. You get to this tournament, you have a nice conference record. Does that take the pressure off when you get here? COACH SZEFC: I wouldn't say so because as much as the program‑‑ as much as we have had obviously a good year compared to years past, I don't think anybody puts any higher expectations on us as a staff or our players than I do or our staff does or players do. Every time these guys go out they're not looking at the last 43 years, they're looking at what's going on right now. We're just worried about right now, really, and it's not really about the past, it's about now. I don't mean to say that I'm not in any way shunning the past, there have been a lot of good players coming through, we have had great support as we're moving in the right direction but we don't come out to the ballpark thinking that, man, we have done something that no one has done in whatever amount of time it is. We're just trying to go out, play loose and do our jobs and move on to the next day. Q. Monte, as a hitter, are you kind of like, I can't wait to get out there and take swings? LAMONTE WADE: No, it's about sticking to our approach and our playing, they weren't on purpose they just happened with the good swings that we've been taking as a group so just because the ball flies out, we're not going to change our approach. Q. The temperature was 82 or 83 at the end of the game. Was it hotter on the field? JAKE STINNETT: I guess it was hot. When you're out there for two hours pitching it gets pretty hot but nothing we aren't used to or nothing that will change the game or anything like that. Q. (No microphone.) COACH SZEFC: You asked me that question before. I can't put my finger on it. But I think at some point or another our older guys decided this is how it's going to work and we want to keep playing here. And they've just been very productive, resilient, and at one point‑‑ I've been around a lot of teams in the last 24 years and usually, I tell our guys usually in you're around a team that doesn't play well from behind they don't figure it out and start doing that 60% of the way through the season. This team has done exactly that. They have played well on the road. We won 10 straight and 9 out of 10 have been on the road. I cannot say anything more about these guys, they have battled well they played well on the road I'm just trying to stay out of the way of thee whole thing to be honest with you, they're good enough and they're playing good enough. I'm just trying to, you know, make a couple of decisions here and there and not mess it up. Q. Seemed like you had somebody out in the sixth inning, Jake has 126 pitches, is that high or‑‑ COACH SZEFC: That's probably a little high. That's why we got him out of there after that. In a week and a half he could be a first‑round draft pick. What he's done for our program I can't tell you. We just want to put him in the best position possible for professional baseball after this. But when you're facing that kind of lineup which, I think he would tell you, is probably as good of a lineup that he has ever faced in college. Those are hard outs! You've got to work for every single out. That's what a national scene looks like, when you got to work like crazy to get a 9 hitter out, after a while‑‑ you're making one big pitch after another, the guy is a human, at some point or another he might need a break. To his credit, quite honestly he probably could have finished the game but I didn't want to‑‑ we didn't want to put him in any kind of harm's way, physically, you know. Q. What do you think about the offensive preparation second half of the year? LAMONTE WADE: I think it's everybody buying into the plan that our coaching staff is setting plays, we're working on things before the game, BP, and do our own practice until BP before the game and it's working out, its giving our pitching staff the run support. Since they've been battling all year for us, we feel good that we can put some runs up for them. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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