March 22, 2013

Evan Beal
On the fourth inning…
First off, I feel like I started strong, mixed well, got the ball down. I ran into a little adversity there in the fourth inning, I got a base hit bunt, couldn’t tell you exactly how it happened but I got the bases loaded and I walked two guys in and that’s pretty inexcusable. I’m pretty embarrassed by that. That just isn’t something you can do as a pitcher. I feel like last week I did a pretty good job with damage control when they got runners on and obviously tonight that didn’t happen. It is embarrassing and kind of just disappointing to see from me.

On getting over this game…
Well I think that obviously baseball is 90 percent mental. You have to have a strong mind to go out and play everyday. Obviously have the physical ability too. I think that every experience is a learning experience. I take a good learning experience away from this, but I am definitely glad its over. I’ve just got to get my work in and prepare for what the coaches want me to do for the next weekend.

Tanner English
On his recovery…
I felt all right tonight. The ground rule double, I kind of gave myself an error on that, I thought I should have had that ball. Other than that I felt all right out there. Baseball is a tough game and some days it is going to look like you feel good and sometimes its not. I am just happy to be back on the field and help anyway I can.

On his shoulder…
I guess the couple of games before the Clemson weekend my arm was kind of killing me. I thought it was from lifting or cold weather, I didn’t say anything about it and I guess it just kind of bit me in the butt. I guess against Ball State I tried to make a through and my rotator cuff wasn’t having it. I thought I was going to be able to play against Missouri, but I just couldn’t throw, maybe it was the cold weather, maybe it was just too early to get back on the field. It is feeling a lot better now, and I’m ready to get going.

Head Coach Chad Holbrook
Opening Statement…
Congrats to Arkansas. I guess you can see why they were ranked preseason number one team in the country. The game got away from us there in the fourth inning. We had a number of walks, we couldn’t make a pitch to get out of the inning, and that is a credit to their hitters. They did a terrific job, and our pitchers struggled finding the strike zone there. Evan walked a couple guys, I don’t know how many, but it seemed like his line wasn’t too good. He threw three and two thirds and had four walks and 8 earned runs. You can’t do that on Friday night in this league and expect to win. Like I told our guys after this game, we have had our tail kicked here before, and we have been able to fight back and come back and win the series. I hope they will come down here with the right attitude tomorrow and I expect them to do so. I didn’t get a feeling that we weren’t ready to play.

On expecting this outcome...
I didn’t get a feeling that something like this could happen. It could happen anytime, especially when you are playing a team like Arkansas, but I didn’t expect that. Max is sick. TJ started turning the corner today, he could have gone in and played later in the game if I really need him too. He is just very, very weak. It is just a nasty virus and/or food poisoning. Max has been in the bed all day and slept an hour last night, and I don’t know if he will be available tomorrow.

On the hitters…
When you get behind 9-0 sometimes your approach changes a little bit. I wasn’t terribly upset with our approach. Astin and Moore are as good as it gets and the kid they brought in to throw at the end has only thrown four innings. I don’t know how in the world he has only thrown four innings. He looked like he was a front line SEC guy to me. You have to scratch and claw and fight for everything you get when you play Arkansas and that pitching staff. We tried to push the envelope there in the third, we had a couple of guys at 2nd and third with two outs and there was a bang-bang play at first. Scoring opportunities against those guys are few and far between. You have got to manufacture some things, but after it gets 9-0 it is tough to manufacture things. You can’t bunt, you can’t hit and run and those kinds of things. You just have to play station to station, and that is not a good recipe against those guys.