Everything From Virginia Tech's John Szefc, Pete Daniel After 6-2 Loss to Cal Poly

Virginia Tech baseball head coach John Szefc and shortstop Pete Daniel spoke to the media after Virginia Tech's 6-2 loss to Cal Poly.

NCAA

Virginia Tech baseball head coach John Szefc and shortstop Pete Daniel spoke to the media after Virginia Tech's 6-2 loss to Cal Poly. Here's the entirety of what they had to say.

Szefc's opening statement:

JS: "Yeah, just a tough night for our guys. I mean, we just didn't play. We hadn't played in a week. It kind of looked that way, or kind of pretty rusty in a lot of different ways. We did a lot of OK stuff, nothing really tremendous. Give them credit. Their starter, Griffin Naess was very good. I mean, it just went their way. I don't even know how many base hits they had where it was just bouncing balls to the infield on a hard surface. But give him credit. Had 13 hits, and they walked like five times. On paper, they probably should have won that game a lot more than 6-2. But credit our guys for kind of keeping it close and giving a shot at the end."

On if anything changed with the different playing surface at Jackie Robinson Stadium (Los Angeles, Calif.):

JS: "I don't know. That's a pretty hard surface right there, everything got through there. That's a whole different place to play than what our guys have seen. I can tell you that, but you still got to make pitches, and give them credit. That's kind of kind of what happens sometimes. You put balls in play, and you find holes, and that's exactly what happened."

On the second frame, where Virginia Tech loaded the bases before the inning was cut short by a double play:

JS: "It was a big, big point of the game. [Naess] induced two double-play balls, that was one of them. ... That was the early play of the game, I would say. The fact that we loaded the bases with nobody out, got one [run] out of it, give them a lot of credit. He did a good job of getting out of that, and we didn't. That was it, right there, pretty much. That was the beginning of the end of it, unfortunately that early in the game."

On the approach going into UCLA (Saturday, 4 p.m. ET):

JS: "There's no different approach. You go out there, go back, you get some rest, get some food, try to get some sleep, come back and play tomorrow. Unfortunately, that's baseball, and that's the way these regionals are, man. You have to be at your best all the time, because if you're not, you will lose. And we were not, and we lost. I mean, it's really simple. It doesn't really matter in theory who you're playing. You talk about rankings and seeds and all this other stuff, but you have to be at your absolute best all the time in these games in the postseason. Everyone is going to play better than what they are usually, and give Cal Poly credit, they were very solid tonight; that's a good team."

On why Eisenreich started Friday over Brett Renfrow:

JS: "We just thought it was a better matchup, he'll throw tomorrow. Renfrow will throw tomorrow."

On if the loss makes Szefc feel like he lost out on a good opportunity:

JS: "No."

On Daniel's view of Naess:

PD: "I just thought he did a good job of getting our guys off balance. Obviously, we've seen better arms and seen better fastballs, but thought he did a good job of getting our guys off balance and kind of ultimate pitches."

On Eisenreich's performance:

JS: "He was alright. Could have been better, could have been worse. It's going to sound weird, but I don't think the result was a result of his start. It's going to be difficult to win a game in the postseason when you score two runs; that's just the reality of what it is. I think he could have pitched cleaner, probably. I think you can press that about [ethan] Grim as well, but thought it was well enough. It could have been better, for sure. I think we could have done a lot of things better offensively, on the mound. We hadn't played in a week, and I think it showed."

On the infield playing fast:

PD: "Yeah, we noticed yesterday for sure. It's kind of a hard infield with balls playing quicker, lot bouncier. But I don't know. There's those balls that hit in the first couple innings; you don't really practice those, and never seen anything like that, a bunch of choppers for base hits. That's a tough one to practice, for sure."

On Szefc's evaluation of how Naess performed:

JS: "Good. He has high strikeout numbers because of his off-speed stuff, not because of his fastball. I mean, he located changeup; he'll settle in and pitch, and that's what he did. And as Pete was saying, he'll keep guys off balance, and he did a very good job. I could see why he's had success and why he's pitching first out for that team."

On Petrich struggling with the two double plays:

JS: "I don't really remember the first one. The second one... he just hit it right at the guy. You're trying to get guys to hit balls hard. He did that, at least in that second instance. So it's just tough. You can only control so much; give them credit. They played very, very clean defense. They pitch and play defense, and that's usually the recipe for winning in the postseason or winning in general."

On it being the first NCAA Regional game for many of the team's players and if that had an impact:

JS: "I don't think so. I just keep going back to the fact, we haven't played in seven days, and we played OK. I don't think we played probably as clean as we'd have liked, but that's what tomorrow's for."

On what goes into keeping the team even-keeled ahead of their elimination game with UCLA:

JS: "I don't think there's a whole lot involved with that. It's actually good that we play early in the day; it's going to be good for our guys to get back out there as soon as possible, regardless of who we're playing. The Regionals are that way, man; the NCAA tournament's that way. If you expect to advance, you have to make plays, you have to make pitches, and Cal Poly did that tonight. I give them credit."

On the experience of traveling from Virginia to California:

JS: "It was a pretty uneventful trip on Tuesday, their second trip to California in the last four weeks. Our guys have done fine with it, really. I think our guys are used to traveling. Been to Texas, been in California twice, been to Boston, been in Miami. We've traveled all over the place this year, so I don't really think that's been that much of a factor, to be honest with you. I'm just telling you, I think the bigger factor for us, we hadn't played in seven days, and I know that other teams haven't either, so I don't want to make that sound like an excuse. I just think we probably weren't as sharp as maybe we have been recently. We got one more right here."

On the messaging to the team with a quick turnaround for UCLA:

PD: "Just show up and play harder tomorrow, play for our season and play for each other. Just play to, you know, have another day with each other. We want our season to go as long as possible, play together as long as we can. I think that's just the mindset."