Game 1—Nebraska vs. Eastern Michigan
Post-Game Quotes
Eastern Michigan Head Coach Roger Coryell
“I think we all found out just how good Nebraska really is. Good hitting, their base-running surprised us a little bit. Fundamentally, they are extremely good—I didn’t see any glaring weaknesses whatsoever. They are certainly the best team we’ve played this year, and we’ve played some good teams. It’s a tribute to Nebraska and how well they played today.”

On Nebraska’s base-running
“Their times to run were exceptional. We did have some pickoffs on that our pitcher missed. Their (Nebraska’s) timing was excellent, they had us on the ropes, and it was a great coaching effort by Coach (Mike) Anderson to do what he did today, and I was a little bit surprised. They executed extremely well.”

On EMU’s pitching
“I think we are better than what we showed today on the mound. The glaring part of our team today was emotions—too much excitement exhibited on the pitching on the mound today. That is part of college athletics and being a student-athlete. They are not professional guys. We certainly haven’t been in this atmosphere. It is a tremendous advantage for Nebraska to play at home. Their fans were outstanding, and Nebraska is a great club.” 

Outfielder Ryan Goleski
On two home runs
“I was just trying to get a pitch I could drive the first at-bat. He left a fastball away, and I was looking for that pitch and I definitely hit that first one very well. The second one I spun off a little bit, but I believe I still hit that ball pretty well and it carried. I think the biggest thing I was worried about was whether or not the ball was going to stay fair.” 

On slow start
“I think the biggest thing was the crowd and that many people. I think guys probably got caught up in the game a little bit too much early on and made a little more out of it than it really is. It is just a baseball game, and we were just out there playing another game. There’s a lot on the line, but you can’t take that approach.”  

Nebraska Coach Mike Anderson
“The positive thing we can look at today is we won. It was kind of a long day. It was kind of an odd day to be honest with you. There were a lot of different things that we hadn’t seen throughout the year. I’d like to give a lot of credit to Eastern Michigan. They did a great job offensively. They are a quality program and a quality team and did a great job. On our end, I’m real happy with the offense. We did a good job and kept battling back. We left saying, it is a result-oriented day. We won, let’s move on and we’ve got Aaron Marsden on the mound tomorrow.”

On answering EMU’s offense
“We scored some runs after they scored some runs, which was very important to answer that way. We made a very strong attempt to try to be aggressive with a lot of things. I think the first four or five innings we tried to push a lot of buttons that didn’t work and then later we pushed some buttons that worked.”

On Curtis Ledbetter’s four-hit performance
“He added a lot to our offense today. I think you have an opportunity some times to pitch around Matt (Hopper) and Alex Gordon if he’s not in there. I thought he did a great job and did a great job with two strikes. You add Ledbetter in there and put Daniel (Bruce) behind him and you’ve got a pretty good 3-4-5-6 combo.”

Nebraska First Baseman Matt Hopper
On two home runs
“The first inning, he brought a curveball in there and I got a good swing on it. It was one of those times in the game where we got the momentum going, we got a run on the board and offensively we got in the game. The second one was a pitch inside, they were trying to come after that, and I hit it down the line.”

“I was very proud of our offense today. From the first inning on we were scoring and every time we answered what they put on the board, so that was the biggest thing today.” 

Nebraska Outfielder Daniel Bruce
On Seventh Inning Home Run
“At first I thought it might go foul, but the wind kind of pushed it back fair. It was a 2-0 count and I was looking for a fastball and I got a good swing on it. It was an important inning for us. They just had a big inning, and we knew we had to answer with our offense.”