April 18, 2015
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 
Head Coach Chad Holbrook
Opening Statement…
“It was obviously an exciting day for us and I don’t know if I can put into words what this means for our team and the morale in our locker room. It’s been a tough stretch and our guys didn’t give up and after Thursday night, it didn’t look so hot, but boy, did they respond the right way and played with some energy and emotion in these last 18 innings. On top of that, we beat a great team. (Vanderbilt) has a chance to win the national championship again and we battled them pitch for pitch, at-bat for at-bat and we found a way to win a big time series here at home. Our fans helped us in a big time way. We had a great home field advantage; it was loud in there and that makes a difference. It makes a difference to our players and it has an impact on the opponent, I feel. It was just fun to be out there and involved in that game today and yesterday. Hopefully, we can capitalize on some of this momentum, continue to play this type of baseball and finish the season the right way. As far as the game is concerned, Clarke (Schmidt) scattered seven hits in three innings, but we got out of a bases loaded jam with that fly ball to right field. Cody (Mincey) came in and his line was really good, other than the three walks, he kept them at bay and then, Taylor (Widener) was spectacular in his two and two-thirds. I think Max’s big hit, the triple there, kind of got us going. It was just a great two days for us, especially after what happened and it was just really, really neat. When you’re coaching at South Carolina and things aren’t going so well, it’s really, really neat when an opponent like Vanderbilt comes in here and you feel like the city and the fans are behind you. Our players felt that, I felt it, and we’re very appreciative.”
On being down 2-0 and having that 3-run rally in the sixth…
“When we were down 2-0, I felt good because it could’ve been five or six. We got out of a couple of jams and our dugout felt good for the first time in awhile, even though we were behind. Even though it was a tall order to push across runs against those guys, we felt good; we were having some good passes and they didn’t strike many of our guys out. I know we had five and Pfeifer overpowered us late, but up until Pfeifer came in, we were having some good at-bats, but not much to show for it. We had a first and third situation there and DC (Arendas) hit a line drive, double play ball to the third baseman and we could’ve pushed across a few more. We battled, we competed and gave ourselves a chance to win. I (thought) when we got up 3-2, that we were going to need four, maybe five, but Taylor (Widener) was spectacular. I’m sure that is a big boost for him from a confidence standpoint.”
On having the Paul Finebaum Show and SEC Now and the national attention at Carolina Stadium this weekend…
“Yesterday was a great day and I thought that was really neat. I hope the SEC Network will come back. It’s great for college baseball and it’s great for our stadium, our recruiting and it’s great for our fans; we had our fans surrounding the stage last night and it’s pretty cool. I would’ve never dreamed when I got into college baseball coaching that things like that would happen and we would have a “College Gameday” experience here at a baseball game. When I first started coaching, we struggled to get our scores in the newspaper and now this is going on and that makes it pretty neat. It’s really neat for our players and they watched out from the weight room all day yesterday waiting on BP and watching the show. I think it’s great to showcase our facility, our city, our university, our baseball program and I’m glad they came and I hope they come back. “
Junior Infielder Max Schrock
On what this win meant to the team…
“It was critical for our confidence. I think we were scuffling, and these two wins show that if we come together and play together, we can be a really good team, and I think these wins truly showed that.”
On Dugout Energy…
“Everybody was fired up. Vanderbilt is one of the best teams in the country so how can you not be fired up to play them. The guys in the dugout all came together and said energy in the dugout can really pick some guys up if there scuffling, and I think it really helped”.
Sophomore Catcher Logan Koch
On his go ahead RBI single…
“Hit the fastball, obviously, as it is with any of the Vanderbilt guys. They’re probably the best staff we’ll face all year, it seems like all of them were throwing over 90, so the best thing to do is just hit the fastball. My dad used to tell me that the best way to hit a curveball was to hit his fastball. I’ve been working with Coach (Brian) Buscher a lot, and I have a lot of praise for him and what he’s been doing for me, he hasn’t given up on me yet. But I wanted to come through for him and my team”
Sophomore Right-Handed Pitcher Taylor Widener
On approach when he entered the game in the 7th …
“I had to make sure I got ahead of them. So I threw some sliders to start them off with and make sure I could get ahead in the count early.”
On importance of a win…
“We definitely had a chip on our shoulders coming into this weekend, both the pitching staff and the hitters. It was a big turn around from the past couple games.”
