May 15, 2011

Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery

South Carolina Head Coach Ray Tanner
Opening Statement…
I am really happy today about a lot of things; our performance on the field was really good. Colby Holmes had a spectacular game and we played good defense, timely hitting and Steven Neff had a really good weekend for us. It was just a lot of great things. I felt that our fans did a great job for us in paying a tribute to our seniors today, It was a just great day here at Carolina Stadium for our team and our seniors and we were able to win so I am happy about what has transpired.

On his decision play Neff at left field…
We went back last night and (Steven) Neff was a little bit anxious about getting the ball last today, he felt good. He has had some times this year where his arms hasn’t felt good as he wanted to, but he was feeling pretty good. He sort of made a move to go get the baseball for today’s game, but we are a little bit depleted so him being in the outfield had to be a consideration and then Coach Meyers told me he really liked the match up with Colby (Holmes).

On Colby’s pitching being a statement…
I sort of saw it the same way, maybe his statement and my interpretation of the statement might be a little bit different but he (Colby Holmes) was a guy who was a TBA it was TBA on Sunday. He didn’t get the nod to get the ball today. He has pitched okay for us at times really well and at times he hasn’t been so good. So we weren’t exactly sure that he’d get the ball today. I think he did make a statement, and that’s what you like to see from players.

The impact of Wingo’s homerun…
Emotion, passion, momentum are so much a part of college athletics and it’s the way it goes. I know sometimes professionally they talk about staying level, doing your job every day, don’t get to high or to low but in college athletics it’s a little bit different. We stumbled and didn’t play really well Friday made some mistakes; it was a long day with delays. Yesterday we got out and played pretty well. They tied it up and the game almost got away from us, but we were able to win it with Wingo’s swing. I think it got the best of me yesterday to be quite honest with you, it was frustration, irritation, you get a little chippy, I made it a point to day that I was going to have fun today. It was a senior day and I wasn’t going to be an old curmudgeon, cranky guy in the dugout. So I tried to have a little bit of fun but our guys played well and it was great to see a lot of great things happened today for us, and this program and our team, our families and fans, and seniors players, that’s all you can hope for on a day like today. I am extremely proud of those guys; we are going to miss them. They have done a great job and they have done it the right way so it was a special day for us.

Colby Holmes
On finding out he was pitching Sunday…
I found out the same time (as Steven Neff), last night when I was eating dinner.

On his performance today…
I knew I had to come out and throw strikes, it was kind of momentum. I had a bad week last week, I knew I had to come out and show up this week. So I just came out and threw strikes. I felt good in the bullpen, I hit my spots, but after the first couple of innings, I felt like today is my day.

Steven Neff
On playing left field today…
I talked to Coach Meyers last night and he told me what they were probably going to do, (Arkansas) had a lot of right-handed batters, so they were probably going to go with Colby (Holmes).

On his batting…
The more at bats I get, the more I get to see the ball, and I’m starting to pick up the spin better, you have got to see it down and let it go. The more at bats I get the better I feel like I am getting.

Robert Beary
On Colby Holmes’ pitching…
We can’t ask for anything better than what Colby did today, he came in and he was hitting his spots and he located his fastball and if you locate your fastball, the other pitches are just set-up pitches and he was doing that and he was doing it well and he used his curveball slider well and when you stay down and stay low its hard to hit no matter who you are. He did that and he did a great job.

On catching back-to-back days…
I’ll play any position, wherever I am told. If it’s back-to-back for catching then you’ve got to go out and do it and I’ve done it before in the past playing and Brady (Thomas) has caught a lot of games and that position can wear you out, he’s got a couple dinks and bruises so I got the spot so I had to go out and play the best I could and luckily it worked out for us.