LSU vs. UC Irvine Quotes
June 08, 2008 | Baseball
UC IRVINE HEAD COACH Mike Gillespie QUOTES
Opening Statement
"Hats off to LSU for exploiting and taking advantage of the opportunities that they got in the last couple of innings. I thought that this was a mirror image of the game yesterday when we had opportunities, base on balls and came up with clutch base hits. That is what happened here today, and as we all know, they (LSU) can really swing it. When they got those chances, they did it.
"I'm happy because it was one more in a full string of well-pitched games by Danny (Daniel Bibona). I was really proud of the way our guys filled it up and executed. We did a lot of good things. Again, they did what a good hitting club does when they get those kinds of opportunities."
On who will pitch tomorrow in game three...
"Bryce Stowell will be the starter tomorrow."
On if he felt comfortable with a five-run lead entering the eighth inning...
"I think comfortable would be a stretch. I don't think anybody in college baseball or even the big leagues would think it's over when there are still six outs to get. It's the metal bat. It's this ballpark. It's that (LSU's) offense. I thought we were in good shape. I was smart enough to think that way, but we certainly had not begun to count any chickens."
On his performance...
"It felt good to get out there and feed off the fans a little bit. I got tired towards the end. It was tough out there and it was a tough loss."
C Aaron Lowenstein
On his defensive and offensive play.
"When I picked the guys off at first base and third base, I just saw that they were jumping out there pretty aggressively. We called a pitchout and I got lucky that [LSU LF Jared Mitchell] was out on his front foot and I picked him off. Then I saw at third base that [LSU 2B Ryan Schimpf] was really aggressive trying to read a ball in the dirt or a passed ball and I got a good pitch from [P Daniel Bibona] and I made a good throw.
"I came through today with a good hit and Coach told me he thought I was going get a slider and that we were going hit-and-run on the first pitch. Sure enough, it was a slider and the first pitch hit-and-run got it through."
On why he thinks relief pitcher Eric Pettis had a rough outing...
"He didn't have his stuff. He's been unreal for us this year and he was a little out in front and leaving some pitches up and LSU punished the mistakes that he made. He fell behind in counts and they really took advantage of that."
