April 15, 2012
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Head Coach Ray Tanner Quotes
On Colby Holmes’s outing…
He was really good today. I thought his stuff was good all day long, really. I guess he never did issue a base on balls. Even at the end there, when he gave up a single on a changeup to their better hitter and then their cleanup hitter places the ball down there in the corner. His stuff was really good. That was big for us to get a quality outing on the third day when we knew (Matt) Price probably could not go and (Tyler) Webb was limited. So, he gave us an opportunity to win. We had a little offense going as well. That was a tremendous outing.
On what has changed offensively…
I just think that we are getting some better swings off. That’s been the key. You have to battle and be aggressive and those types of things, but you have to get some better swings off. If you can hit enough balls hard, you are going to get some balls to fall for you. You are going to get some “tweeners.” You are going to get a couple bunts to go down. That’s, for me, what has been the difference between where we are right now and where we’ve been. We are just attacking a little bit better. I was impressed all weekend with Mississippi State’s starters. There were some good arms out there. We are fortunate to be in the position that we are in today. We did some good things. We didn’t score a boat-load of runs, but we won one one-run game and two two-run games. That is how close it is in this league.
On the comfort in being over .500 in conference play…
Going into today’s game there seemed to be some guys that can breathe a little bit easier. We went into Kentucky, and Kentucky, as we all know, has a great club. We lost those one-run games and the three-run game, and we were playing up hill. We have been. Finally today we got over the .500 mark. I think it does help a little bit where you can relax a little bit and not feel so much pressure all of the time. But, we put ourselves in that position and I think it may help us a little bit. We have got five series left. Three of them are on the road and two of them are at home in the league. It’s not going to be easy, but we’re mixed up now. We’re mixed up with everybody else. For a while we were looking up, and now we are in the mix with a bunch of teams. So, a lot of things can happen the rest of the way. I said to the team after the game that I still think that this team can play a little bit better than we’ve played. I don’t think we have been terrible, we have been solid. We have pitched well and we have played pretty good defense. I think we can have four or five games out of six or seven where we play really well and give us a chance. We are a little bit older now. I know we started young, but we’ve played a lot of baseball and I am hoping that we can hit one of those strides in the last 18 or 19 games.
South Carolina Player Quotes
Junior Pitcher, Colby Homes
On what has been working for him lately…
The biggest thing is that I have gotten my changeup working early. I have been able to throw it for strikes. I have been able to make them chase. The changeup is probably the biggest thing that has contributed to my wins in the past two starts.
On feeling pressure to pitch late into the game…
I didn’t feel any added pressure. I just felt like I needed to go out there and pitch as long as I could. Coach Tanner came to me in the sixth and asked “how many do you have in you?” I said two, but then they ran me out there in the ninth, so I guess they were going with their word. I just pitched my heart out and everything worked for me today.
On the feeling inside the clubhouse…
Everybody is ecstatic. The guys are starting to swing the bats well. The pitchers are throwing great. All of the guys are like one big family. Everybody is picking up each other no matter if it is good or bad, but the biggest thing is that we are starting to come around with our bats.
Junior Centerfielder, Evan Marzilli
On the weekend overall…
It was a big weekend. Mississippi State is a great team. We had to come out and win some games this weekend. We had to go out and get it. I thought we did a good job doing that. I was happy for us. We made some good strides.
On the performance of Colby Holmes…
You cant say enough about (Colby Holmes) today. Going eight and a third, that was unbelievable. I feel like Colby has been a guy that has been notorious for going the distance. It was a great start and hopefully he can keep it up.
On where the team heads from here…
I feel like our team is starting to mesh together a little bit more. We have had a young team. A bunch of guys had to learn a bunch of different things, go play with each other and know their roles. I thought this weekend some guys started doing some good things, and I thought it was a good weekend for us in that aspect.
