Feb. 15, 2013

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Gene Warr, University of South Carolina Board of Trustee’s Chairman

Opening Statement…
Good evening everyone. It’s great to be here after a win. On behalf of the Board of Trustees here at South Carolina and our President, Harris Pastides, I want to congratulate our Athletics Director, Ray Tanner, on the honors that he received with Tanner Way being named for him and his jersey being retired. Those are great honors and he is certainly deserving of those honors. It was a little over 16 years ago that our then athletic director persuaded Ray Tanner to leave NC State, where he was very successful and come here. When he came I think all of us were very hopeful and had high expectations looking forward to what he would do here with South Carolina Baseball. As we look back now from 2013 over these last 16 seasons that he coached us, I just think ‘Who would have thought that? Who would have seen that coming?’ All the trips to the College World Series and all the wins and national championships. For however long I live and, I am sure there are many other just like me, I will never forger exactly where I was and how I felt in June of 2010 and June of 2011 when the College World Series were won. Coach Tanner has brought the success to us that we always dreamed of in sports here and had never had before.

Athletics Director Ray Tanner

Opening Statement…
What happened here today was overwhelming to be quite honest with you. I am very grateful, honored and humbled to be in this position to still be at the university. I hope I can do a lot more in the capacity that I’m in now. It has been a wonderful journey and I am excited about what went on here today. I can’t find the words to describe how wonderful the opening ceremonies were and again how honored and humbled I am. But as I said when I was out there today, I am really just a by-product of the tradition and history that has been here at South Carolina in the sport of baseball. I am just grateful I had the opportunity to be a part of it.

On his emotions watching the game from the stands…
It was interesting. Like a lot of baseball fans, I was a fan today and I was sitting there thinking what kind of moves Coach Holbrook was going to make. I was watching him, and he was moving guys around. I was as involved with it as I was previously, I just didn’t have to make any decisions. We all know he is a great coach and he will do well. It was a lot of fun. I was delighted that we were able to win our opener and Coach Holbrook is well on his way to a great career.

On the player videos in between innings…
Nobody told me that was going to happen. I detected in some of those deliveries that it was part of them on their way back at me for all those years that I put my arm around them and had some conversation pieces just for them. That’s a lot of fun. We have had a lot of great players here.

Coach Chad Holbrook
Opening Statement…
Well the day started out great with the presentation for Coach Tanner. It was neat for me to be a part of that, it was neat for our players and I’m sure it was neat for Coach Tanner’s former players. That was very emotional and meaningful to people who had worked under coach. We feel very fortunate to have won this game. We didn’t play particularly well. Liberty is a very good team. I tried to tell our guys it’s going to be a dog fight and you have to prepare for a one or two run game. I felt that going in, and we were fortunate enough capitalize on a couple of their mistakes. Jordan Montgomery was out there and he pitched around some of our mistakes. Ultimately I think that was the difference in the game.

On Jordan Montgomery…
Jordan was terrific. He bowed his neck several times. He is unflappable and we knew that last year when he pitched against Clemson and Arkansas and pitched with our season on the line. He is an unflappable kid and you feel good about having him out there when things are not going your way or if he is not getting the calls he normally gets. You just feel good about Jordan out there Tyer Webb On true test as the closer… I felt pretty good with my stuff. Grayson definitely bailed me out on a couple balls in the dirt. Other than that, I felt good and tried to go in there and throw strikes. I wanted to focus more on executing the pitch than how big the situation was.

On being in tight late game situation…
I don’t know about it being routine. All the big pressure situations are a little bit different, but the experience over the years definitely helped in that, particularly in not getting too nervous or anything. You always have a little bit of nerves, I think everybody does, that comes in the close. I would say that the experience definitely helped.

Jordan Montgomery
On nerves this game…
I wasn’t even able to watch the opening ceremonies so I was kind of zoned in on throwing and getting loose in the bullpen. When they had all those runners, though, I was a little nervous. On handling long innings… I know the defense is out there trying their best and I’m not going to hold anything against them. Things happen and I know they are going to make up for it. You just have to forgive and forget I guess.

LB Dantzler
On not seeing Tanner in the dugout…
It definitely was strange with the beginning ceremonies and everything that happened. It was good to see him out there because we hadn’t seen him at the field yet this year. About the second or third inning though, you kind of get into the flow of the game and you are focused on winning not so much who is out there just what you can do to help the team win at point.

On hitting a home run in first at bat…
That was pretty cool because I don’t know if anyone saw my batting practice but it was pretty bad today, so it was definitely good to get the first hit. We always talk about getting your first ground ball and your first hit under your belt then you can settle in. It was definitely good. I was happy to hit a home run my first at bat, but that’s about all it is.