Outfielder John Fussell

“We did it. I have no words for this one. I am thrilled. This is a dream come true. We're not done yet, we still have work to do.”

Pitcher Walker Sheller

“As long as we get the win, who cares. This is something else. It scared me.”

Outfielder Vance Vizcaino

“All I am trying to do is keep this thing going. I don't want it to end yet. We have come to far to give it up. Walker came out there every day and threw his butt off. He has been working too hard for me not to make that catch. I am doing it for my teammates and my coaches. We all believe in ourselves and our fans and we are going to keep this going for as long as we can.”

Pitcher Kevin Fagan

“It was a great game and great win. Everyone battled through the whole tournament and it was a great win. I was really confident in Walker because he was pounding the zone. They hit him a little bit but he stuck with it.”

Catcher Austin Hale

“I am pretty glad that I hit that home run. It was a pretty interesting last inning. Walker just about gave me a heart attack. With Noll coming up, that made it interesting. This is awesome. It was a whole team effort. The bullpen just battled through. It was a whole team effort. Everyone contributed. It is unbelievable.”

Pitcher Josh Thorne

“I didn't think I had anything left either. The adrenaline took over. I was trying to get ground balls and throw strikes and let the defense work. It all paid off. Sheller was making my blood pressure go up, but we have a lot of faith in him and knew he would get the job done. This is crazy. It is the experience of a lifetime.”

Pitcher Mitchell Jordan

“I was holding my breath. Coach T said all that we need is a chip and a chair and that is what happened. WE have the kind of guys who can do this and we got it done. Where ever we go, who ever we play, we will be ready.”

First Baseman Will Mackenzie

“That was an awesome team win. We gutted it out. I knew Walker was get out of it because he has been so good for us all year. My heart started racing a little when they started hitting him a little, but I knew he would get out of it. It was an awesome team win.”

Director of Athletics Jeff Altier

“I am thinking that I have to buy some rings. I thought I was going to get a whole year off without buying rings, but now I get to purchase a bunch of them and I am happy about it. I had forgotten how great it was to be in the dugout and be a part of it. It was fantastic. You could feel the energy. I felt like I was a little part of it. It was great fun and I think I am going to do that with every team next year and not do anything administratively. It was great fun. It is great to be a Hatter.”

Head Coach Pete Dunn

“To say I am happy would be an understatement. I am happy for these guys. We scuffled all year and never could get anything going. We'd win three or four and then turn around and lose three or four. We came up here and we said what we had to say. It is a whole different season and whatever we have done, or haven't done, doesn't matter. I told them, and I believe this, because I have seen it happen. I told them that you are going to see teams in the tournament who are representing their league as a five or six seed. The mantra we had was “Why not us, why not now” and they bought into it. They played their fannies off this week.

“Right after it was over, while our guys were dog pilling, I didn't want to get into that, I had to go out and shake Jake Noll's hand. That kid is so clutch, is such a great player and great person. I told him that I was honored to coach against him.”

“I didn't see him make the catch. I saw him go after it, but I never saw him make the catch because someone jumped in front of me. Everyone played really well this week.”

“It is kind of surreal. We ended the season on a five game losing streak. We celebrated senior day the last weekend at home and honored the guys who did so a yeoman's job out here all week. We came in here and knew we had to win it. We low keyed it. I told that I have seen it happen. That on Monday you are going to look at the pairings and see five and six seeds representing their conferences because they got hot at the right time and won their tournaments. It happens every year. You'll see a teams' record and wonder how they got there, but they did it by winning their tournament. I told them that is what we have to do. I threw out the little saying, Why not us? Why not now? And they bought into it. That was how we ended our pregame talk before we got off the bus every day. Why not us? Why not now? They came out and played with reckless abandon and got that first win against a tremendous Kennesaw State team. We did it in ways that we haven't done all year. We put 20 hits up on the board. There were times during the regular season where we would go entire weeks without getting 20 hits. We had double digits every game in hits. We pitched really well and, at times, we would bend a little bit, but we always came right back to tie it up or take the lead back. We hadn't shown that all year. During the regular season, when we'd get behind, that was it. We just never could battle our way back. We played really good defense. When you put those three together, you have a chance. The guys really kept feeding off it. Every win they kept feeding off it and getting closer and closer. We go to today and said we were going to do it today. We didn't want to have to spend another night and come back tomorrow to win. We wanted to get it, enjoy it tonight, and then get on the bus tomorrow and go home and then find out where we are going.

“Unfortunately, I am going to have to watch it on ESPN3 because I didn't see it. As soon as it was hit, I had a clear view, and I saw Vance going after it. I was hoping it would stay in the ballpark. As I saw him go up, someone jumped in front of me and blocked me out. I didn't know whether he caught it or dropped it until the bench went crazy. The home run he hit, I haven't see a ball hit that far in this park. It was over the light standard. He opened the tournament with a triple against Kennesaw. It was just so good to see him and Cory and Thorney and all of the seniors. No one on this club, none of these players, have every experienced an NCAA Tournament, but they are going to get to do it because of those 11 seniors. They will get to be a part of that and I am so happy for them.

“They asked me on ESN what the difference was, and I don't know. I am not going to ask too many questions right now.  I am just going to be the great hitting coach and tell them to keep on doing what they are doing. Hitting is such a mental game and it seemed like all of our hitters came into this with a different approach. They did a great job of not swinging at bad pitches. We got bunts down and really did a great job with the short game and scored a lot of runs because of it. We always have a saying that we play for one, but get two or three, and we did that all week. We played the short game so well that, instead of one run, we'd get two or three. Everything came together.

“They played John to pull all week and he hit the ball in the six hole. Sidwell, I am so proud of him. In the fall I wouldn't have had him anywhere near the top as our best bunter, but he is going to get better and he did a great job of getting bunts down this week.

“I am so happy for Cory because he is such a great kid. He played all year hurt and I sure that had a lot to do with his batting average suffering. His shoulder is hurt and he was never 100 percent. He just said 'I am going to play'. I am so glad he was rewarded for what he did.

“I kept waiting for Austin to wear down and show signs of fatigue. I said to myself that I am not going to take him out until he starts showing that he can't handle it, and he never showed that. We all know that the pitching staff had a 3.7 something ERA and I don't know that we have had one that good in 10 years. A lot of that has to do with Austin Hale. A lot of people don't know, but this was the first time in 20 years, or maybe longer, that the catchers called their own games. When Dave came in for his interview, I asked for his thoughts on that and he is a big believer in catchers calling their own games. I asked if they were ready for that and he said 'they will get ready'. I think Coach Therneau called that pitch out. We thought they might try to hit and run because 1-1 and 2-1 are hit and run counts, so that was the reason we pitched out. What was tough for him was that, when you pitch out you are ready to throw to second. He recognized the bluff, re-cocked and got his body turned to throw a strike down there to first. That was a much tougher played than it looked from the stands.”

“Colton is steady. He had some hits this week and got some bunts down. He didn't set the world on fire, but he went out there and made all the plays. That is what we needed.

“That pick Will made to end the game yesterday was great. If he doesn't make that pick, the tying run scores and the winning run is at second base. It was truly a team effort.”

“It was a gutty performance from Fagan. Going into the year we thought we would use him as one or the other. In past years we have played him in different roles, but we thought going into this year we would either put him as a position player or DH, but when Dave saw him throw he said that we can't give up on him on the mound because he is too valuable. He is so versatile because he can play second, play in the outfield and DH because he can swing the bat, so we decided to leave him where he was and get production both ways from him, which we did.

“I asked Dave after the eighth inning if he wanted to send Thorne back out there. He said he thought Sheller was the guy. Sheller only had one hitter in him last night, but we decided Sheller was the guy who as done it for us all year. It is a shame that he didn't make the all-tournament team because he had three saves in the tournament. Some closers are like that. Not all closers go out there and get them 1-2-3 every time. There are closers in the big leagues like that. I kidded him all year that he was going to give me a heart attack. I am 67 years old, I can't take this every game. It has become a big joke in his family that I am going to die on the field of a heart attack with Sheller on the mound. His grandfather came up to me and said he almost died of a heart attack before I could.

“I know that we have gotten into more NCAA Tournaments as an at-large team than we have by winning the tournament. I can assure you that this is the biggest tournament win because we were four games under .500 going into it. No one gave us a chance because we were the six seed and opened up with a tremendous Kennesaw State team. With the suspense and doing it in a situation where no one expected us to do it, they expected us to go two and barbeque, but the kids didn't believe it.

“They have to believe in their approach because they have seen it work now. Our overall record doesn't matter. We just have to go out and continue to play that kind of baseball. If you play that kind of baseball next week, where ever we go, if it is Miami or Gainesville or somewhere else, we have a chance to make some noise in a regional if we play this well.

“It is hard to remember those other tournaments, but right now this one is at the top. We went into this thing limping with a five-game losing streak. We weren't playing very well and we had no consistency. We just never could get anything going, but to come in here and win four straight against these teams, with how we beat them, it is up at the top.”