Virginia Cavaliers pitcher Stephen Schoch gave a hilarious interview in which he discussed caves, sweets and more at the NCAA Baseball Tournament.
On Saturday, Virginia came out on top against Duke in their Super Regionals matchup during the national championship tournament. The Cavaliers had faced elimination but secured a 14-4 victory to set up a winner-take-all contest against the Blue Devils on Sunday.
After the game, Schoch went viral as fans were amused by his answers. He was initially asked how it felt to overcome the road crowd and come away with the win - and the pitcher responded by crediting his team, uttering some expletives in the process.
“You know, you walk into a stadium of 8,000 people and they all want you to lose,” Schoch said. “But as long as you have your 26 guys ready to kick a** - I mean butt - you are going to be alright. Sorry I sweared, I shouldn’t have sweared.”
The conversation reached a particularly hilarious zenith when Schoch walked the interviewers through his feelings in the ninth innings. He said: “The emotions are go in, win. I heard a fan offer free Dippin Dots if I blew it. Which, the price of Dippin Dots with inflation is just unreal.
“For a brief moment I was like ‘damn Dippin Dots sounds good’. But also I thought in the back of my head, if we win today and win tomorrow, we are gonna be here another day. That’s more per diem, so I can buy my own Dippin Dots and be a winner.”
Schoch went on to reveal he has a fear of caves and suggested he feels good in life because all his teammates, friends and dogs like him. When asked what makes him nervous, he paused before declaring: “Caves, mainly.”
It left the interviewers in stitches as he added: “This is just a game. There’s gonna be way harder things in life than striking out the team or not walking a guy so I don’t get caught up in the jibber-jabber or people saying mean things about me. I think I’m a cool guy, my dogs think I’m awesome, my teammates like me and my friends like me so I’m gonna attack and I’m gonna win.”
