April 6, 2004

Columbia, S.C. – Head Coach Ray Tanner

“It is exciting. We have enjoyed this rivalry, they have, and it has been a very healthy rivalry, and well played. We feel like it is on the national stage.”

On Clemson:
“I think they were a good club all along. I know they had some bumps in the road early on but they were a good team, we knew that, and they knew that, and they were going to get it rolling. It doesn’t matter anyways when we play. If we are below .500 and they are undefeated, when you play a rivalry it doesn’t matter. That has been the case since I have been here and you throw the records out of the window. When you play against each other, it is a different atmosphere and everybody is trying to be at their best. It is so emotional, I don’t think you worry about what had happened the last few days. “

On the last few games:
“Quite honestly, I am proud of our players. We have had some adversity, had to make some line-up changes, and we haven’t played quite as well as we did earlier in the year but we had a different situation. We have four guys in the infield who are not were they started and were able to hang in there. We are not undefeated like we were for a while but I am proud of the effort we have put forth and we have been hanging tough. We will have to continue to do that because we will still be without Melillo and Tolleson for a while. We are starting the second half of the season tomorrow and hopefully we can win enough in the second half to be a post season team.”

On playing Wednesday night games:
“If Coach Leggett and I had our way about it we would probably play two three game sets at each place. Being in different conferences that is hard to do unless you are playing in late January or early February. It is great, we don’t worry about it too much. I know there has been a lot of talk over the years about playing Wednesday games and then having conference games on the weekend and that it is tough on your pitching staff. We just forget about that. We just go out and play and do the best we can.”

Pitcher Zac McCamie:

“I am excited, honored, and happy to get the start against Clemson. It is going to be a good game. It is a great series and always is a good game. I think of it as a great opportunity to show what I can do, to show Carolina fans that I can pitch. Hopefully I will do the best I can and get a win for our team.”