Notre Dame coach Paul Mainieri
On the game…
“This was a great character game for our kids, which was a challenge after yesterday’s tough game. I told the team if they wanted to be known as a special team in Notre Dame history that they could lose the opening game and come back to win the tournament, which is an overwhelming task.”
“The goal of this game was to avoid going two and out. It was not the prettiest game that I’ve ever seen, but the guys found a way to get the job done.”
“It was a great team victory and now we are going to tak e a couple hours off and get ready to play tonight.”
On the difference in the game…
“Our bullpen were the real heroes of the game today, especially Joe Thaman and Dan Kapala. What Ryan Doherty does speaks for itself, but those setup guys that got us to the ninth innning really got the job done.
On the play of UC Irvine…
I have a tremendous admiration for John Savage and for that baseball program. They play the game the right way and are an extremely well-coached team. Their pitchers are outstanding, I was really impressed with how Swanson was able to change speeds and keep our hitters off-balance. There is no doubt in my mind that they will be a program to be reckoned with in the future.”
So. OF Craig Cooper
On anticipating Swanson’s change-up…
“It was hard to understand what he was going to throw because he was mixing up his speed so well,but I was just trying to get through the fastballls and change-ups. I was able to get it on the outside corner and just hit through it”
UC Irvine Quotes from Game 3 of South Bend Regional
UC Irvine coach John Savage
On the game …
“Game three was a very well played game. I thought that the game could have gone either way. I thought our kids came out and played extremely hard. One thing I can say is that I’m very proud of our program. In our third year of existence, I think it’s a credit to our program that we’ve made these steps. I’m really looking forward to next season.”
“Well, we’ve done this all year. One of the reasons that the team is here is that we battle back. We’ve been in close games all year. We played a lot of one run games. You can look at our schedule and see we played against a lot of top twenty programs. The situation we were in, we were not unfamiliear to. It was a very tight game and they finished the game out with a couple of zeros in the eight and ninth. That really was the difference in the game.”
On the fourth and fifth inning…
“It was a frustrating two games. We left a lot of runners on base. It’s a carbon copy of last night. We left 12 on last night; we left 12 on today. I think people didn’t think we were as offensive as we were these past two days. We got 10 hits, Notre Dame had seven hits. There again, we swungthe bats very well the last two days, we just didn’t get that big hit. That reallly was the difference.”
Evaluation of the season …
“If you’re a competitor, you’re all about winning. It is a tough way to go out. But, you really have to look at the big picture. This program is in its’ third season playing against Notre Dame, we lose six to five at their place. We’ve got one senior. I think it’s a credit to our players. We will be back. We got a little taste of regionals and the environment. I do have to say that Notre Dame is a first class regional. They did an incredible job in terms of the whole layout.”
Junior LHP Glenn Swanson
On his performance…
“I felt pretty good. I felt confident, and I tried not to let the crowd get into my head too much. I was just trying to make good pitches. A couple of pitches got away.”
Sophomore third baseman Matt Anderson
On the game …
“I was disappointed that we lost. The season as a whole was good. So overall, I’m disappointed that we lost.”