June 5, 2004

Recap?|? Box Score?|? Notes

Notre Dame coach Paul Mainieri
On pitching Thornton …
“We discussed it at length after the first game today. We were going to start Jeff Samardzija tonight because we thought Tom [Thorton] would be such a great match up against Arizona in hoping that we would win tonight’s game. But in the end, we felt so strongly that Tom could pitch us deep into the game for us. He’s done it almost every time he’s pitched this year. He’s given us a lot of innings. Tom was doing exactly what we were hoping he would do. He threw a lot of strikes – he was in total command out there.”

On Kent State …
“Sometimes people have this conception that the Mid-American Conference [MAC] is a second class conference. It’s not. They play great baseball in that conference. I’ve been trying to convince everyone around here – fans and players, everybody – that this is a very, very good program. They’ve won a regular season or tournament title in the MAC each of the last five years. I think they’re an extremely scrappy, well-coached team.”

Sophomore OF Steve Andres
On playing tonight …
“The whole year, I’ve sat on the bench for LHP. I just wanted to play my role and produce and to have the chance to have an RBI. I had the opportunity, and I took advantage of it.”

Sophomore LHP Tom Thorton
On getting hit …
“It was an outside fast ball, and the outside fast ball always comes back right to the middle. He was sitting on that, and the pitch was a little up, and he really smoked it. It went right up the middle, and I couldn’t quite get my glove there. It just kind of struck my lower rib. It just knocked the wind out of me, but I was still able to make the play.”

After getting hit …
“It wasn’t that much of a deterrant to my pitching. It was more of an adrenaline rush.”

On having seven strikeouts …
“I was able to mix it up. I wasn’t able to work as fast as I would have liked, but I was able to make speeds efficiently, working the change-up away. I created enough deception to create a fast ball on the side.”

Kent State

Kent State coach Rick Rembielak
On Notre Dame…
“My hats off to Paul Maineri and his organization, I wish them the best. I think he does it the right way, he has a very disciplined club and some very good players.”

On the game…
“We ended up with a freshman pitcher on the mound today, in a hostile environment, with elimination status on the line. It did not get off on the right foot and we just could not get anything on track.”

“I have to give our guys credit, especially the captains Matt Sega and Chad Kinyon. We would not be in this position without those two guys keeping our younger ones on track. Our guys really turned it around the last three weeks of the season.”

On the team’s experience at the regional…
It was great for our program, our guys enjoyed coming here. They rose to the occasion and it is a fantastic opportunity for them.”

Freshman catcher Will Vazquez
On Tom Thornton…
“He was mixing it up pretty well, for me he had that changeup working and it made it tough. I think that was the key.”

Senior 3B Matt Sega
On Tom Thornton…
I know he was keeping me off balance, he hit spots away and then throw hard inside a little bit. It was tough. Even the times we had guys in scoring position, there was nothing we could do because he was hitting his spots and getting us off-balance.