May 22, 2008

Recap |  Box Score

Florida Atlantic Head Coach Kevin Cooney

On the win:
"Alex Silversmith's grand slam sort of put the game away for us today. That is what aluminum bats can do. I am proud of the way our guys responded when they (Middle Tennessee) got back up on us after we jumped out to an early lead. We don't have a lot of position players but we have some good ones and our pitching has been suspect at times, but no one wanted their season to end so I'm proud of them."

On pitcher Michael Obradovich:
"Michael Obradovich really settled in. To be honest that was a real key for us because he was a hair's breath away from being removed. But then suddenly he had a four pitch inning. He had, I think, 68 pitches through the fourth inning and then only finished with a little over 80. We got some low pitch count innings and we really settled in which was a very, very important thing for us. We didn't have to go to our bullpen too early."

On bouncing back from yesterday's loss:
"I think we needed to score early especially since we were the visitors. When I was coaching in high school during the state tournament I would always let the other coach call heads or tails because I didn't want to be the home team. In a big game I always want to be on offense first because you can't hurt yourself on offense. So I was glad that we did some positive things on offense instead of hurting ourselves on defense. We're happy to get one more night in Lafayette."

Middle Tennessee Head Coach Steve Peterson

On the loss:
"Everything that I've seen in this tournament I've seen before. We have been an extremely good offensive club this season and I've been told that we've broken records like the homerun record, so we have a very talented offensive club as well as a solid defensive club. Throughout the season our downfall has been pitching, whether it's been starting, middle relief, or closing. We've just had all the problems in the world. I stayed with my starter probably to long today but when we open that bullpen gate we just have no idea what is going to happen. Chad usually has a rough couple of innings but if he can survive that then he usually settles down and he did. He settled down and got through the top of the seventh inning. I went out and talked to him and just told him that he was the one that was the most lathered up. He has seen everything that I have seen and he felt very confident that he could pitch and get somebody out. Just like yesterday when I went to the pen I brought in the guys out of the group that had been doing the best and Hyde was the third guy. Hyde is a guy that if he comes in and has the ball down then he is pretty good but he didn't have the ball down today. Florida Atlantic is a good hitting club. We knew that for the season. They swing it good and they can erupt at anytime which is what they did today."