May 21, 2008
MIAMI HEAD COACH JIM MORRIS
Overall thoughts on the game...
"First of all, it's a big win for us - you're in the ACC Tournament. Outstanding pitched game by Chris, and we played some solid defense. We got some timely hitting, we had no one with more than one hit, which is kind of interesting because we still scored seven runs so. We got them when we needed them. We played solid defense. Clemson has a really good club, and Mitchell's an outstanding pitcher who has some really good stuff so, it was a really big win for us."
On Chris Hernandez...
"I mean, it's been fun no question. It went down to the end where we didn't know if he was going to go to school or sign pro. He came to school, and he's exceeded our expectations. You don't expect anyone to be 11-0 as a freshman, maybe anyone to be 11-0. He's very, very good every single time out, knock on wood, and hopefully that will continue for three more tournaments.
I don't think he ever beats himself. He's that type of guy. He throws all his pitches for strikes like he did today, he has really good composure, very intelligent. The type of guy you want to term as a student-athlete...fun to have on our team, no question about that."
What winning the Conference tournament means to their team...
"It'd be nice to win it, no question, since we've never won it. We haven't played that well in the tournament since we've been here, so, we've got a ways to go. But ultimately our goal is Omaha and whatever we have to do to get there...we're not going to blow our pitching staff or do anything because next week the (NCAA) tournament's even more important."
CHRIS HERNANDEZ, FR. PITCHER
On playing in his first ACC Tournament...
"I had the butterflies...once that first pitch was there, after that I was able to relax. I was back to my normal self. I try not to hype myself up too much because that's when you start getting nervous."
On what was working well for him on the mound...
"The big thing was all my pitches were falling for strikes, so that was a plus. It kept the hitters guessing. I threw everything at them...I didn't hold any pitches back. And they were pretty much guessing every time at the plate."
CLEMSON HEAD COACH JACK LEGGETT
Overall thoughts on the game...
"It was a tough ballgame. They're just a good team. Their offense is as good as it gets from top to bottom and they played us well all three times this year. We played them tough a couple of times down there and the kid Hernandez was just very good today. For a kid who's a freshman, throws strikes as much as he does and pounds the strike zone. He had his cutter going and he knows how to pitch. We really never got anything going at all offensively. That was really the story of the day.
"D.J., I thought, once we got past that first inning, pitched well and had some good stuff going for us. We just didn't get enough base runners on or make anything exciting happen. Whenever we got a leadoff man on base, we seemed to hit into a double play. They're also a very good team defensively, and they've got some really experienced players in the infield and they're just playing well."
On approaching the rest of the tournament...
"We just have to come out and play tomorrow against another first-team all-ACC pitcher in (Clayton) Shunick for NC State, so we have another great talent tomorrow night. He was good the last time we played them, we were fortunate to beat them 2-0. Runs are going to be tough to come by tomorrow night. We're going to have to battle and you've just got to try to win a couple of ballgames."
CLEMSON STUDENT-ATHLETE (D.J. MITCHELL, JR, RHP)
On if this outing compared to his prior against Miami...
"It kinda does. I remembered the first time I faced them there was one inning that I struggled with, and then (it was) the same right off the bat today in the first inning. We're not going to give up. We've got two more games at least, and I know we're going to come out there and battle. We're just going to put this one behind us and get after it again tomorrow."
On settling down after the first inning...
"I think I was probably trying to do too much. I didn't really have a good feeling the first part of the game, but then after the later part of that inning, I started to feel a little better. After that, I started to get into a groove. You've got to be ready to go from the get go, and I wasn't today and I didn't have it going in the beginning, and by then, it was a little too late."
CLEMSON STUDENT-ATHLETE (MIKE FREEMAN, SO, INF)
On the performance of Miami starting pitcher Chris Hernandez...
"He just pounded the zone, didn't walk anybody, located inside and outside. It's just tough when you locate like that. It's hard for us to get anything going."
"Coming into the tournament, we felt real confident after swinging the bat real well against UCF and then the weekday game before we swung the bat real well also. Today, I guess, we weren't doing anything much different. That freshman pitcher came out and kept us off balance and couldn't really get anything going. Whenever we thought we did, then something would happen; ground ball double play and we'd be out of it. It was just a tough game against a good pitcher and a good team and it's going to go one way or the other and it didn't go our way today."
