March 12, 2013

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South Carolina vs. USC-Upstate Post Game Quotes

Head Coach Chad Holbrook

Opening Statement…
It feels good to beat a team came in 10-4. They played Kentucky really tight and they have a good little thing going. They’ve got some older players that are pretty good. We felt like it might be a tight game, but we swung the bats well tonight. Joey [Pankake] continues to play well, he was 3-for-3 and just missed a home run. Max [Schrock] was terrific again and played a great game defensively. I keep looking and seeing that we had 14 hits and no errors, so we played a pretty clean game.[Patrick] Sullivan finished up the game pretty clean. It was good to see him get out here and pitch an extended amount. Anytime you can get double-digit hits and double-digit runs against a really good team, you’ve got to feel good about yourself and we do.

On Brison Celek…
I’m proud of Brison, he has a great attitude, and he wants to play more. He thinks he should be getting some more cracks at it and I don’t disagree with him. He’s got some power and he works really hard. It was nice to see him clear the bases there, we haven’t really had one of those alley balls with the bases loaded and that was good to see. He also made a good base running play too, advancing to third on a groundball that ended up getting us a run in the third inning. It was good to him contribute. He’s a good hitter, he’s strong, he can hit the ball out of the park, and he’s a threat when he’s in there.

On Joey Pankake…
Joey is a good player. He is now coming into his own offensively. He’s strong and he one handed that ball he hit to left off the top of the wall. I told him that this time last year that would’ve been a fly out, but the time he has put in the weight room has been producing some results for us. He’s also much better defensively this year because he’s more mature and sure of himself. He brought it both offensively and defensively today. He’s a good athlete, a strong kid, and one of our leaders, for sure.

Player Quotes

Jack Wynkoop
On his performance tonight…
I struggled a little bit getting ahead of hitters and mixing up my pitches. You’re not going to have your stuff all the time and when that happens, you just have to battle and that’s what I tried to do today.

Brison Celek
On his three-run double in 4th inning…
In my first at-bat I got a little unlucky with the ball hitting off the pitchers leg, so in my next at-bat I needed to get something up in the air. I got a fastball or slider outside, I’m not sure which one it was, but I just stayed back on it and took it to right field. Luckily, it scooted through there for a bases clearing double.

On the offensive production of the team…
We have a great hitting team this year and it’s probably one of the best I’ve been on. Back in the day with the old bats, we could just go up there and rip them out of the park. Now we are a much better hitting team. We go with the pitches and we are more disciplined.

Max Schrock
On how he evaluates play thus far this season…
It’s not the way I exactly planned it, I would like to be hitting a little bit better than I am right now. If I’m not hitting, I want to help the team somehow. If I’m playing good defense and thats how I’m can to help the team out, I’m going to do it.

On his approach at the plate right now…
I’m just trying to relax in there and clear my head. Part of why I’m struggling right now is that I’m thinking too much. Now I just try to go up there and see ball and hit ball.