April 1, 2011
South Carolina Head Coach Ray Tanner
Opening Statement
There was a lot of pitching out there tonight. That was two very impressive performances by two great pitchers. Meyer and Roth were both outstanding. Tonight was one of those deals where we got a walk and a hit batter and Jackie was able to get the base hit. I didn’t think the two runs early were enough but it was. Again, Meyer was outstanding; he has a power arm and is very tough to get to. But I thought Roth battled, we played good defense and were able to make some plays.
On facing Alex Meyer…
Looking at Meyer’s season, I tried to see if there were trends that we could take advantage of. The bottom line is he’s going to stay in there, throw a lot of pitches, and get a lot of strikeouts with very few hits. You don’t get many opportunities against a guy like that, but we were able to capitalize early on.
On Michael Roth’s performance…
Roth has done a great job this season. He knows how to pitch and his velocity is better than people think. He gets up there to 86-88 [miles per hour] at times and then he sneaks one by you when you’re expecting slider or change-up. Tonight he did a great job of setting up his pitches. We’re ecstatic with what he’s done so far this year. He’s eating innings and that’s important because were thin and we need someone to do that.
On the defense of Peter Mooney and Adrian Morales…
It was big, we didn’t have room for errors tonight. Mooney had a couple of tricky hops and Morales had some tough plays too. Adrian knows what he’s doing over there and those guys made big plays for us tonight no doubt about it. In a game like this you can’t give them extra opportunities and those did a great job tonight.
On the play of Peter Mooney…
I think he’s comfortable now. He’s a very level kid. He had a great Fall and a great pre-season. He does his work and he’s a very good player. When the season started he tried to do too much, he tried to hit home runs and make great plays, and he got out of his comfort zone. I was pleased with how he handled himself in Gainesville, and what you see now is what we expected the entire year.
Jackie Bradley, Jr., Outfielder
On facing Alex Meyer…
It was very important to get some hits early. He’s a great pitcher and we all know he’s a flamethrower. We wanted to sit on his fastball and adjust to his curveball and I think we did that early. He has some nasty stuff and early on he wasn’t able to locate it, he settled down after that so it was important to get those runs early.
Peter Mooney, Shortstop
On hitting his first home run of the season…
I’ve been waiting on that one for quite a while. I had a goose egg in the home run column but not anymore. I saw a fastball and I made good contact with it so it felt real good.
Michael Roth, Pitcher
On his approach after giving up the run…
I didn’t really change my approach, I just went out and doubled my focus. I was upset that I gave up the hit to the lefty, so I just went out and made some good pitches after that.
