May 12, 2009

Recap | Box Score

Head Coach Steve Smith

On Johnny Cardenas instructing his pitcher to throw at Gregg Glime

"Their coach (Johnny Cardenas) admitted to both me and the home plate umpire that he has instructed his pitcher to throw at our hitter two or three innings prior (to the eighth inning) and that is why he jerked the pitcher and the catcher out of the game after that happened. The new guy out there (Chris Court) throws at Gregg (Glime). The guy they wanted to hit, by instruction of the coach, by his own admission, was because Raynor (Campbell) was swinging wood tonight. How someone finds that offensive, I don't know. Maybe if our entire team came out here swinging wood, maybe that would show you up."

On Raynor Campbell using a wooden bat::

"For one guy who is hitting .240 with a metal bat to come out here and swing wood, he is just trying to figure it out. The guy hit .320 last year in the Cape swinging wood. He was going to give it a try to see if he can find a feel for it, that's not showing anybody up. Obviously it set me off to hear him articulate that so clearly. End of story. (Stephen F. Austin) will not be coming back here as long as (Johnny Cardenas) is there €¦.

On the reason for the ejection:

"We were ejected for charging each other. He was not ejected for admitting the he instructed his pitcher to throw at a batter. That is a serious offense and one that should bring some pretty serious consequences in my opinion."

On Dickerson's homerun:

"I thought Dustin hitting the ball out there was pretty apropos."

On the outlook of the season:

"We all have been through a bunch of games now. We have seven left to play. We basically view tonight as our first game of the season. That is the way that I tried to manage it. Looking forward, having guys at the bottom of the order like Pinckard and Campbell is very important. The whole key to the game tonight was them getting on base. Dustin will get a lot of credit for driving them in, but they got on for him. When you are going to hit Dustin Dickerson at the leadoff spot you better have some people that can get on base."

On the weekend rotation:

"Shawn (Tolleson) should be ready for Sunday. Willie (Kempf) will throw Saturday and Kendal (Volz) will throw Friday. The back of the bullpen now just gets a lot better with Miller, Fritsch, Verrett and Pinckard (out there)."

On Ross Speed:

"I was really encouraged to see what Ross did. Ross went out there and pitched when it was still a game. We have given up five run leads before, especially with the wind blowing out. He went out there and was throwing very well. I just think that at this point in the season we are maybe as good as we have been all year so let's try and make something of it."

On the Nebraska series:

"It is important. We need to win that series at a minimum. They will go to the tournament with the mindset that they are here to win the tournament. Somebody has to win it. This league this year is just flip-a-coin. Most times if you go to a tournament and you are the eighth seed and you face a number one seed, there is a big difference. This year won't be like that. Everybody has a guy. The seeds won't matter at all. I think this year this league should get, at a minimum, seven teams into the NCAA tournament."

CF Brooks Pinckard

On his bunt single that resulted in two errors and a score:

"I just saw that the third baseman was back so I decided to lay one down. Fortunately it was a bad throw and I knew that I would at least get to third on it. When the throw got passed the catcher I decided to go home. Luckily it worked out."

On whether or not the break was good for the team:

"It kind of was but it kind of wasn't. We wanted to get back in there right away to prove ourselves again. It was also a good break to get time off and refocus."

On the weekend series against Nebraska:

"We always want to go in and sweep. Obviously our main goal is to win the series. We just have to go in there and play like we did tonight and we can come out on top."

DH Dustin Dickerson

On his homerun:

"It definitely felt good after it went out. I knew the situation of the game there and I knew the pitcher was going to be jacked up and he was going to try and blow a fastball by. I am glad that I got a piece of it. I felt good today. It was nice to come out here and get a few hits and a win. Hopefully (the win) will give us a bunch of momentum so that we can go up (to Nebraska) and sweep. We really need a spark for this team right now to get our confidence back."

On the production from the bottom of the order:

"It is huge anytime that we can get guys on with a bunt. A flair here or there at the bottom of the order then to have me, Shaver and Aaron coming up-it is really helpful when guys are on base."

On Coach Smith's ejection:

"That was the most emotion that I have ever seen him show. It was actually nice to see. I think it fired us up and we really wanted to win then. It was nice to see."

On the importance of winning the Nebraska series:

"I think we need to get some wins so that we can assure ourselves a spot in a regional. Right now I feel like it is up in the air and it is not guaranteed right now. We need to go up there and at least take two games."