Feb. 23, 2014
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 
Head Coach Chad Holbrook
Opening Statement
First of all, I want to take a moment and congratulate Coach Staley. It’s an incredible achievement to win a championship in this league in any sport. Hats off to her. It’s exciting for our university and our baseball program and our entire athletic department. Winning is contagious department wide and it’s really neat what she is doing over there. As far as our game, obviously Wil [Crowe] got us off to a great start, he pitched very well. Pitchers are the story right now obviously with the way they are throwing the ball. We continue to play pretty solid defense behind our pitchers. That’s what we talk about on a daily basis around here, pitch and play defense and you have a chance to win. I want us to play better offensively and I think we will. We made some mistakes there, bases loaded nobody out in the first and we can’t get a run. That was disappointing with the middle of our lineup coming up. We had a base running mistake there, Elliott Caldwell squared a ball up and had a mental lapse for a minute and tried to stretch it into a double with nobody out. We made some mistakes but we did square some balls up that were caught. All in all it was a great weekend for us. We need a good week of practice and we’ll continue to try to keep getting better heading into a fun, exciting week ahead.
On the streak of 51 consecutive innings without a run…
It is special how our pitchers are throwing. I don’t really take pride in it [the streak], it isn’t something that is really talked about. We talk about the next game, the next pitch and the next inning. We try to be shortsighted in the way we approach things around here. They [our pitchers] are doing an incredible job of that. They have pitched their tails off, especially when runners are in scoring position. It’s been fun to watch them compete and if they can continue that throughout the year we will have our chance to win some games, but as a group we got to continue to get better.
On Wil Crowe’s start to the season…
He threw the ball well again today. I don’t think he had the giddy up that he may have had last week but I have not looked at the gun chart. He can pitch; he is not just a thrower or someone that tries to throw it right by you. As you can see, he is pretty polished and he has three or four above average pitches that he can throw in any count. He is very effective with those right on right change ups and he competes. When he has to do a pitch he does and that’s a great trait to have as a competitor. When you need that pitch, you are competitive enough and confident enough to throw it. Sometimes that has to be learned or developed over time. Not many freshman have “it”, he has “it.”
Sophomore Iinfielder DC Arendas
On his two RBI hit…
Coach (Brian) Buscher told us that with the lefty coming in we were going to see a lot of curveballs with the lefty on lefty matchup. He told us to get up on the plate and get him to beat you on the inside. So, that is what we did and I got a pitch to hit and was able to put a good swing on it.
On being a part of a 7-0 start with five straight shutouts…
I think that it is special. Anytime that you get to be a part of a program like this it is special. To see what our pitchers are doing on a daily basis and to see the way they are playing right now is really awesome. We are hoping that they are going to keep it up and we are going to do our best to play the best defense we can behind them.
On Wil Crowe’s performance today…
He is a tough competitor. He commands his fastball well and then throws a hard slider to back that up. I think he has done really well so far working ahead and throwing a first pitch strike to every batter. It is difficult to hit against him when you are behind in the count.
Junior right-handed pitcher Cody Mincey
On the pressure to preserve the scoreless streak…
I just have one job and that is to go up there and throw strikes and I have been doing that pretty well. I had confidence in myself to go up there and do what I have been doing.
Junior outfielder Connor Bright
On the 7-0 start with five straight shutouts…
It gives us a lot of momentum going in to next weekend. The team is playing great, the pitching staff is unbelievable and we just look to take it in to next weekend.
On seeing his performance…
I have been comfortable and I have been working on it in the off-season. Everything I’m doing right now is clicking which is great.
Freshman right-handed pitcher Wil Crowe
On his performance and allowing his first hit…
I felt good today and I was kind of glad to get that no hit streak off of my back.
On the 7-0 start with five straight shutouts…
It is awesome. We have a great staff and we are deep. We have 17 guys who can all go out there at anytime no matter what. If we are in a 5-4 game or anything close, we always have guys to go to because we are so deep.
