Feb. 28, 2012
Head Coach Ray Tanner
Opening Statement…
Very happy to be able to pull this one out today and once again the pitching staff did a heck job to keep us in a position to win. On their side, Beau Dees was impressive, I told the young man after the game, `you pitch that well, you deserve to win.’ My guys pitched well too, not to take away from our side, but that was an impressive performance, he did everything he could to keep Presbyterian in with a chance to win the game today. We hit a few balls alright but basically pitching on both sides limited offensive chances and as a result, 2:06 was the game time.
On shuffling the lineup…
Well I wanted to give [other players a chance], you know [Brison] Celek has been swinging the bat really well in practice and Erik Payne is a much improved player from a year ago and you’ve got to figure out as the season goes along, who you can call on at different times. They aren’t starters for us, but they got a chance to start to today. They didn’t do a whole lot, I know Celek only had a couple of at bats but I wanted to give them an opportunity to get in there. Then, we got [Christian] Walker in the game, so that’s what I was trying to do, just trying to build our depth a little bit to see who we can go to. Sean Sullivan got some at bats this past weekend and Kyle Martin has been able to get some at bats, so I’m trying to figure who you can go to on the bench, if you have to pinch hit for somebody later on.
On Joey Pankake’s progress
Knock on wood, yes he has just gotten more comfortable, he is a good player. He is a guy we recruited because we thought he was really good. The ability is there, he has a good arm, he’s got some power, and he can run pretty well, so he has some tools. He is a young guy so he probably wasn’t as comfortable in the VMI series as he should’ve been but he starting to get more comfortable as time goes. He is starting to recognize things that happen during the game and he does seem to be playing a little bit more relaxed which is a good thing.
