Feb. 25, 2011
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South Carolina Head Coach Ray Tanner
Opening Statement
I’m very happy to be able to win today. I thought Michael Roth was really good. He gave us a quality start last week and another one today. I felt like he was much better today getting ahead in the count. From the offensive side, we had a really good first inning. We had some great at bats against a pretty good arm. We were able to hang on today. They came back at us and got a bunch of hits to put some pressure on us at the end. They had runners everywhere so it was a good win for us today.
Did you expect the success against Maldonado?
I thought his stuff was pretty good. His velocity was pretty good. My initial reaction was this could be pretty difficult and we’re going to have to play pretty well today. The first seven or eight guys reach base and we had a big inning. We needed it.
Was there any reasoning behind the lineup changes?
I’m not sure what our lineup is going to be or that we’ll even have a set line up moving forward. We just try to see what we think is our best fit against matchups. I like Mooney a little better in the 2-hole, because he can handle the bat a little bit and he’s starting to use the other side of the field. He’s somewhat disciplined and he’s a good bunter. That may change after tomorrow’s game.
What makes Michael Roth so effective?
He just does such a good job keeping mixing his pitches up and keeping batters off balance. He was able to get a lot of ground balls and strikeouts.
Does a large lead change your mindset?
It was nice to see the seven-run lead, but after every inning, Coach Tanner was in my ear telling me we had a one run lead. I don’t change my mindset; I’m still trying to get every batter out.
Was the game plan to come out swinging aggressively?
Coach is always in our ear about being aggressive with some of these pitchers. They were giving us fastballs, which are a hitter’s pitch. Every at bat Coach Tanner is always telling us to be aggressive. You can’t get in trouble if you keep swinging.
