Oral Roberts


Head Coach Rob Walton

Opening statement:
“I just never liked rain delays, it gives you a chance to come out flat and guys end up getting to loose. I think that that might have happened to us a little bit. We didn't play real well. We had a pretty good approach on their guy early, their All-American (Preston Guilmet), and we started to get a few hits early. I think we had seven hits through four or five (innings), and I felt like we had a chance to scratch a few more across. They had a big inning when we missed the fly ball on the ground in right and then moved their guys up. They ended up getting one there. I just don't think that they got our A-game, that's for sure. Chance (Chapman) gave us an opportunity to win and that's probably his C-game, his least amount of stuff. But, he stayed in there, he showed good character. He still gave us an opportunity to win the ballgame. He gave three runs and it could have been a lot less than that.”

On his team:
“It's definitely not our best effort. I think the way you have to look at it with our guys, I like our club and the character of our club. Chapman's been good all year, and all these guys up here have been outstanding, but you have to be ready to play each and every day. When you get an 0-2 count on that guy, we were trying to go in and we miss a little bit. If we get the ball to third, to the corner, he's out. They move a ball and he does a good job of blooping the ball in there, and then we throw a first-pitch change that they cap off the end of the bat that works into left field. Really the only ball to get hit hard is the double down the line and we end up throwing him out.  You got to give them credit for fighting off a couple pitches. Their leadoff guy was a big pitch for them, but we missed a little bit. Had we made it, he was out. You give them a little credit, but I think what we take out of this is that we didn't play well and we had every chance to win the ball game. We just did not play well.”

On Chapman possibly pitching again at the NCAA Regional:
“Not really, the pitch count goes up. He's very resilient, and he does bounce back well. But, we're thinking that we go to the bullpen where (Eric) Crichton has been outstanding the second half of the year and maybe go to him. If he's on, then we're OK too. That's basically how we have done it all year. If a guy struggles in the fifth or sixth, then we got guys in the bullpen who can get guys out. Basically, its stuff we have been doing all season. Unfortunately, I think Eric makes two bad pitches in two innings and the other pitches you have to give them credit. Good hitters will find ways to put the ball in. (Chapman) has taken great care of himselt, he's one of the hardest workers on the team amd he'll have himself prepared. If he has to give us one or two innings here or there, he will definitely do that for us.”

On today's mistakes:
“We have to do a better job of not chasing balls out of the zone. That has been our achilles' heel all season long. If a guys has had a decent breaking ball and could bounce it, we are just going to swing through it. We just have to find some way not to move through breaking balls down. We struggle that way and if we don't make an adjustment we are going to struggle that way the next game too. To beat good clubs you be able to execute and if you make mistakes they will take advantage of it.”

Pitcher Chance Chapman

On the rain delay:
“I was finally starting to figure things out. Those first five innings were a little rocky. I was just starting to get feel for my pitches.”

On hitting three batters:
“I'm not going to leave one over the plate. I am either going to hit them or I am going to go down the black and that's the way it's going to be. My control was not there today, I didn't have good command. “

Second Basemen Jake Kahaulelio

On Arizona's starting pitching:
“He did a good job at getting ahead. When he got ahead, he did what he did best, that's why he is pitcher of the year, and an All-American. What we did is we missed a lot of pitches that we should have hit to put the ball in play and put a little pressure on the defense, especially on turf anything can happen. I think us missing early pitches is why didn't play our best game because we let him get ahead of us instead of us getting ahead of him. That was a big issue.”

On the momentum out of the rain delay:
“I don't think we were up or down. But that was the thing, I think we should have came out more fired up because it was 45- to an hour-minute rain delay. Just sitting down not doing anything, and then their closer comes and throws harder than the first day you have to be more on time. We just didn't come out good enough.”

On being back on the field to tomorrow:
“Its more like revenge. Losing early is better because now we have nothing to lose. For us seniors, its the last time we will play college baseball. We will have fight and play as hard as we can. We have to just not lose and keep going and give it everything we got left. I think you are going to see a lot more heart now.

Left Fielder Pat Warfle

On Arizona's starting pitching:
“The guy just came out and hit his spots and when he missed, he missed with a pitch that he could miss with. We had a good approach to the plate, we did everything we could. This game's about basically everybody's neck-and-neck, it's the regional tournament and its going to come down to who makes the least amount of mistakes will win.”

On the bases loaded in the second inning and coming away scoreless:
“When you got an opportunity to score against a team that has a guy on the mound like they do. If we had got that job done then you never know what could have happened. If we could have scrapped a couple runs right there then it would have been a different ballgame. It comes down to who makes the least mistakes.”


 Arizona

Head Coach Andy Lopez

Opening statement:
“It was a great college baseball game. It was a heck of a start for both teams and fortunate for us. We got one more than they did. I thought their starting pitcher was pretty special. Preston (Guilmet) was good for us and gave us a chance. And Jason Stoffel, he was OK.”

On the ORU error in right field:
“Its hard to fault young guys, its a young guys game. If that were to happen to our club, I wouldn't be too upset because its not an error of omission, its an error of commission. Its an aggressive mistake. They got a good club and they play hard. It helped us.”

On his two seniors:
“Great stories, both of them. I was told four years ago that (Bill Rhinehart) would not survive academically at the University of Arizona. He now has his degree and he gets a big hit tonight. Our starter tomorrow, Brad Mills, literally walked on to our program. He came into my office and asked if he could tryout. He has pitched in Omaha and now he is going to pitch our second game of the Regional.”

On whether or not Guilmet will start again at the NCAA Regional:
I hope not, but I wouldn't doubt that tomorrow at 5:30 he tells me that he feels good and that he can pitch again. He is a young man, sophomore, but I think we have some pitching depth. We will find out over the next few days. We will see how it goes. He bounces back well and does a very good job of taking care of himself.”

Pitcher Preston Guilmet

On his perfomance  today:
“Got the win, that's all that matters, one more than they did. I was just trying to get good location with the fastball and throw an offspeed pitch in there. My opinion on it was that it wasn't that good today but it got some outs and got the job done and gave the team chance.”

On scouting report for Oral Roberts:
“We had a pretty decent scouting report and we knew they would bite. I just had to make it appetizing enough for them and they would bite.”

On the line drive in the second-inning bases loaded jam:
“I didn't know I had it until it was in my glove. That's just the way it fell, I turned two out of it and got out of the inning.”

Relief Pitcher Jason Stoffel

On coming in after the rain delay:
“Its a long time to wait coming in after the delay out of the pen. Having all that time to prepare is, not unnerving, but different.”

On the pressure of being in his first NCAA Regional:
“It just felt like another game. I had to keep it manageable and not let the situation take control of what I had to do.”


Right Fielder Bill Rhinehart

On coming out of the rain delay to get a run:
“ We just talked about, as a team, that we want to jump out and get a run to get the momentum back on our side. We got a few runs at the beginning of the game and they caught up. After the rain delay, we just wanted to execute and we got a run.”

On the momentum:
“It was big momentum for our team having our closer in during the eighth and ninth. He has been solid all year. We knew if we could get one run for him, he could close the door and he did.”

On ORU's starting pitching:
“We knew that he would have a fastball and a lot of sliders. The first nine guys he started off seven with sliders. So making those adjustments throughout the game we had better idea at the plate. I think we did a good job of executing.