University of New Orleans

Head Coach Tom Walter
Opening Statement:
“First of all, congratulations to Wichita State on a well-played ballgame and advancing to the finals. Thanks to all the NCAA people here and of course to Wichita State for hosting a first-class tournament and doing things the right way. As for the ballgame today, their pitching was the story. They struck out 11 of us and only walked one. We knew that would have to pitch really well today to win the ballgame against a guy like Shafer. We knew we would have our hands full. I thought we did a poor job, the last two games, of just recognizing pitches. I thought we swung at too many balls out of the strike zone and were too overaggressive, especially down towards the bottom of the order. We gave up too many runs with two outs and we just couldn't get anything going offensively. Again, give credit to their pitching staff, they handled us all day today. I couldn't be more proud of my ballclub, the resilience they showed and the passion they played with. It was a proud moment for me to be able to coach these guys at a Regional.”

On his starting pitching decision:
“We knew we would have to get 27 innings to win this thing. If we were just playing to get to the final, we would have started (Steven) Whalen. But we knew with this crowd we were going to have to pitch guys at the end of the game with experience.”

On the WSU double play in the fly ball to left:
“Obviously the umpire had a catch and truthfully I couldn't tell whether it was or wasn't. Brandon thought it was down initially, and I yelled, ?tag,' and he got back to the bag before he took off. I thought we had a clean play at third base. But he is an NCAA official and he had a good look at it and we get the best at the tournaments.”

Center Fielder Brandon Bowser
On looking back on the weekend:
“We are very disappointed that we are done. I am a senior and there is no guarantee of anything after this. But, on the same token, I was real glad to be a part of what this team did. I would have to say I am real proud of this team.”

On Wichita State's starting pitching:
“He located pitches and he read what we were doing. We kept swinging at offspeed pitches in the dirt and he kept throwing them there.”

On being at the NCAA Regional:
“It has been really exciting to be here. Just to come out with energy and having fun, we really had nothing to lose. Not a lot of people expected us to win our conference tournament, let alone make a Regional. We just came out and had fun and let the chips fall where they may.”



Second Baseman Johnny Giavotella
On today's game:
“We ran into a good Wichita State team today. They came out ready to play and pitched well and played good defense. There was nothing we could do about it.”

On the future for UNO:
“I have a lot of confidence in next year's team to come back and do the same thing we did this year. They just battle all year long and be the hard-nose team we were this year.”

Designated Hitter Nick Schwaner
On his home run:
“When I hit it, I thought it would go foul or be caught. But the wind helped push it over the fence and it stayed fair. I thought it helped (the momentum). Being the leadoff batter, I was just trying to get on base. I was hoping that it would provide a little spark plug in us.”

On next year's team:
“I think its a good experience for the underclassmen to come this far and we faced great teams. This can only help us next year. We have gained a lot of knowledge and confidence going into next year.”

 Wichita State University

Head Coach Gene Stephenson
On his team:
“Aaron has had some physical problems this year, more than you guys would know. He was unable workout and get himself some endurance and strength and he goes out there and pitches them hard. That was a gutsy performance and I mean that. I thought other than that one run, the other one was a normal pop fly on a normal day. I just wish we would have got some pop flies to right.”

On his team's mindset during the tournament:
“I thought we played really well Friday night except for the poor starting performance of Banwart and the ninth inning. We just made some bad pitches in the ninth. If you take it back and look at it, we win that game, hands down, if we just block the ball for strike three and pay attention to the runners on base. But, that's hindsight. The only thing you can do is look at what's in front of you and the players know that. We have been through this many times. We felt that if Oklahoma can do that to us at their place last year, I know this team can do that. So we'll just have to wait and see if this team has enough spunk to do that.”

Starting Pitcher Aaron Shafer
On his performance against UNO:
“I felt good out there. It was nice to actually be confident in a curveball again. My arm felt really good, as good as it has felt. I thought I commanded the zone pretty well. For the most part, I stayed ahead of hitters and when you are doing that you can be successful. They exposed a weakness, anytime a team shows that they will swing at balls down then you keep going down. I was fortunate they kept chasing them down there. The curveball was pretty tight today and it was tough for them to see. When I am doing that I know its working pretty good, so you tend to go back to it.

First Baseman Derek Schermerhorn
On avenging Friday's loss to UNO:
“It was huge, I knew we were going to have to play them. It was good to come out and take it to them like we did and show them that we are a good team.”

On playing two games in one day:
“It is a difficult not to look ahead to the second game when you are up 7-2, and think you need to save your energy. But, you can't do that, they showed on Friday they can come back at any time. You got to keep your head in the game and go all out. We get three hours right here, so we'll be fine.”

On needing to beat Arizona twice:
“We are going to do what Oklahoma did to us last year. There is not a worse feeling in the world than what Oklahoma did to us last year. We are planning on coming out and making Arizona feel what we felt last year.”

Relief Pitcher Noah Booth
On getting back on the mound:
“It was good to come back out here after what happened on Friday. That happens in baseball. It was good come out and show them that I could pitch well. I told myself I wasn't going to throw a fastball, but I actually did throw a couple that I spotted well. That's the best pitch in baseball, a spotted fastball.”