Feb. 21, 2013

COLUMBIA, S.C. –

Head Coach Chad Holbrook

Opening Statement…
It’s good to get cranked up in the college season. We got our feet wet last weekend against a good Liberty team. I think we have had a good week of practice. We need to have another good one today. I know that the weather is an issue for the next couple of days. We are going to do our best to get three games in this weekend against Albany. I think our players have improved over the last week or so and I think for the most part, outside of Ahmad (Christian) we are relatively healthy. We are excited to get back on the field against a team that I don’t really know too much about. I know they’ve got some older guys that finished second in their conference to Stony Brook and we all know what Stony Brook did in the post season. We are going to need to be ready to play. Obviously these games are very important to us.

On concerns moving forward after last weekend…
Anytime you don’t play as well as you don’t play as well as you like to play there is concern. I thought we would be a little more consistent offensively than we were. We did some good things. I was disappointed with the way we played defense. We didn’t play defense particularly well in the infield. Joey (Pankake) and Chase (Vergason) didn’t play up to their capability. They didn’t play the way they were playing in the scrimmages. I think we are going to be a strong defensive team as we move forward here. I think we are a good hitting team.

On the lineup changes…
There are some guys I want to get into the game that didn’t get to play much last weekend. Connor Bright is the type of kid I would like to have in the lineup. He didn’t get the opportunities I wanted to give him last weekend. I wanted to give him some. George Iskenderian is a kid that I am high on. I don’t know if I’m going to get him into here this weekend, but he is a talented, talented kid. Curt Britt is one of our best hitters but because he pitches he hasn’t had a chance to get him as many at bats as we wanted to get him last weekend.