2012 ACC Baseball Championship

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“College baseball games are hard to win, and certainly games in this league. Both teams obviously deserved to win that
2012 ACC Baseball Championship May 23-27, 2012, NewBridge Bank Park, Greensboro, North Carolina

Game No. 4 - No. 4 Virginia vs. No. 5 Clemson Quotes Virginia Head Coach Brian O’Connor “College baseball games are hard to win, and certainly games in this league. Both teams obviously deserved to win that game, but I was just wondering who was going to step up to do what it took to win it. I’m sure there were ten runners left on base on both sides, and I think that speaks to the level of pitching that was out there today. I thought (Daniel) Gossett of Clemson was outstanding. He had a really good arm, and he’ll have a talented career in their uniform. But I’m proud of our guys for hanging in there. We’ve done what we need to do to win.” On the importance of winning the first game in the tournament… “We’re in a position where we’re just trying to play good baseball and play winning baseball. The years that we have advanced the deepest in our seasons, we’ve won this tournament and played really good baseball in this tournament. We don’t think much about which games in the pool play to win, but just going out and playing good baseball.” On the development of the team throughout the season… “This team over the past six weeks or so is playing their best baseball. We’ve won 10 of our past 13 ACC games. We needed to figure out the roles in our bullpen and get some of the freshman experience. Once all those things started to come together, we showed that we have a pretty good ball club.” Virginia Junior Starting Pitcher Branden Kline On remaining effective on the mound throughout the game… “It’s just the game of baseball. You have to make adjustments every pitch, so I just looked at the dugout and saw the guys and wanted to keep them in the game. I just tried to go as far as I could.” On building confidence after stranding so many Clemson baserunners throughout the game… “You usually build confidence when no one even reaches base, but when you strand them out there, it’s a big momentum shift for both the offense and defense. From an offensive standpoint, you believe that maybe one or two runs scored could win the ballgame.” Virginia Junior Shortstop Chris Taylor On redeeming himself in his final at bat after committing an error in the top of the eighth inning… “Obviously I was frustrated and I wanted a chance to pick myself up and my teammates up at the same time. Luckily my teammates gave me a chance to do that late there in the eighth. I just held my ground in the eighth and reached base. The guy just hit me.” On turning the game-ending double play… “You have to want the ball after an error like that. You have to want to respond and pick yourself up, so that was big. Luckily JT (Justin Thompson) gave me an opportunity to do that.” Virginia Senior Closer Justin Thompson On his performance today… “This is a big boost for me. In the past few weeks, I’ve had some ups and downs, but it’s just part of the season that’s going on. I just haven’t given the ball to my defense enough, and I’ve been walking some guys. So it was definitely big to get that double play there at the end and let my defense pick me up.” Clemson coach Jack Leggett On the bottom of the eighth inning “Kid hits that ball to right field and the next thing I know, the inning implodes on us with a couple of hit batters, a couple of walks or whatever. We had our chances, and we have to get better at finishing off games.” On the Virginia error that gave Clemson a 2-1 lead “It gave us an opportunity to win the game. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take advantage of it. We just couldn’t hold them down. We got a break and we haven’t had a whole lot of them. We had one there and unfortunately, we couldn’t make it work for us.” Clemson pitcher Daniel Gossett “I thought I threw well. Pitch-calling was great. Defense was huge. I wish I had stayed in there a little longer. I shouldn’t have gotten tired. I should be working to keep my pitch count down so I can go later in the game.”