Feb. 17, 2012
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Head Coach Ray Tanner
Opening Statement…
That was great game for an opener for both teams today, I think both teams played extremely well. I guess one miscue on both sides. I’d been anticipating all week (Coby) Cowgill was going to be difficult. He’s a veteran guy. He had some good games last year, I looked at some of his boxes, he was very special, very efficient. It was anybody’s game and we were very fortunate to come up with a big hit form LB [Dantzler] to put us ahead.
On nerves of new players…
I think that’s part of it, they’ve been playing pretty well, they’ve been comfortable in practice, its part of the process. We’re going to try to get them comfortable as quickly as we can. They’ve got to play, we’ve got to get them comfortable and today helped a little bit. It’s going to take a while to get exactly where we need to be, but obviously you need to win games as you go.
On what he told Marzilli and Matthews in the 8th inning…
You’ve got to put some pressure out there. Those guys will run a little bit and they can bunt. They worked very hard to improve their short game. Evan [Marzilli] had that first baseman back and he didn’t get a pitch to get over there but he ended up pitching one towards third and he got it down and then Adam [Matthews] moved him up a little bit. It’s important, we’ve talked about it a lot, runs are hard to come by and not to many swings are going to leave the yard any more. You’ve got to play defense and score when you have an opportunity.
On LB’s hit…
That was big. He’s a new player but he’s comfortable with the bat in his hand. We threw him in the middle of the order right away; he’s had a good preseason. It was a big swing for us after being down in the count. It’s great to see, I think those guys are good players and we’ll have to go through some growing pains but hopefully we’ll be successful while we’re doing that.
South Carolina Player Quotes
Starting pitcher, Michael Roth
On coming out in the 6th …
I believe there was a pitch count, I stopped at (around) 90, I believe. I think that’s kind of where they wanted to hold me off. I asked to go back out there but [Tyler] Webb did a great job and Forrest [Koumas] did a great job as well.
On opening day…
Well I actually just started awake at 7:30 this morning, really nervous, I don’t know why. I think I just had a bad dream or something. Once I started going, I had breakfast, I was good to go. As far as Opening Day I kind of stay on the same routine, I know these guys kind of get shuffled up a little bit. They have to hit earlier and take infield a little bit earlier. For me, I stick to my routine. It’s a great honor to be able to start Opening Day and to have the festivities that we did, honoring the national championships. It’s good for us, its good for the fans and we’re excited to be back on the field.
Center fielder, Evan Marzilli
On last frame…
I just went up there looking to see what their infielders were going to play. If they were playing me back I was going to do that, which was my original intention. The key there was just getting on base and getting that run across for the win.
On what its like playing with the new guys…
Its great, those guys, they work hard, they play hard and that’s really all you can ask out of freshmen, especially on Opening Say when there’s a lot of people day and you really can’t feel much in your body.
Third baseman, LB Dantzler
On last at bat…
At the beginning I was sitting fastball, wanted to see if he would leave something I could pull for a base hit. I took a fastball I probably shouldn’t have hit and swung at a change up. I got down 0-2 and I was just kind of battling, trying to use my hand, use the whole field, and hit up the middle.
On getting game-winning hit…
Its pretty special, I’m just glad I could help the team win. That’s always the most important thing is getting the win. I’ll definitely remember it for probably the rest of my life.
On emotions in the game…
I definitely was a little nervous, had some butterflies, more than I kind of thought I would. After the first inning or two I kind of settled in and it just became baseball.
