June 1, 2012

PEPPERDINE
Head Coach Steve Rodriguez

Its always a good time to be able to come out here, we knew Michigan State was going to be good

On out at home play

"That's the human factor of this game. I thought he tagged him in the chest. We can agree to disagree, That's the human factor of this game. and you can't expect to make every call the way they're supposed to be."

"They just made a great play and got us out at the plate."

On offensive approach

"Our approach has been the same against everybody. Our goal is to make sure we put the ball in play and force them to make plays defensively."

On four run sixth inning

"We got a couple lucky brakes with a ball that took a bad hop over the first baseman's head and an error, and the next thing you know we have guys on base, and get a key hit to score some runs.  We were just very fortunate to capitalize on plays like that."

On eight hitter Matt Gelalich's 3 RBI day

"In order to win championships, you have to have guys step up. It can't be the same guy everyday."

Jon  Moscot
On complete game victory

"Today was kind of the same it's been all year. When there were guys on base, I seem to bare down."

"I want to go a complete game every time. That's my goal."

"I think the biggest thing for me this year was getting my split finger down. It works like a change up. I wasn't able to get a lot of lefties out with it, but it's been a huge pitch to be able to strike out lefties with."

FRESNO STATE
Michigan State head coach Jake Boss

This is very disappointing. I think we made a lot of the same mistakes we made a lot of the year, to be honest with you. Could have avoided the big inning (the 6th)…we make a couple plays in that inning and I think that four-run innings turns out a lot differently. We had nine guys left on base, so it’s more of the same for us. It was unfortunate. I thought Tony threw well. I thought Tony threw well enough to win, and we didn’t make enough plays behind him, and we weren’t able to move runners up and drive runners in when we had the chance. So we’re disappointed, but we got a big ball game again tomorrow—it’s win or go home—tomorrow we’ll be ready to play.

We got a little unlucky a couple of times. We didn’t make a play at first that went for a hit...probably, in my opinion, should have been an error. We didn’t get it out on a double play ball, and that forced our first baseman to play in in that situation. If he’s back, the check swing is caught. So, you know, a couple flukey things at the bottom of the order that hurt us in the box score. Again, I think Tony threw well enough to win. We just didn’t make enough plays happen.

On Moscot
He’s got a good arm, there’s no doubt. He’s got a good breaking ball. We had some good at-bats. We started a little slow, and made little errors in the first, and maybe that’s to be expected with a group that hadn’t been here before. But we had some better at-bats later in the ball game. Had a couple chances…hit a line drive at a guy, hit another line drive at a guy with two outs and hit a ball hard—our freshman right fielder hit a ball hard down the field, but that ended up right at the center fielder. So, we’re close, I thought we hit some balls hard that just had been hit right at some guys. It’s a cruel game sometimes.

Michigan State SP Tony Bucciferro

Oh yeah, we approach every game the same way, even though we dropped down 0-2. We were confident we were going to get those runs back, so we just kept playing ball.

Yeah, we just gotta execute better. We just have to play better tomorrow.

Bottom line is, I can’t make mistakes. I can’t compile mistakes. That’s what I did, and they’re a good enough team to take advantage of that. I just need to limit the mistakes.