Feb. 17, 2013
Head Coach Chad Holbrook
Opening Statement…
In many ways we feel very fortunate to have won two games this weekend. I told the team after the second game if you go pitch-by-pitch, play-by-play, I think Liberty outplayed us. They have a good team and I think that is an NCAA tournament team we played. I think it will be a good RPI booster for us after the season. I feel very fortunate to have won the series. Now we just have to get better and practice hard this week
On how they played in the second game…
You have to give them credit. Their center fielder Ryan Cordell, is a high draft pick, he was terrific. Also Alex Close is a good player even if he didn’t have a good weekend. They have some high character kids, they play the game the right way. Also Coach Toman coaches them the right way, they are a good team. They are physical team. They remind me offensively of that Coastal Carolina team from 2010, because they are just that physical offensively. They are going to have a great year. Tip my hat off to them after they came back and played after a tough loss.
On the weekend…
Here’s what I saw this weekend. When we got lost in the game we played well. When we weren’t lost in the game and we were pressing we didn’t do so well. When it got to seven nothing we just got lost in the game, and we just started saying, “lets get back in this thing.” Then we just started playing like we needed to get back in this thing as a team. That is what was encouraging to see we didn’t have any quit in us, and we fought back to have some really good at bats. I mean we got some help there, they walked several but that was a fun game to win. It said a lot about our team If you ask me what I think was best about the weekend it was the effort in the eighth and ninth innings in game one, I was really proud of their fight and grit.
Sophomore Infielder Kyle Martin
On the tough spot…
I got up there to put the ball in play and get the runners in, maybe look for a hole somewhere. Just go hit and get someone in.
On the emotions in the series…
Emotions were wild. Taking the first game the way we did. Coming back from a big deficit it got us riled up. In the second game I don’t think we came out with as much fire.
Senior Pitcher Nolan Belcher
On his pitches…
It was good to get back out there. The weather was a little chilly but I felt like I had pretty good command today. Even the pitches they hit hard I felt were pretty good pitches. That was a good hitting team. They did a good job of scoring when the ball was up.
On the first game of the day…
I was in the locker room for the first game but I was keeping up with it. I mean you all have been watching us for three or four years and that’s kind of Carolina baseball, we hang around and then just battle at the end. It was good to see that, especially coming back from being down 7-0.
Senior Pitcher Adam Westmoreland
On playing from behind…
It was exciting. I was just trying to stay competitive, keep it as close as possible and give us a chance to win.
On the emotions in the series…
In the first game there was a lot of energy. I know it was more towards the end, but it shows our team chemistry is strong enough even with the younger guys to stay in there and compete until the last out.
