Virginia Tech baseball head coach John Szefc and right-handed pitcher Brett Renfrow addressed the media after the Hokies' 6-5 season-ending loss to No. 1 UCLA. Here's the entirety of what they had to say:Opening statement from Szefc:JS: "Just a tough, tough outcome, obviously, for our guys. Thought we put ourselves in position when they're the number one team in the country for a reason. You've got to get them out 27 times at home, which is difficult. We got them out 25 [times]; wasn't enough. Give our guys a lot of credit, going to the bottom of the ninth with a 5-3 lead in this place, which is a pretty tough thing to do. So, I'll give our guys an awful lot of credit for entering the ninth like that, and then we kind of piece it together on the mound. Our guys did a pretty good job for the most part. Again, those guys are good. I give John [Savage] and his staff a lot of credits when it's, if not the best team in the country, certainly one of them."On Brett Renfrow's pitching performance:JS: "It was good, man. The guy hadn't pitched in 16 days; he came in, threw strikes, he got us through four. Threw an awful lot of pitches for having not pitched in a while. Again, you got to realize, he's not pitching against some average team, he's pitching against one of the best teams in the country at their place. So, they're going to make you work an awful lot harder for outs than an average team would, and that's what they did. His pitch count got raised pretty, pretty quickly, but he got us off to a good start, and that's all we could ask for."On Renfrow's long 34-pitch first inning and its impact:JS: "It forced him to come out of the game sooner, but we go into the ninth with a 5-3 lead, so I don't think it really had anything to do with the outcome of the game; it just had more to do with him coming out of the game sooner than he would like, that's all."On what UCLA found:JS: "They're just really good. It's the best team in the country. They're the best team in the country for a reason. They're not just going to roll over in their home park and have their season end. They're going to make you work for everything, and that's exactly what they did."On Lutterman and his perseverance through injuries:JS: "He's just tough. One, he's a good player, but two, he has an awful lot of toughness for what we're doing. I mean, I thought three weeks ago, when he banged that ankle up, I didn't think he'd be back the rest of the season. And he helped us in that Clemson series, win that series. He had some really big at-bats in Charlotte, at the ACC Tournament, and then obviously here, he's played really well. For a guy just to get on the field, the stuff that guy has to do to prepare to play is a lot more than your average person would understand. So, you know, I'll give him a lot of credit; he kind of sets the toughness bar pretty, pretty high for our guys, and he's a good, good example for everyone to follow."On the process for Renfrow through the last two weeks to get ready to pitch:BR: "Yeah, I was very excited to get to pitch on Saturday. Talked to the coaching staff, and they told me on Thursday that I was gonna pitch on Saturday, and it's a really cool opportunity, and I was excited just to be able to be out there with my guys and competing. Just didn't go our way today. But I just want to give our team a good shout out, because they competed really, really well the back half of the season. It's just hard."On what UCLA found off Renfrow (1.79 ERA in May prior to Saturday):BR: "They're a good team, they battled. It's just tough. It was a good battle. I think they caused a lot of foul balls, and got my pitch count up. So, I helped him a lot, and just needed to attack the zone a little bit more. But that's what I think happened."On Renfrow finally starting in his first regional game:BR: "Meant a lot. This program has been awesome to me, and it means a lot to be able to go out there and play for this team in a regional and play against a good opponent. So, it was a lot of fun, and it means a lot."On the strides the team made this season and what Szefc sees moving forward:JS: "I think we have a lot of veteran guys on this team, and they played very well down the stretch in the back half. A lot of guys put in an awful lot of time just to work on their bodies and get themselves in a position where they can go out and play at a high level each day. And people don't really see that, they just kind of see the end product, which is on the field. They don't see a lot of stuff that goes on behind it. So, I give our guys a lot of credit. At one point, I think we were 16-18 or something like that, and scheduled the front half, [it] was difficult. We did a lot of travel. Our guys stuck with it, played very strong in the back half in order to get here, to get this bid. So, it's a long season, and that's a five-month season right there. So, a lot goes into it. It's not just a week or so, but it's difficult in this game, especially, I think, for young people."Because when things aren't going your way early on, it's easy to maybe go in the other direction, I think it's more difficult to stay with it, and really, from a mental perspective, continue to work with the game and make strides. But then again, if you're going to get paid to play the game someday on a high level, that's what you're going to have to do, and I think this season is hopefully a good — I don't want to use the word lesson, but maybe a good example for so many of our guys that will play pro ball and that will have to deal with the ups and downs of the game, that sort of thing. This was a pretty good example of what that would be, I think. One, with the length of it, and two, with the level of opponents. Like in our last three games, we played North Carolina and UCLA, in the last three games. I don't know, man. Those are two of the top five teams in the country."On what sticks out about the ninth inning:JS: "I don't really think anything [stuck out]. We had our best guys on the field at the time. We had what we thought were our best matchups. It just didn't happen, but again, I think you're playing the top team in the country. So, I've gotta give them a little bit of credit here. They produced some really strong at-bats when they needed to, and I don't have any problem with how our guys went about things. It's a tough pill to swallow, to end your season on that. I don't think I've really been through that one before, but the sun will rise tomorrow, and life moves on. Life moves, as we all know. So, hey, if that's the worst thing that ever happens to our guys, we'll be fine in life. There's a lot worse things that could happen."On whether Szefc considers the season a success:JS: "That's a tough one to answer, because I do believe our guys came here expecting to win. They're not just happy to be here. I know that's how our staff looked at it. I think finishing seventh in the ACC, getting a first-round bye in the [ACC] Tournament and getting here is a great success. We probably could have played better here, obviously, and had better outcomes, [but] it just didn't happen that way. I don't want to look at our entire season based off two days. I think they're a disappointing two days, but I don't think they're a bad two days. I do think it's a good success and a step forward for the program, as far as where we're trying to take it in this day and age, where rosters change overnight and you have to get used to having new players in different roles, which is pretty difficult for any program or any coaching staff. But that's what it is now. So, we'll deal with it, and we'll move on."On what sticks out most to Renfrow about the program upon reflection:BR: "Well, first, it's my head coach. He believed in me since I was a kid, and it means a lot; playing for him means a lot. So, it was a hard loss, but I think the way he just treats us and creates us into young men, that's what really stuck out. And I think our atmosphere, our games are a lot of fun. So, I just want to thank the fans who showed out. Wish we could have done better here, but it's tough. But that was fun."Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow