April 27, 2014

Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery

Chad Holbrook
Opening Statement
That was a big win for us and obviously this was an important game. I don’t know if I could be more proud of my team than I am right now. We have had some adversity and we have kept battling and competing. I think we played our best baseball of the year today in our biggest game of the year. When you do those things, you make your coach proud. I think our biggest hit of the game was Gene Cone’s two-out single. We played so well through the first four innings then Alabama punched us in the gut, sucked the energy out of our dugout and we thought, `here we go again.’ Then that big three run sixth inning was huge for us. Gene with the big hit there with runners on second and third, that hit put us in a great position to win. Wil Crowe was really good for four innings; I think he was bringing his best stuff of the year. Then that darn fifth inning for young pitchers is sometimes a big hurdle to get over but we left him in there and he got through it. When he walked that first batter in the sixth inning on four pitches, I thought we would turn it over to our bullpen and they were fresh since we did not have to use them too much yesterday. It was a big win for our team and I am proud of my them.

On the younger players performances thus far
[Jordan] Gore, [Gene] Cone and [Taylor] Widener, those guys have the make-up to excel in this league. I tell my players all the time, you cannot be meek ,or timid, or passive and have success in this league. It will eat you up. Those kids are far from meek and they will fight you every pitch and scratch and claw. If they make a mistake, they will not get down on themselves. I love those traits about them. They have bright futures in our program. If we can get them in the weight room and Billy [Anderson] can put 15 pounds on them, I think they can be special players. They helped us win today and they have helped us win some games [this season]. We are would not be 34-11 and are where we are in the league without Gene Cone and Jordan Gore, they have been important pieces to our team.

Junior first basemen Kyle Martin
On what the team’s mindset was going into the game
I don’t know about must win, but obviously we wanted to come out, play hard, play strong and keep the ball rolling.

On the energy in the dugout
The energy in the dugout was awesome. Billy [Anderson] was in there, all the other pitchers and all the other backup players were in there and [everyone] was cheering After that first inning, we kind of settled in and it helped out a lot

Junior right-handed pitcher Joel Seddon
On his success as a closer
We [relievers] just try to go in there and kind of mimic what our starters try and do. They’ve [all three weekend starters] have been strong all year, Jordan [Montgomery], Jack [Wynkoop] and Wil [Crow]. Wil was great today; he was throwing strikes, pounding the zone, staying down nd mixing his ball speed. I just kind of go in and try to shut the door, just pound down the zone and try and throw strikes.

Freshman right fielder Gene Cone
On if his confidence is growing
Getting in there and just getting your reps in, is enough [to build confidence]. But if you are successful and get a hit it does [give you a] boosts.

Freshman second basemen Jordan Gore
On what it means to play in an important series
It means a lot. They [Alabama] are a really good team; they are ranked in the top ten for a reason. It was good being able to come out there, beat them and win a series.