
ZANDER WEIL | VANDERBILT | DEREK FISHER | VIRGINIA | |
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![]() “Just like it was against Texas, it’s going to be an absolute battle between two really good teams. We know Virginia is solid up and down. They have pitching and hitting, and so do we. We know it’s going to be great baseball. But, you know, the prediction I’m going to make is Commodores in two. Shocking, I know.” On Monday's pre-game routine ... “It’ll be the same deal. You can’t do stuff different just because it’s a big game. You have to stay in the same routine. You can’t put stress on yourself in this situation. You have to try and stay relaxed and go about business the same way. At the end of the day, it’s still just a baseball game. [Monday], we’ll wake up, get breakfast, go back and take a little nap. Then we’ll head to the field and have a loose batting practice, loose ground balls. When the game gets closer and closer, that’s when you reel it back and start to focus in.” On preparing for Monday’s starter Nathan Kirby... “Usually the morning of the game, that’s when we start to talk about the starting pitcher. Just look at what his strengths are and what he might attack us with. We know he’s very good, ACC Pitcher of the Year, we know he’s done great things this year. We’re not taking him for granted at all. [Monday] morning we’ll sit down as an offensive unit and iron our plan out.” On the thought process during the CWS Finals … “I say a prayer before every at bat. I’m just like, ‘You have to help me help my team the best way I can.’ That’s how you have to look at it. You can’t be up there being like, ‘I have to get a hit. I have to get a hit.’ I need to do my best to help my team right now – that’s what you need to be thinking. You can’t put pressure on yourself. It just needs to be a team mentality in those team moments.” On the thought of a national championship while being recruited … “Champions were discussed indirectly, Omaha was definitely discussed because that year, in 2011, they went to the College World Series. You talk about the prestige at a program like Vanderbilt. In just over a decade they’ve gone from not really being on the map as far as college baseball is concerned, to being one of the best programs in the country. That’s what was talked about, and the opportunities in a program like this that you’ll have. It wasn’t necessarily ‘We’re going to get to the championship round.’” On looking back at the season’s lowest moment and how far away the CWS Finals felt … “The lowest point of the season was the SEC tournament. We won our first game and then we got bounced in the next two -- and they weren’t good losses. We weren’t playing our baseball. We weren’t playing our game. This all still seemed possible, even though it crossed people’s minds ‘If we keep playing like this, we’re not going to be successful.’ As a team, we sat down and we looked at ourselves and we thought that at this point in the season, we’re still a 40-win team. We did work at the beginning of the season to put us in a position to get a fantastic seed and host a regional. When we hosted, that week of practice was fantastic. When we were in the regional we felt fantastic. Not playing for a week made us hungry to get back out there and from that point on, we’ve just been clicking on all cylinders.” |
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