Shawn Stiffler Notebook | Post-Boston College
Notre Dame baseball coach Shawn Stiffler spoke following the loss to Boston College in the ACC Tournament.
Opening Statement:
“Exciting baseball game. Congratulations to BC. They did a great job. We had the momentum early on and Rory (Fox) looked like he was pretty dominant and with two outs they were able to get a walk and get another two hits and a two-strike homerun, which was probably the biggest deciding factor in the game.
“Very proud of our group. I certainly think we’ve done enough, but we didn’t execute great tonight. We had opportunities. A few outs and nobody on to lead to a 3-spot there is tough. We had baserunning mistakes. We didn’t drive a runner in from third with less than two outs late in the game and couldn’t get a bunt down. In a baseball game, we didn’t execute a lot very well tonight.”
On the meeting with Rory Fox before his ESPN Top 10 double play:
”Really Coach Voltz went out and did the mound meeting. That’s all credit to Coach Voltz. I was probably ready for Rory to be done at that time. Coach Voltz hung in there with him and thought we needed to get three more outs from where our bullpen was and that actually proved true.
“HIs stuff was still really playing well. He just happened to walk that guy, but he was able to get that double play and that was a little bit of his former shortstop coming through. He made a great play and got us out of the inning.
“Rory threw the ball terrific tonight and pitched out of several jams. It’s just that one blimp on the screen with two outs and nobody on. I’ll watch that inning for a long time. I’ll replay for a long time.”
On living life on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament:
”That’s just it. We can’t just sit here and say goodbye and hug it out right now. We have about six grueling days here it looks like. All you can do is - I told them tonight’s game we got out executed, but over the last six weeks, nobody outplayed us really in the country. We didn’t have the opportunities from the weekend coming in to save anything. We had to ride every really, really hard because we knew where our fate was and where we had to get to and we got there. That’s why you saw our rotation get mixed and matched today. We had to ride Jack (Radel) just to get us here the last three or four weeks. I didn’t feel comfortable bringing him back on five days rest. He got a six-day, a seven-day, and now a five-day. I wasn’t going to do that to a sophomore arm. Rory gave us a great start and was more than capable.
“I think we did enough. You have 16 teams in this league and you certainly should be getting more teams in the postseason. This conference is an 11-team bid in my opinion.”
On Carson Tinney’s health after the collision at home plate:
”He seemed to be fine. No one messes around with injuries. That’s the No. 1 thing that if a trainer feels you’re shaky at all, he’s going to get you. It was more about the collision and Carson gathering himself. I think he knew there was impact. He wasn’t 100 percent sure where the impact totally was, but he was feeling something around his head. I think we wanted to make sure and he bounced right back in there and played well. We worked a walk and he threw a runner out.”
On freshman Parker Brzustewicz with an early double:
”I think we felt with Parker in that four-hole, he’s an RBI producer. I was really excited about our start to the day. I’m fine with the way we played throughout the day. They did a great job matching up their pitchers. Momentum was certainly on our side. I think if you play that game nine more times, Rory probably gets out of that inning unscathed. It just didn’t happen tonight.”
On Rory Fox bouncing back from his outing in Miami:
”That one in Miami, we didn’t know how we were going to get our pitching lined up for the tournament. We were looking at a Tuesday, right? I was just not comfortable with Jack Radel throwing 105 pitches at Miami the night before. When Rory didn’t look great and was a little rough in that first inning in Miami, we decided to shut him down and regroup.
“If you lose that game 8-4 and he throws six innings, I don’t know who we would have pitched today. We were able to do that. Jack Radel wanted the ball really bad and he will probably stare a hole in the back of my head on the plane.
“I have to think about the next 40 years for them and not just necessarily the next four days. As bad as I wanted that game, I love Jack a lot more.”
On Bino Watters health:
”Bino has a lower leg injury that is basically a tolerance thing. You have to be careful because if you don’t let it completely go away, it can keep flaring up. He wanted to pinch hit and stuff like that, but he hasn’t done that stuff. You’re just setting up young people to fail on emotion there.
“I”m really hoping that if they give an opportunity and I believe they should, I think we check a lot of boxes, and I hope he’s available to DH or pinch hit.”
Want the latest scoop on the Fighting Irish? Sign up for our newsletter and become an ISD Premium Subscriber: Sign Up for ISD
Black Notre Dame Fighting Irish Urban Backpack
