Postgame Quotes
3/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 16, 2008
Baylor head coach Steve Smith:
On Baylor hitting three home runs in a game for the first time this season:
"The wind helped a lot of that. Our hitters would admit that they missed a lot of pitches today. Friday and Saturday their guys pitched us extremely well, then today we had a guy who was throwing us a lot more fastballs and we fouled a bunch of them off. There's more to us offensively than what we showed."
On Willie Kempf's performance:
"He weathered the storm. He came out really sharp. He kind of created some of his own problems in that one inning, but then he responded to it. He got out of it without totally imploding, and he was able to get us a couple more innings. That was a real key. We didn't need to give up a five or six spot right there. We had a lot of game left to play, and giving up three is one thing, but giving up five or six is another thing."
On coming back to win the series after dropping the opener:
"After Friday it's really significant. That was a tough loss, and it was the third loss in a row. We lost two in Tulsa, and then to lose like that in your opener here on Friday was really a kick in the gut. The guys responded really well to that. We got such a clutch performance yesterday out of Shawn (Tolleson), and we got a pretty good performance today out of Willie (Kempf) and Craig (Fritsch)."
Baylor sophomore DH Dustin Dickerson:
On his three-run home run:
"I was just trying to put the ball deep into the outfield because we had a runner at third with one out, but I got it well enough that the wind pushed it over, so I was excited. (With the wind today) If you hit something decently into the air, it was going out."
On winning the first Big 12 series of the season:
"It was a tough loss on Friday. We all felt like we had that game won and that we should've won it, but it feels good to get off to a good start and start 2-1. We owed them a little something from last year because they swept us and beat us pretty badly, so it feels really good to take the series from them this year."
Baylor sophomore RHP Willie Kempf:
On if he felt any pressure to match Shawn Tolleson's performance:
"The most pressure is trying to win the series. We came in 1-1, and we really wanted to take this series with it being the first series in Big 12 play. You don't really feel like you have to match what the guy before you did. Shawn (Tolleson) did an unbelievable job, and I couldn't be happier for him, but I didn't feel like I had to do that. I just wanted to keep us in the game and let our offense go to work."
On giving up three runs in the fourth inning:
"I got myself in a little trouble in that inning. I threw some pitches that were not the right pitch in that situation, and I got some runners on base. He (coach Smith) came out and talked to me and told me to get back into attack mode, and that I don't have to be so finesse with a lot of these hitters. I started attacking again with the fastball. I got the ground ball that almost got the double play to get out, but we ended up getting out of it. They got three runs that inning, but after that I was just trying to pound the zone with fastballs, keep the ball down, and let the defense play. It worked out alright for us."
On coming back to win the next two after dropping Friday's Big 12 opener:
"It was awesome. We saw a lot of good things from our team this weekend. That's a heart-breaking loss the way that happened on Friday night, and we came out and responded with two big wins. Shawn (Tolleson) came out and absolutely dealt yesterday, and then the offense came to life today. We played great defense for the whole series, and we played solid as a team. Any time you can win a series after you lose the first game, you know your team is pretty solid."
