March 12, 2011

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South Carolina Head Coach Ray Tanner
Opening Statement
I was extremely happy with (Steven) Neff’s outing today. I thought he had good stuff and we played great defense behind him. When he was in there he only gave up four hits. We made a couple of nice plays defensively to keep them from getting going offensively. We had a few more good swings of the bat today. That’s a really good team in (CSU) Bakersfield. We did some really good things out of the bullpen to stay in position to win the game.

With every South Carolina hit being a single, was this a typical game of the `new bat era’?
I think it gives you a feel that it could be a `new bat era’ game. Then you flip the page and you look at (Jonathan) Montoya. He’s a guy that’s hard to square up. I know it wasn’t his best game; he had too many walks today. He’s one of those pitchers that just doesn’t give you much. He’s one of those pitchers that you don’t get many opportunities. We were fortunate to get five runs. I didn’t think it was a poor day for us offensively. I think you have to give Montoya credit for not allowing us to have that big inning.

Evan Marzilli in the leadoff position…
I’m not sure. That’s where I want him ultimately. I want him to be our guy there. Maybe it’d be better if I game him a day or two off. It’s something you wrestle with as a coach. I’m happy with the kind of person he is and I think he’s our guy at the top of the order. That’s one of those things that you wrestle with. Do we have a lot of great options? The answer there is no. We don’t have that kind of option that is jumping out at you. As I told our guys after the game, we’re playing a very good opponent. We aren’t swinging the bats the way that we would like, but they’ve got guys that make pitchers. You’ve got to be happy to get a win. We’ve got three or four guys that are swinging it very well right now, but they will.

Evan Marzilli, Left Fielder
How was the team able to produce runs with no extra base hits?
Timely hitting. We have a bunch of great hitters. The pitcher today kind of threw us off. We got some timely hitting, got some singles. We did what we had to do to get a win.

Steven Neff, Pitcher
On the pitching staff…
We have a great pitching staff, we always have. We have great starters. Any five guys that we have as starters can get the job done. We have guys who can come in and close the game or get us out of a jam. I don’t know how next weekend is going to go in terms of starting rotation, but I’d like to start.

Robert Beary, Catcher
On the way his season has started offensively…
I have started off a little show. Baseball is a game of failure so you just have to keep going. You’ve got to keep working in practice and swinging away. Coach has been telling me to get in there and take your hacks. Lately I’ve been getting in there and taking the first hack I see. If I see I strike or a fastball I’ll take a swing at it.

Jackie Bradley Jr., Center Fielder
On all the singles the South Carolina offense produced today… Today was one of those days were you just grind it out to get it done. Once again, the pitching gave us a chance to win by limiting runners on base and scoring opportunities. We were able to capitalize when we need to and that’s what good ball teams do.