March 30, 2010
– South Carolina Head Coach Ray Tanner
On 600th win
“I’m just grateful to be a coach here. I’ve never made a play, never gotten a hit, never fielded one. So I’m just grateful for the players and great coaches. I’m just glad to be in this position.”
On the bats coming around
“I was thinking about the seventh or eighth inning we had a few balls get out tonight which hadn’t there all year. We were just talking about it back in the locker room; maybe we will hit some in the second half of the season. Who knows, but it was good to see some balls get out.”
On playing The Citadel and the sweep last year
“Anytime we play, it’s always a good game. It’s been a great rivalry. Coach Jordan and I go back a long way. The games are always good and both teams are always ready to play. We were fortunate to get some runs early tonight and then held up. It’s always a game where both teams are ready to go.”
On whether it’s good to jump on teams early
“When it was 6-0, I wasn’t all that comfortable, to be honest with you, but they battled back. They had some run scoring opportunities. Colby made a couple of big pitches when he needed to keep some run-scoring opportunities from happening. But like I said, I still wasn’t comfortable at that point and they got some runners on.”
On competing against TJ Clarkson after last season’s sweep
“I try to deter our players from thinking like that, this is not a sport where you rev it up and go because you are doing a revenge thing or this guys did this to you last year. It’s hard to compete like that in our sport. We just try to look at the scouting report and keep it in perspective: this guy did this last year, this is what made him successful, lets try to be prepared for it tonight and obviously, he wasn’t as sharp tonight as he was a year ago.”
On losing to The Citadel last season
Anytime I lose a game it gets me but it wasn’t any more than any other game. Coach Jordan is about to become the winningest coach in the history of Citadel baseball. I said this before, of all the people I’ve ever competed against, he does as good of a job as anybody. Year in, year out, you look at his record, Southern Conference Champions and undefeated right now in the league. I lose games and certainly when I lose games to people like Coach Jordan and the way he runs his program with class and dignity. Sure it hurts to lose but I know I’m losing to one of the best guys in the business.”
