March 8, 2013
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 
Evan Beal, RHP
On trusting himself and feeling comfortable on the mound…
I just wanted to get in there and throw strike one to get ahead and stay ahead. It is a different world when you are the started as opposed to coming out of the bullpen. If I go out there and I’m not throwing strikes, they will just lay off and I will end up walking a bunch of people. That is the last thing I wanted to do tonight. I really just wanted to throw strike one and then establish my off-speed.
On taking over the Friday…
It is no secret that Jordan is the heart, soul, and ace of our pitching staff. With him out it is a huge blow as a starter, especially when he is the guy who can go out and shut down a line-up any given day. I really didn’t want to do too much, I wanted to get them to put the ball in play. That is really a credit to the defense. They made all the plays and handled all the ground balls, as well as a few low line drives that the outfield made good reads on. Jordan is greatly missed and we can’t wait to get him back.
Tyler Webb, LHP
On coming in the game in the 7th…
Coach (Jerry) Meyers didn’t tell me anything at the beginning of the game that it could be a longer save situation. I usually run out to the bullpen in the 5th inning, do some stretching, and just relax out there before it gets to the 7th. That way if I need to come in a little earlier than usual, I am ready and it just happen to go that way tonight.
Self evaluation thus far through the season.
You always want to get better and coming out of the bullpen I just want to be down in the zone and try to get as many pitches working for me as I can. Warming up in the pen that is what I try to do and up to this point I have been doing fairly well and I just want to continue to do that.
Head Coach Chad Holbrook
Opening Statement
Pitchers for both teams were terrific. Evan gave us a great start with everything that has happened with Jordan over the past few days. He threw strikes and worked ahead in the count. As you all know, he has great ‘stuff’ and sometimes he can be his own worst enemy, but tonight he looked like a polished pitcher with big league stuff. He was phenomenal on short notice because he really didn’t know until yesterday that he was going to be the starting pitcher. Evan was impressive and Tyler Smith, the pitcher from Rider, we knew going in to the game that it was going to be tough. He has a split finger that the guys couldn’t pick up. We tried to prepare our guys that the game was going to be like the Manhattan game was last year in the NCAA tournament. When you have a pitcher like that with experience and pitches that are very difficult to pick up and throw strikes and is composed. It was a good team we beat tonight, we were able to push some runs across on one of their miscues. We executed a hit and run their and we got (Graham) Saiko over to third and (Joey) Pankake got a hit that gave us a two run cushion. Then (Forrest) Koumas came in with guys on first and second and in a 3-2 count got that double play. I felt good about the win overall, we did some good things but we have some things we need to sure up as well. But we know we have our work cut out for us the next two days with this team.
On having a close game tonight after midweek blow outs…
I think it was a good thing I don’t care if it is close or a blow out we just want to win. We had a couple plays that I really just didn’t like some of our players are better than some of the plays that were executed tonight but it was good to get guys in to a tight situation. Tyler Webb was flawless and I got (Vince) Fiori in there to match it up and I did that one pitch too late. It wasn’t quite fair to put him in there with a 1-0 count but that his first situation where he got in there and it was alright we will get him back out there. We then had to bring Tyler Webb in out of respect for what Rider was trying to do they had one hit but they had a good approach they were trying to send breaking balls the other way and I love the way they play
On the pitching staff’s performance after losing Jordan Montgomery…
We have had some things injury wise that have happened to us over the years and one of the great characteristics of South Carolina baseball is that we haven’t missed a beat in the past so I asked them to not miss a beat again. Evan (Beal) is a talented pitchers and when he is on he is on. It was a toss-up on who to start whether it be Evan (Beal) or Forrest (Koumas). Forrest (Koumas) has some starting experience but we also didn’t feel that he was quite ready to be extended for a period of time after his injury he sustained in the summer so we stayed cautious.
