Postgame Quotes: Kentucky 12, #17 Michigan 6
6/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Michigan Head Coach Rich Maloney
Opening comments on the game... "It's obviously not the way you'd like it to end on such a great season. It is what it is, and I'm real proud of my guys. I think they're a national team, and I think they've shown that throughout the year. I'm just real proud of them."
On if there were any regrets on his pitching decision... "No, not at all. We looked at their lineup. Quite honestly, we haven't had a three and four starter. We really mixed and matched throughout the season. Travis Smith started off and had some good runs, and he couldn't get out of the first inning. We started Mike Wilson; we never really got him going. He couldn't get out of the first inning. If you really look at our season, we only lost 14 times and teams had to get us in the first inning. If they didn't get us in the first inning, we didn't lose too many games. In this tournament, the two losses we had were the first inning. We thought the match-up, left on left, was the right match-up. As it turned out we didn't get it done."
On having not found that third and fourth starter... "To win tournaments, I think some things have to go your way. Not only do you have to be good -- all of the teams are good, they wouldn't be here if they weren't -- you have to catch a few breaks. If you look at this tournament, Friday night Zach (Putnam) is pitching and we've got a nice lead. We've got all the momentum and a huge crowd. Then the fifth inning comes and the rain hits. That's not a good break because he's probably going to go nine (innings) realistically in that particular game, which would have helped. Then you play the next day and have the freak play that takes the best hitter on our team out of the lineup, and the wind is blowing out today where we get 16 hits without him. Who knows, it might have been different. That's part of the tournament. You not only have to play well, but you have to be able to catch a break at the right time. Unfortunately, it didn't work that way for us in this tournament."
On leaving 17 runners on base... "It was huge. We just didn't get the timely hits the way we needed to in order to win the tournament. We out-hit them in this particular game. We just didn't get the hits to knock in the runs. Sometimes that happens."
U-M Junior Third Baseman Adam Abraham
On the emotion of this loss... "The tough part about losing and ending your season this way is to look at the seniors. This is it for them. That's the worst part for me. You try to play hard for those guys, and it's just hard knowing that Leif (Mahler), Gargo (Derek Van Buskirk) and Reck (Nate Recknagel) are leaving. Then some of the juniors may not be back depending on how the draft works out. It's just tough knowing that this team won't be together again. It's over now. I don't have any regrets; we played hard. We battled back in two games. We put together a lot of hits. In the end we did everything we could, and it just wasn't quite enough. It's just hard to look at the older guys in the face."
On if they felt they had a chance with the lead down to 9-6 in the fifth inning... "In the dugout, we thought we had a chance. It was 9-6, and we had a couple runners on base with less than two outs. Then the pitcher came up with a couple huge outs when they needed it most. They just came up with some good plays on us. They made a diving play on (Jason) Christian where if that ball goes through, it's a different game. Then in that last game with Arizona, the diving play on (Mike) Dufek prevented it from being a tie game. You need to have breaks in this tournament, and we definitely didn't get any breaks."
U-M Junior Designated Hitter Zach Putnam
On the emotion of the loss... "It hurts. We have a special group of guys. We were flying high to win this tournament and had a lot of confidence in this team with good reason. It just knocks the wind right out of you. Our goal is Omaha and we came up short, but you can't take away from the special season we had."
