May 26, 2010
Recap | Box Score
Head Coach Steve Smith On the game:
"Willie (Kempf) couldn't have done any better. It is extremely disappointing to give up a lead like that. I thought the team showed a tremendous amount of resilience to give up that lead and then retake it."
On opting to throw Tolleson after the delay:
"If (the rain delay) would have been really quick, I might have run (Logan Verrett) back out there. He was going on an earlier day than normal and I didn't think he was real sharp when he went out there in the first inning. I felt good about putting Shawn (Tolleson) out there because he had a short outing his last time out. He was rested and clearly the first couple of innings he threw, he was effective."
On the offense:
"We had some guys like Landis (Ware) get some real timely hits. That was a big three-run homer that he hit. It was a good offensive day for Logan (Vick)."
On the outing from Willie Kempf:
"Not only did he give us four good innings, he didn't do it in a ton of pitches. This thing was really set up pretty well early for us. Now it has gone back a bit with burning both Shawn (Tolleson) and Willie (Kempf) in this game. I think Willie will be able to bounce back fairly quickly because he didn't throw a ton of pitches, which is the best thing. If you look back over his last several outings, they have been similar to this one."
Freshman LF Logan Vick
On the team's offense production:
"You have to have runs to win a ball game. No matter how good your pitchers do, as long as you have runs you are going to give your team a shot at winning the baseball game. It is huge being able to come out and put 11 runs up. Our hitters all the way through the lineup are seeing the ball and putting it in play. No matter where we are in the lineup we are getting the job done."
On Kansas State's comeback and his subsequent homerun to lead off the next inning:
"They took the momentum over and it is huge to get that momentum back over, because if they kept it there is no telling how this ball game would have ended up. I knew leading off the inning I was going to have to do something to spark our offense back up. I was just trying to get the ball in play and I happened to turn on it and get it in the air and it kept going."
Junior SS Landis Ware
On the win:
"Any win for us right now is huge. We are trying to make a regional and we are just playing well recently the last few weekends and we are going to try to keep it going."
On his three-run homerun:
"The guy had been throwing me sliders most of the at-bat and he tried to come in on me and I got my hands inside and it felt pretty good."
Senior RHP Willie Kempf
On the win:
"It is huge for us. We needed to get a couple wins in this tournament for sure and we jumped out to that early lead and had all of the momentum early. It swung back the other way, but I was really proud of the way the guys grabbed it back right away and we were able to hold them down."
On his performance:
"I was just locating really well. With two strikes we were able to go in hard. They are a good hitting ball club and we were kind of pitching backwards a little bit. Gregg (Glime) has seen this lineup four times now and he can get them figured out pretty well. He is putting the fingers down and I am just trying to throw it where he is calling it. We were going soft early and hard in late and we were having a lot of success getting ground balls on the infield."
On his mindset entering the game in relief:
"I was just trying to come in and stop the bleeding and let our offense grab the momentum back."
