June 13, 2004

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University of South Carolina

Head Coach Ray Tanner

Congratulations to East Carolina, they have a great team. They came here on a mission and they made a great effort. Coach Mazey has done a great job with their program.

Our guys play hard, they are competitive, and they all know if someone is down, someone else will be there to pick the team up. I am so proud of our guys.

(on three straight trips to Omaha)
All you can do is position yourself for good things to happen. All you try to do is get enough ingredients for those good things to happen.I can remember Louisiana-Lafayette, Stanford, and even Miami, down in the ninth. I kept thinking that baseball is a game that evens out.

We have made a good run, but I don’t think we are at that elite level that other programs are at.

I have heard the third time is the charm. Our approach will be good, and we find a way to win alot of games.

(on Trevor Lawhorn)
We did not have a good scouting report on him because he had only pitched one inning all year.

(on Ryan Mahoney)
I believe in the guys, and I have been pushing him all year. I told him to go up there and take his hacks.

If you can survive the SEC, you will have a chance in postseason. Our league is outstanding, you don’t play any better teams than in our league.

Catcher Landon Powell

(on curtain call) Some of my teammates just pushed me out of the dugout. I appreciate the fans here. This is the best place to play in the country.

(on celebration)
Yesterday, we watched Texas celebrate and all they did was high five; this is a passionate team, and we knew when that final out was made, we were going to celebrate.

(on trip to Omaha)
This is sweeter because it is in the present. It is really hard to get to Omaha three times.

Shortstop Steven Tolleson

It was fortunate for that ball to find the gap. Our fans are great, It makes it so much easier to play this game when you have five or six thousand fans cheering for you.

(on going back to Omaha)
I feel like we belong there now.

Designated Hitter Ryan Mahoney

Coach just told me to go out there, and his words were “Tater It”. I was just trying to hit it hard.

East Carolina

Coach Randy Mazey

I talked a lot coming into the weekend and I guess when you do that you better be able to back it up. I felt really good about our chances in the middle of the game and so did our dugout. Trevor (Lawhorn) had only threw one inning this season and was impressive in that inning. He had thrown in intrasquad before so we knew we could bring him in. If you look at the season that we had and we didn’t get a national seed, you would think we have to go undefeated to get that national seed. If you think this was a successful season you can ask any guy on this team what they think.

(on South Carolina)
I have a ton of respect for Coach Tanner and his players. They have a great program and they deserve to be in Omaha. They have been there for three straight years and they deserve it. I think that this experience will help us in the future.

(on bringing in Trevor Lawhorn)
As a coach you always second guess yourself. I have faith in this guy (Trevor Lawhorn) and it just didn’t work out this time around.

When we were only down two in the middle of that game, we felt good. When the other team puts that many guys on base and you can keep yourself within two runs, you have to feel good about your chances.

(on pitcher Kevin Rhodes)
We put Kevin in because he is better against right-handed batters than he is against left-handed batters. He came in and did a good job. We put Trevor (Lawhorn) in because the scouting report said the batter struggled against changeups. Trevor got him to strike out and then got the next guy to hit a groundball but it just didn’t work out for us this time.

South Carolina is a pretty good ball club. They play with passion and confidence, and you can tell they have been here before. They have timely hitting and good pitching and that is a good combination.

Pitcher Trevor Lawhorn

I threw a fastball outside. I asked our catcher if I hit the spot and he said yes and that the hitter just went outside and got it. They are all good hitters on their team and that is just the way it goes sometimes.