University of Richmond Athletics
Richmond 6, Nebraska 2
06/08/2002 | Baseball
June 8, 2002
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Richmond Head Coach Ron Atkins
Opening Statement
"It was quite a ballgame. The fans were treated to another excellent ballgame between two good college baseball teams. This game could have gone either way. We jumped on them 1-0 and got the second run, and we felt a little better. I was really worried because we kept leaving runners in scoring position. You can't do that against a real good ball club. That worried me all the way through the game. When (Jeff) Blevins hit his home run, I thought it was coming back to haunt you a little bit. Like I said yesterday, this team finds ways to win. I think that's exactly what happened today. We got a great pitching performance from Thomas Martin. Outstanding pitching. He held a good team down and made one bad pitch. A good team is going to take advantage of it and they hit the two-run homer. What can you say about Vito Chiaravalloti. He has carried us all year - in the first half of the year, in the middle half of the year and in the end of the year. It was a great clutch performance."
On the two-run homer by Nebraska's Jeff Blevins
"One thing, if you watch us play all year, there is no quit in this team. It's not in their vocabulary. They don't quit. No matter how far we get down, they've done it all year long, and they'll continue to do it. You may beat us, but we're not going to quit. I still felt good about that because Thomas (Martin) was still throwing the ball well. He kept them off balance and made some great pitches."
Richmond First baseman Vito Chiaravalloti
On the last at-bat
"I had a lot of confidence in my swing today. I was swinging the bat really well. My hands were loose. I knew that if he threw a strike that I was going to be in good shape. I just got it up in the air."
On tomorrow's game
"When we hit the field tomorrow, Nebraska is going to come out with everything they have. There is no momentum swinging our way tomorrow. They're going to have 9,000 people on their side. I think tomorrow you're going to be in for a great game."
On the crowd
"I appreciate the crowd. I think there are good people here in Lincoln. It's a fun place to play baseball. When I came to the plate and they announced my name, I could kind of hear the crowd a little bit. I like that. It's good that they're in the game at all times. We're going to come out tomorrow and we're going to have a great game for this crowd and for college baseball."
Richmond Starting Pitcher Thomas Martin
On the importance of getting the two outs after Nebraska's home run
"I have been giving up some home runs this year, which I'm not used to. I think just giving some up early it was important for me to get those two outs and give my team the confidence that we still had a chance. I thought we still had a chance. I never doubted it. I think it was really big that I came out and got those next two outs and got us out of the inning."
On his shaky start (throwing six straight balls to open the game)
"It's the most people I have ever thrown in front of so it was just one of those things where I was uptight. I wasn't really thinking about what I needed to be doing. I was just taking it all in I guess. Once I got used to it and learned how to block out the crowd, everything fell into place."
Nebraska Head Coach Dave Van Horn
On the game
"Give credit to Richmond, they out played us today. They out hit us, and they out pitched us. They held on and put themselves in position to win in the bottom of the ninth. They got what we were looking for in the ninth, a lead-off single. When you get one of those, you've got a chance. It seems like their pitcher did a great job of keeping our leadoff man off all day. We haven't much production from the top of our order the first two games. It has been tough to score runs. I though their pitcher did a great job. Now we get to play a third game tomorrow."
On the momentum swinging Richmond's way
"I don't know. It is hard to say. I guess you could have asked me that last night, if the momentum would have swung our way. I would have just said that we had an advantage, now it is even, so I don't think so. There is only a few teams playing at this time of year, and we feel very fortunate to be here. We still have a chance, and so do they. Let's play the third game and whoever wins is moving on and the other guys are checking it in and that is the way this game is."
On Richmond Starter Thomas Martin
"He threw a lot of first pitch strikes. He threw the ball in and out a lot and tried to throw a slider down and in. We knew he was going to try and do that. We hit some balls hard and it seemed like a couple of times right at people. We were thinking we needed to get something to go our way and it really didn't."
On what he told the team
"There is nothing to talk about. They have been here before. It is almost like, here we go, it is 1-1 going into Sunday's game. You try to learn how to win these games by playing conference games. It is going to be a battle tomorrow, it is going to be a great ballgame."
On the experience factor
"I don't think it is going to hurt us that is for sure. We feel like we have been in these positions before. Sometimes the breaks go your way and sometimes they don't. You just have to go get it done and go from there. We have to hit the baseball - bottom line. We haven't hit the baseball."
NU Third Baseman Jeff Blevins
On his home run
"(Josh) Birmingham got us going in the inning, a little positive flow. The previous two at bats, I've been getting my pitch to hit, I've just been fouling it off. Finally, he layed it up there, his fastball, and I hit it out."
Nebraska Pitcher Brian Dunensing
On his pitching
"It felt just like regionals. My job was to keep them from scoring and give my team a chance to win. That is what I tried to do, and I guess in the end, I just didn't get it done."
Nebraska Infielder Josh Birmingham
On his single to lead off the seventh inning
"It was about the third time I have come out of the bullpen and got to play. I think the coaches have prepared me well enough to play whenever they need me to go in. I was just going in hoping I could help out some way. I happened to get a hit."
