May 13, 2014
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 
Head Coach Chad Holbrook
Opening Statement
We did have two errors, but it was a well-played game on our end. We were ready to play tonight. We came down here with some energy. I don’t know if it was a motivational factor to get to our 40th win or that The Citadel beat us pretty good last time so the guys wanted to come out and play well against them this time, but we got off to a good start. Reed [Scott] pitched a great game. Getting three [runs] there in the first kind of relaxed everybody and relaxed the dugout. We were kind of well on our way at that point. Reed kept them at bay and threw all his pitches for strikes. He’s a great pitcher, he doesn’t have great stuff, but he’s a great pitcher. The Citadel is a good hitting team. Mason Davis, Bo Thompson, [Tyler] Griffin, and [Drew] DeKerlegand, are all good hitters and they ruffed us up last time. Reed did a great job of keeping them off balance. We turned some double players and some of our guys hit the ball hard. It was good seeing [Kyle Martin] get three knocks, Marcus [Mooney] has been struggling a bit lately so seeing him hit the ball with some authority bodes well for his confidence going into the weekend. I’m proud of my team. We’ve faced some adversity [this season] and a couple of weeks ago things didn’t look so good for us. We were fighting, scratching and clawing for every win we could get. We lost five in a row, but our kids believed. No matter who was in the lineup they tried awfully hard and we found a way to get to 40 wins in the regular season. That’s a goal of ours here, to try to get to 40 before postseason play. And when you play in the SEC and you have 30 games in the league, it’s not easy to do. I’m proud of our team for getting to 40, handling adversity the right way and now, knock on wood, maybe we’re starting to get a little bit healthy and can start putting some healthy guys on the field that were our regulars back at the beginning of the year.
On what he said to the team before the game
I tried to fire them up after the Missouri game. They [The Citadel] pushed us around last time we went down to Charleston and they wanted to win tonight for a number of reasons. We practiced today early on a game day, which we usually don’t do around here, we got some early batting practice in before regular batting practice. The kids were bouncing around the stadium today ready to go. I think it showed in the way that they played. They wanted to get to 40 [wins]. I wanted to give Grayson [Greiner] the night off, and he said Coach I want to play because getting to 40 wins is a big accomplishment. I know what type of kid he is, but I was impressed that he came up to me and told me that. I wanted to give him the night off to be honest with you. At least we got him out in the seventh inning so he got three innings off. Hopefully he can rest on the bus ride tomorrow so he can be ready to go Thursday.
On playing Reed [Scott] seven innings
I wanted to win. I’m not the sharpest pencil in the box, but when a guy is throwing good and it’s an important game and we’re trying to get to 40 wins, I’m not going to take him out until we have the game in hand. Reed isn’t a weekend starter for us, but he threw 106 pitches for tonight. Who knows, he might come back and get a righty out on Saturday, if we need him to. He’s going to be on the trip and we’ll see how he recovers. Those sidewinders tend to recover a little faster than normal guys, so we’ll see. But it’s been a while since Reed got out there and pitched an extended amount of time and we wanted to give him a start and see how long he could go. If we were fortunate enough in a tournament situation to need a fourth starter, or we might be in the loser’s bracket, it’s just great experience for Reed. We’re obviously very, very comfortable giving him the ball.
Junior catcher Grayson Greiner
On facing Vanderbilt this week
Every year they [Vanderbilt] have been one of the most, if not the most talented teams we play. They’re really fundamentally sound and they’re well coached. It’s going to be difficult for us, but we are going to go out there and give it the best shot we have. We’ve been playing better as of late, in all phases and we are starting to get some guys healthy again. Hopefully, we can get a few more guys healthy and have our best squad out there this weekend. Tonight was big, we got win number 40, that was our main goal coming into today and now we set our sights on Vanderbilt.
On Reed Scott’s pitching
That was as good as Reed’s thrown all year. He’s had some long stints out of the bullpen for us in some big SEC series, but he kind of took the bull by the horns in the first inning and went all the way through seven innings. He threw three or four pitches for strikes and kept their [The Citadel’s] hitters off balance. When we went to The Citadel the last time, they put a spanking on us pretty good. They’re obviously a very good offensive team and Reed kept them off balance all night. He kept the ball down, let his defense play behind him and he was able to get some strikeouts and just play very well.
Freshman right-hander Reed Scott
On his performance tonight
The first few innings I was just trying to get it under control and trying to hit my spots. In about the third inning, I settled down and started throwing better and my defense was playing well.
On pitching longer than he expected
It was just the case that I was throwing well. My pitch count was good, so they [the coaches] just let me go as long as I could. I was ready for whatever they wanted me to do [whether it was] two, three, or seven innings.
Junior first basemen Kyle Martin
On what 15-straight seasons with 40 or more wins means to him
That’s a very impressive feat to accomplish. Like Grayson [Greiner] said earlier, it shows that we have a consistent program. To get 40 wins in a regular season is just a very strong feature.
On what they need to do to be successful against Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt has some good arms and they have a great team. We are just going to go up there and play our game. We’ve won our last few games and that’s got the ball rolling a little bit. We’re just going to carry the momentum and hope it gets us [some wins].
