May 11, 2013

Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery

Jordan Montgomery
On today’s performance compared to last week…
I felt about the same as last week. I had good stuff I just made fewer errors today and hit my spots more today.

On the importance of clinching the series…
It was huge. After last weekend we need some wins and we have been able to get some hits and get some runs.

Joey Pankake
On the triple and performance on the field today…
I was just trying to get something started in the inning and I got a good pitch to hit. I put a pretty good swing on it and it fell and I was able to get to third. In the field I had a good bit of action. I caught a line drive and had a few coming in, so it was a fun day for me.

On the importance of the opportunity to sweep an SEC opponent…
Every game from here on out is important if we want to play at home later. We have to come out tomorrow with the same intensity we had today and the day before because every game is important.

Head Coach Chad Holbrook
Opening statement
It was a big day for our program today, to honor our seniors the way that we did. There are some special kids in that group of players that have meant a lot to our program. Not only this season, but also in the past. It is a special group. As far as the game is concerned Jordan (Montgomery) was pretty darn good. When you look at his line it is pretty impressive. He had a no hitter through the seventh but I never felt like he had his normal command, nor did I think he was as crisp as he usually is. He was behind a lot of hitters and with that being said, he was good enough to get them out and he did that by changing speeds. He is good enough to throw some change-ups even when he is behind in the count and as good as he was he can be much better. I think Jordan (Montgomery) will be the first one to tell you that. It was a great line and a great start for him. I certainly loved watching Colby (Holmes) on his senior day and enjoyed watching him get the last six outs. It looks like he is throwing the way that Colby Holmes has thrown here for the last four years. Great win and great series win for our team we accomplished a lot today by getting to that 15 win mark in the SEC and I’m proud of the way our kids have played with their focus and intensity for the last 18 innings. Hopefully we can finish out tomorrow by having that same kind of concentration, intensity and coaches words.

On teams performance on the base paths today…
We have done some good things on the bases all year but we have also done some bad things. When you have a lead you can push the envelope a bit and we have been fortunate enough to have the lead for these first two games, for the most part. When you have the lead you can put runners in motion you just hate to run yourself out of an inning when you are tied or are behind. Those things have worked out well for us, at least today. As far as Joey’s play, I don’t think he meant to get that far off of first base. That is not something that we teach or coach but once he got in the run down he did a terrific job and had the presence of mind to stay in it as long as possible. Chase (Vergason) also had the presence of mind to break for home on a long throw from the first baseman to the middle infielder. Once we got in the run down we executed it perfectly, which was good to see. We stole some bases and had some delayed steals, we did okay on the bases today. We have put it all together these last 18 innings. We have played defense, we have gotten some timely hits once again a lot of our runs today were scored with two outs a couple innings today we had two outs and nobody on and found a way to push a couple across. We have run the bases well and pitched well and we aren’t an unbeatable team by any stretch, but when we play that way we will be in our fair share of games.