Clemson vs South Carolina CWS post game notes and quotes |
General Notes:
*-Prior to this season, the last time that both brackets needed an ‘if necessary’ game was in 1988, the first year of the current two-bracket format. *-Tonight’s game took 2:22, the quickest MCWS game since North Carolina defeated Clemson, 2-0, in 2:15 on 6/18/06. *-This is the 291st meeting between Clemson and South Carolina, with Clemson holding a 167-122-1 lead after South Carolina’s win tonight. South Carolina and Clemson have split their four games in 2010. *-It is the first time that Clemson and South Carolina have faced off in the MCWS since 2002. In that year, South Carolina defeated Clemson twice to advance to the title game against Texas. South Carolina *-With tonight’s win, South Carolina is now 20-17 all-time in nine trips to the MCWS, including a 14-8 record in elimination games. *-South Carolina is 3-0 in elimination games this season. The Gamecocks did not play an elimination game in either the regional or super regional rounds. *-South Carolina is now 100-56 in NCAA Tournament play, including two or more wins each of the past 11 seasons. South Carolina improves to 8-1 in the 2010 NCAA Tournament. *-Michael Roth tossed a complete-game three-hitter, the first complete game in the 2010 MCWS. The last time a complete game was thrown at the MCWS was by Texas’ Taylor Jungmann, who accomplished the feat against LSU on 6/23/09. *-Prior to tonight, Roth’s longest career outing was a 4.1-inning start against the College of Charleston on 4/14/09 (his last career start). Entering tonight, his longest outing of the season was 3.1 innings against Bucknell in South Carolina’s NCAA opener on 6/4/10. Only 14 of his 35 previous appearances in 2010 were more than one inning. *-Before tonight, Roth had thrown 370 pitches in 35 2010 appearances, with one game of 25+ (38 vs. Bucknell). Tonight, he threw 109 pitches. It is the fifth complete game by a South Carolina pitcher this season. *-Prior to Brad Miller’s ninth-inning hit, lefties were 0-for-21 against Roth in the MCWS. *-Roth has a 0.79 ERA in three MCWS appearances, allowing just three hits for a .075 batting average (3 hits in 40 at-bats). *-South Carolina scored in the first four innings vs. Clemson. The last team to accomplish the feat in the MCWS was North Carolina against Southern Miss on 6/16/09. *-South Carolina is now 20-1 when holding an opponent to two runs or less. *-Jackie Bradley Jr., extended his hit streak to 20 games tonight and is now 7-for-16 (.438) with nine RBIs in the CWS, as his nine RBIs are the most by any player in the 2010 MCWS. *-Brady Thomas went 2-for-4 on Friday and is 6-for-17 (.353) in four MCWS games. Clemson *-Clemson has posted a 12-23 record in 12 MCWS appearances, and can finish no worse than third, which would equal its best-ever MCWS finish. *-The Tigers own a 108-76 (.587) all-time mark in 35 NCAA Tournament appearances. *-Tonight’s loss snapped Clemson’s four-game win streak, as the Tigers had won 20 of last 26 games before tonight. *-The Tigers have now scored in 136 straight games, dating back to 5/24/2008. The streak ranks fourth in Clemson history. *-Clemson’s three hits were a season low, as the Tigers’ previous low was four hits on two occasions, most recently against Wake Forest on 5/16. Clemson was hitting .340 in nine NCAA Tournament games prior to tonight. *-Twenty of Clemson’s 22 MCWS hits in three games have been singles. *-Brad Miller’s ninth-inning single extended his hitting streak to 20 games. *-Three innings of relief was Thomas Cruz’s longest outing since 5/11, when he went a season-high 4.2 innings against Maryland. *-Clemson is now 2-8 when being held to two runs or less. Post game Quotes THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Clemson players Wilson Boyd, Mike Freeman, and Coach Jack Leggett. Coach, an opening statement.
style=""> COACH LEGGETT: Well, they played a good ball game. Gotta give them credit. style=""> The kid pitched a good game, kept the ball down, we hit a ton of ground balls. They made a ton of plays. We never had a chance to get things going offensively. Didn't have many lead‑off men on base. When we did, we did score that one run.
style=""> But we just didn't get any flow offensively going. And we got behind early, and we did make some pitches to keep it close. But this ball game's over. As far as I'm concerned we just gotta come back tomorrow and be ready to play.
style=""> THE MODERATOR: Questions.
style=""> style="font-weight: bold;"> style="font-weight: bold;">Q. Wilson and Mike, just how tough was Roth tonight? Was he just pitching that well?
style=""> WILSON BOYD: I think from the last time we saw him, I think he dropped his arm slide a little bit, as far as the way the ball is moving tonight. Made it tough on a lefty because it exploded in. And he had a slider away and everything, as Coach Leggett said, down in the zone. style=""> He did what he had to do tonight to win the ball game for them.
style=""> MIKE FREEMAN: Yeah, it's definitely his night. You gotta give him a lot of credit because he went out there and battled for his team and did exactly what they wanted him to do, and we just couldn't get anything going. Got a couple of hits. When we did, we couldn't put them back together. So we just never really got anything going on offense, any kind of a walk followed by a hit. And we just kind of granted a double play or something to try and kill anything we had going.
style=""> Gotta give a lot of credit for making the pitches when he needed to make his pitches and, I mean, the good thing is we got another game tomorrow to play, so we'll be out and ready to go tomorrow.
style=""> Q. style="font-weight: bold;">Jack, were you surprised that Roth was able to go as long as he was? He had thrown 26 innings all season and for him to come out and throw nine, over 100 pitches, were you surprised?
style=""> COACH LEGGETT: I didn't really think when the game started that they were going to ride him that long. But he was having success, and he was throwing strikes, and he was getting some quick outs and his pitch count wasn't up very much.
style=""> And so we just kept riding him and he kept throwing balls in the strike zone and they were making plays behind him. So I didn't expect him to go nine innings certainly when the game started, but at the same time once he got rolling there, I knew we were having a little bit of trouble. style=""> We weren't getting a lot of good swings.
style=""> style="font-weight: bold;"> style="font-weight: bold;">Q. Jack, he mentioned the arm slot was a little different. Had you seen that in the scouting reports that he kind of started pitching differently lately?
style=""> COACH LEGGETT: Right. We had seen him a couple times. Saw him out here in relief, and we've seen him on tape. style=""> And some of the regional, Super Regionals, and so forth. We knew his arm slot was dropping down a little bit. He had some good ball movement. He was a little deceptive. And obviously it was tough for us to see.
Q. Guys, I know '02 is ancient history. People will talk about it you lost a couple to South Carolina, or Clemson did in the World Series. Cross your mind at all, any factor at all?
style=""> MIKE FREEMAN: I mean, we weren't here in '02. I mean, I don't really know exactly the history. I know that they have a really good team in '02. Michael Johnson was a part of it. But as far as that goes, that has nothing to do with this College World Series. style=""> They beat us tonight. But we got a game tomorrow and we're going to come out ready to play.
style="font-weight: bold;"> style="font-weight: bold;">Q. Coach, any thought on who you're going to start tomorrow, what the pitching rotation will look like?
style=""> COACH LEGGETT: I'll go back and talk about it. Casey Harman is an option for us, certainly, and so we'll go back and talk about it tonight.
style=""> THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen.
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