Quotables
Head Coach Willie Bloomquist
Opening statement
“The staff threw the ball great tonight. (Taylor) Penn got us off to a nice start, and can't say enough about the job Colin Linder did, coming in and eating up the bulk of the game there. And Alex Overbay, I thought, threw the ball really well. Just got into some trouble there and we went with the guy that knows how to get out of that usually. So (Derek) Schaefer came in and finished. So that was an outstanding job by the pitching staff for the most part. Offensively, we came out hot and stuck to a really good approach, and then we got kind of away from it as the game went on, but we were able to push a few runs across. They had some exotic arms they threw at us late that were tricky on our guys, and we just couldn't seem to figure out and add on any runs late, but we were able to put up enough runs and make the plays when we had to in order to get a win.”
On Brody Briggs’ defensive contributions
“Briggs has been great. Those were two huge plays in today's game that kind of go unnoticed, and the Sanders kid is a very dynamic player that runs really well and knows how to steal bases, and it's tricky, but Briggs throwing them out, and Penn, the way he was holding him over there, was really textbook on keeping them close and varying his times and tempos. That's something we've stressed this week in practice, just to really make sure that we're varying our times, varying our tempos, and holding those guys on because that's a big part of their game, is to run and take advantage of guys when, when they're sleeping. So something we can't afford to do, but having Briggs back there defensively has just been great, that's what he's made for. He loves that. He loves that challenge. And was able to throw a couple guys out today.”
On Nu’u Contrades hitting in the two hole
“It's been good. Hopefully I'm not putting words for opponents coaches or trying to get in their heads of what they're thinking. But I think it forces them to not pitch around (Landon) Hairston so much and when you have that big offensive threat and power threat right behind Landon, it makes you think twice if you're just going to put him on. Having Nu’u come up behind him, been swinging the bat really well all year, and has some thump in his bat to where he can put a crooked number on the board with one swing. And (Austen) Roellig seems to like that four hole a little bit. He's getting a lot of hits there. So we're having to be creative with it. But on the same token, it’s whatever works.”
On the message to the team through the last few weeks of the season
"We put a lot of emphasis on the standard. And what's your standard? What are you holding yourselves to? What are you holding this program and this team to? So live up to the standard. Expect to win, regardless of if we got the first two in the hopper or not. You come tomorrow, we're going to get their best effort tomorrow. Certainly, Baylor is a very well coached team. They've had five, I think, four or five losses in a row. They aren't going to settle with that. That's not going to go over real well over there, if I know Mitch (Thompson, Baylor’s head coach), those guys are going to be ready to play tomorrow. So our guys got to come and not be satisfied with getting the first two. They all count. They all matter. So we got to come ready to play again tomorrow and come with our best bullets tomorrow.”
Pitcher Derek Schaefer
On Coach Jeremy Accardo’s impact on strikeout numbers
"[Jeremy Accardo]’s been absolutely ginormous. It’s hard to think about strikeouts from an in-zone percentage stand point and he’s kind of rebuilt that focus. If you go and throw the ball right down the middle, your ball is going to move off of that a bit, whether it’s up, down, side to side. Sometimes it ends up in the middle and they still swing and miss. Blowing up the middle is the way that we’ve been able to get those punch-out numbers and Accardo is the only reason we’ve even thought this way. All credit to him.”
On Taylor Penn’s starting performance
"It was great. He did exactly what he needed to for us, he’s holding runners incredibly well. He gives [Brody Briggs] that opportunity to throw those two guys out. That was huge for our team, so I thought Taylor threw the ball really well.”
Pitcher Colin Linder
On the gameplan of the pitching staff
"We’re just attacking the middle of the zone as much as we can. We’re all just trying to blow it by people over the plate, rather than try to pick different corners. Just throw it over the plate and let things happen.”
On how his emotions pitching have changed
"I used to be a robot when I pitched, emotionally. I found that pitching angry, you get a little more locked in, you get a little more focused. Sometimes you just need a bit of ‘screw you’ in you, just lights a fire under you.”
Designated Hitter Nu'u Contrades
On the team mentality
"We’re always striving to get better. Bloomy always harps on us to never be satisfied, never even complacent. There’s always room to grow and room to get better.”
On playing close games
"Playing these games are awesome. You always like to be in close games and find out who can do it. Coming out on top is awesome as well.”
Catche Brody Briggs
On throwing out runners
"It helps us get back in the dugout quicker and keep pitch counts down. That’s their game, we prepared for that all week. The coaches had made it very clear to us, they are going to run, they’re going to be super aggressive. Those are big for us, but without our pitchers holding runners, we had no chance. It's huge that our pitchers were able to mix up their looks and give me a chance.”
On catching when his pitchers attack the zone
"It makes it easier for me to receive and try to win those close pitches when I'm not worried about having to slide off the plate and then cover the other side. When I’m set up in the middle, it makes it easier for them and me, it’s been great.”
