June 3, 2012

Pepperdine 8, Fresno State 5
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Stanford Regional game 5

Fresno State Head coach Mike Batesole
Well, very proud of this team. Amazing where they are now compared to where they were in August and compared to where they were in March. They've come a long, long ways. These guys have been fantastic on and off the field. All these seniors are going to graduate either on time or have one more semester. They've run off three semesters in a row with a 3.0 GPA. And on top of that they got their fourth ring in a row. Incredible recruiting class that we're going to say goodbye to today. It was going to take something big, something dramatic and it was going to take something late to beat them the way they've been playing the last half of the season here. That's the only way they were going to go down. It was going to have to be big and dramatic and late when we didn't have enough time to come back and catch somebody, and that's exactly how it went down. Very proud of the way they played today. [Starting pitcher] Cody Kendall was phenomenal: 88 pitches through eight innings and no walks...exactly what we needed to get this done today. We set it up for our closer to bring in [reliever Taylor Garrison] and I love it when our guys pound the zone. ...the only thing that ever bothers me as a coach is when we walk people. I love the way he was attacking it, even after the foul home run, he came back and was attacking the mitt. Made a good pitch. Kid hit a good pitch. Give him credit. But that was the only way we were going to go down today. I'm very proud of this group.

On what he said to Cody when the bases were loaded
Just wanted to make sure he knew where he was. He was doing exactly what we wanted him to do: get ground balls. We just gave him one of those four-hoppers to go at somebody instead of squeaking through the infield. He didn't do anything different....keep doing what he was doing and get one more ground ball for us.

On if this loss is the toughest of his career
No, I'm really, really proud of this team. We left a lot on the field in Arizona. To get here to beat a heck of a Michigan State team yesterday and take Pepperdine to the wire today, these guys did probably more than what they should have done.

Fresno State DH Kenneth Wise

On the season
We had a couple rough points, but towards the end we played great. I couldn't have asked for a better ending. We as a team really came together. After that tough stretch we grew as a team and we understood what we needed to do. Towards the end we just kept rolling with it. But we had great pitching, great fielding, got key hits, and it brought us to this point.

On if he is stunned at losing a 5-0 lead and the game
No, just reflecting back on all the good moments with all my teammates. Just another game. It happens. Cody and Taylor did a great job. We can't ask anything more from them. Cody, 30 minutes, into the game was told he was throwing and he threw great. He did exactly what we needed him to do. Taylor came in and hit his spots, nothing more. He just jumped on a couple pitches.