March 29, 2009

Recap | Box Score

Head Coach Steve Smith

On Brooks Pinckard coming in during a pressure situation:
"Sure there was a lot of pressure (on Brooks Pinckard) but there was also a lot of pleasure. That is one thing that we are trying to learn to do- focus on the pleasure of playing the game instead of the pressure of playing the game. Brooks really didn't have a great day at the plate and he really didn't have that great of a day in the field. To his credit, he didn't butcher things on the mound. He really competed on the mound and had great stuff. What is amazing to me is that he doesn't get a lot of work on the mound. He hasn't pitched in over a week. Sometimes you just can't quantify what is in a guy's heart. I think he has a pretty good competitive spirit in him."

On Shaver Hansen's two-run homer down the right-field line:
"I thought it was pretty big. It was almost as big of a negative for them because a week ago they gave up 29 runs (against Oklahoma). They changed their starter prior to the game trying to play the odds of throwing a lefty, but Shaver just went up there and bit them. I don't know that I have ever seen a right-handed hitter hit a bull true down the (right-field line) out of the park. We have seen guys that hit them that way and they get blown by the wind over the wall. That ball stayed true the entire time and was just inside the poles. It was a good piece of hitting on his part and a really huge moment for us in the game."

On Willie Kempf:
"He was the key today and I was extremely proud of him. He stayed so calm and stayed so within himself and just pitched. He seemed to really be at ease. From a pitching standpoint, we had the pitchers scripted out not in terms of innings, but in terms of order. He got through the fifth inning and his pitch count was around 90. I thought he was starting to lose it a little bit, but he gave us five good innings."

On Craig Fritsch:
"He gave us a good inning the other day (against TCU). He came in during a tough situation today and got two outs. In the next inning he just plugged their guy. His confidence is not what it has been. We will keep running him out there because there is a lot of the season left to go."

On the Baylor offense late in the game:
"I thought our guys were not as disciplined as what I had hoped they would be with (the Kansas State relief pitchers). They did have good stuff so give them credit. They came in with their guys that hadn't thrown a lot this weekend. I would like to see our guys just be a little more patient when a new pitcher comes into the game."

CF/RHP Brooks Pinckard

On coming in to pitch late in the game:
"I just really wanted to go in their and throw my best stuff to get out of the situation."

On the importance of winning the series:
"If you look at the (Big 12) standings, everyone is right there. It is the Big 12 so it is going to be tough but we will take any win that we can get. Obviously we just need to move on to next weekend and hopefully do the same thing."

On putting a four spot on the board in the bottom of the first:
"Our thing now is to win the inning. Whenever they score a couple of runs we just have to come back and do the same thing. Luckily that is what we did. We fought hard and came out with the win."

RHP Willie Kempf

On today's start:
"I was spotting my fastball well today. The ball was coming out of my hand pretty good. Starting was something that I did a little bit last year, so it wasn't a huge change for me. It wasn't a big adjustment because I know the routine (of being a starting pitcher). I was throwing a lot of strikes today and I had a good fastball so I was able to get a few outs."

On the importance of winning the series:
"That is what it is all about, winning series. We have won two series in-a-row now so we are building momentum. We have Kansas next week so that will be a big series for us again. This was a big series win for us especially after losing the Friday night game. Coming back and winning the last two games showed a lot of poise. There were a lot of good things this weekend to build on."

SS Shaver Hansen

On his two-run homer down the right-field line:
"It didn't curve at all. I would have thought that it would have tailed to the right because it was an outside pitch. I stayed inside it well and it never hooked and it stayed fair. That is all that is important."

On the importance of winning the rubber match:
"This was the determining game in the series and they jumped on us with two runs in the first so we wanted to make sure and score a few runs. We knew we could because we looked at reports and (the reports) said that teams had scored 20 runs against them on Saturday and Sunday earlier in the season. We knew we had a good chance so we just wanted to get on the board in the bottom half of the first inning."

On the importance of winning a Big 12 series:
"We need to win every series that we can. If we win every series we are going to have a good shot at winning a Big 12 title. There are so many good teams this year. Kansas State is a really good club. They had a great Friday night guy and they had good guys out of the pen. I don't know how many times we struck out but we found a way to win two out of three and that is all that is important."