March 30, 2011

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Head Coach Ray Tanner

On slow start tonight
The fact that we scuffled early was because of Bryce Hines. I don’t know if you recognized it or not but he has a big league breaking pitch. He is very special; you are going to hear his name a lot down the road. He has something that is very special and he was a little bit wildly affective. He was hard to square up and we expected that. Our scouting report was right on the money that we would have a hard time scoring and getting hits and that what it was. Adam Westmoreland wasn’t particularly sharp but he stayed away from the big innings they scratched in the first two but you are still in the game at that point and you have a lot of innings left. But I don’t by into hang over or off the weekend or anything like that. You’re playing a team that has typically been very good and we played a lot of good games with them. They have been to postseason many times and you just have to battle and that’s what we did and we were fortunate we were able to win.

On Adam Westmoreland
“I’m glad he stayed out there going into the fourth, but I don’t consider it a quality outing. It wasn’t poor, because we had chance to come back win. He’s better than that and he’s hit a slump, like a hitter goes through a slump. He has struggled a little bit lately. But he is going to fight his way out of it.

On Walker’s home run
Walker’s ball in the corner was huge for us. That was a ball that barely got inside the line and Simonelli almost made a great play on that ball and it got us right back in the thick of it. We needed something good, we were in the middle of the game there and you need an opportunity to get the tying run to the plate or on the on-deck circle. And it all worked out for us. Walker had some RBI for us tonight and the big home run and we are very fortunate.

On Bullpen’s performance
It was the key to the game. The fact that we were able to hold them, kept them a bay. With Jose Mata and John Taylor and Matt Price, we had a chance to come back and make it a game or win the game, and they were outstanding. Taylor was special and Price got two strikeouts there in the ninth inning, and Mata did a great job too, three innings there, he came into a precarious situation and gave up a hit there but we still had an opportunity.

First Baseman Christian Walker

On the night’s start
It was just a rough first couple of innings, but it happens. It was just one of those games, but we made the right adjustments at the right time and it worked out for us.

On the home run
It felt good to square a ball up like that. I’ve been getting hits here and there but haven’t squared a ball up like that in a while.