May 18, 2012
– Head Coach Ray Tanner
On Matt Price warming up when Evan Beal came in…
“It was more of the walks. Evan Beal came in and threw the first pitch for a strike. It was a breaking ball that came over. His stuff is really good, and we hated to see that. We told Matt Price that he could have a six-out situation and maybe seven if we got to two outs. We had a chance to win and after Beal walked those two guys, we got Price ready. We had to get our guy in there and give ourselves a chance to win.”
On the day as whole…
“It was a long one. I love the game but I’m not all that excited about 18 innings in one day against a team like LSU. They have a great team, and we both played hard. Fortunately we were able to come back and win the nightcap. I think you have to tip your hat to Kevin Gausman in the first game because he was impressive. The projections about him in the draft, he is everything I have heard about him and more. He was impressive today and he is a guy that I don’t think is going to need a whole lot of seasoning in the minor leagues. He’s really special. We fought, we battled, but we just couldn’t do enough against him. In the nightcap Aaron Nola was impressive. We got Christian Walker up there and hit a big one for us and all the sudden we take the lead. Adam Matthews gave us a little bit of a cushion with his hit. It was a great day against a very impressive LSU team. Our guys kept battling, and we found a way to even the series.”
Senior Pitcher, Michael Roth
On the end of this game…
“It was just a big win for us. Obviously we got beat the first game. They out pitched and out played us. We were scuffling the few innings, but we battled it out and were able to get a few runs off Aaron Nola. Then Matt came in, did a great job and closed the door. It was a great win and obviously we needed it.”
On the importance of winning Game 2…
“It’s an important game and it evens the series, but beyond that we don’t really care about the implications of all that. We just want to win the series. So it evens that up and gives us a chance to play tomorrow to win the series.”
Junior Pitcher, Matt Price
On how he approaches a difficult game situation…
“I’ve been in that situation before, but I knew the guy was going to bunt so I tried to get a pitch where he had to reach for it. He popped it up, and we got that out. We ended up getting out of that inning. After that you just think that you have to control damage and that’s what I did.”
On the importance of this win…
“It was a good win for us tonight even though earlier in the day we lost. I think our team bounced back like we needed to, and we came out on top. I don’t think we are thinking about the SEC, who is going to be number one, or national seeding. I think we are just going out there just trying to win each at bat and each pitch.”
Senior Outfielder, Adam Matthews
On his double…
“I hit it well. I really didn’t see it kick off the wall or kick off the post or whichever it was. The umpire ruled it a double, so that’s what we are going to go with. I’m just happy that I got three hits and contributed late. We needed that run, and I’m just glad I had a good game to help us out.”
“All you guys are saying it was maybe a home run, but I haven’t seen the replay. It is what it is. We still got that run in and that was the winning run so that’s what we are going to go with. It was a double. The way I’m playing this year I’ll take a double.”
Junior First Baseman, Christian Walker
On his three-run home run…
“I was just looking for something to help the team. Up until that point I hadn’t really done much. I was just looking for something to help generate some momentum and put some runs on the board. Nola gave me a good pitch to hit, and it just found the barrel.”
On the importance of the momentum created by the three-run homer…
“Everybody says about home runs are rally killers, but Joey Pankake coming up and hitting that triple after Grayson Greiner battled with two strikes, that’s also really encouraging. Especially when it’s coming from freshmen that are getting their feet wet. You can tell they are feeling more comfortable in those situations. Other than that its good to generate runs off of staff like that. It’s a good feeling to have.”
