June 4, 2004

Recap | Box Score | Notes

Notre Dame coach Paul Mainieri
On the game…
“I was really pleased with the tremendous crowd and the enthusiasm, the stage was set I guess someone just forgot to tell Kent State not to do what they did today. Chris Niesel did a great job today, but we just didn’t get it done. This is the first time since my coming to Notre Dame that we have lost an opening round game at the regional.”

On not scoring runs…
“We had runners at third base twice but we just left too many runners on base.”

On the play of Kent State…
“They are a great team, I give them all the credit. Andy Sonnanstine threw a lot of good pitches and our team just did not adjust.”

Jr. RHP Chris Niesel
On the game…
“I thought we did a great job, it was unfortunate that we lost.”

Kent State coach Rick Rembielak
On the game …
“What Andy [Sonnanstine] did today against a high powered offense, you can’t say enough about what he’s done. It’s a good reflection of what he’s done all season. Shutting down and keeping the offense off balance, I think the way he did it was by giving them different looks, competing, not giving in to a very aggressive offense. when you give them different looks like that, that’s obviously the objective of a pitcher. He did a great job of keeping them off balance.”

On preparing for the game …
“I was specific talking about a fifth ranked team playing on their home field. I talked about the fundamentals and not giving them any extra outs. It almost came back to bite us when Matt [Sega] threw that ball away. I know that team has been through some situations like that. When those guys step in the box, I’m sure that they’re very confident. They’re going to pick each other up. That’s why I give Andy [Sonnanstine] a lot of credit for not buckling.”

Kent State pitcher Andy Sonnanstine
On the outside slider being his bread and butter pitch …
“I like to throw the outside pitch, but today, I used the inside slider to switch it up. I changed it up because of the aggressive hitting of Notre Dame. If you throw them the same pitch, they’re just going to wail them. The inside slider was working really well, so I told Will [Vazquez] to stick with it.”

On playing …
“I’ve never been to a Regional before, so I had the adrenaline pumping to get me through. I wanted to stay in the game, but I had confidence in my bullpen to keep us ahead. Notre Dame has done well all year and has led their Conference.”

Kent State freshman catcher Will Vazquez
On driving in the second and winning run …
“Coach told me to go at it like I was playing with my buddies. When I stepped up to the plate, I wasn’t nervous at all. He came at me first with a fast ball, so I had a pretty good idea that the next one was going to be a fast ball. Then I went back up the middle with the hit.”

Kent State third baseman Matt Sega
On the error in the seventh inning…
I let the ball fly over Chad [Kinyon], and they scored a run. When I came in the dugout, the team told me to stay strong, so when I was up to bat, I tryed to do anything I could to get that run back.