Quotables
Head Coach Willie Bloomquist
Opening Statement
"Good team win by our guys. (Kole) Klecker gave us four innings, he wasn't as sharp as normally is, but I think with the additional rest, sometimes you can maybe lose feel a little bit there at the beginning, but he got us out of some big jams there early on, and was able to get us through four. (Taylor) Penn picked him up and threw the ball outstanding for three innings. The rest of the bullpen, (Sean) Fitzpatrick, (Eli) Buxton, and (Alex) Overbayi did a great job there in the back half. Offensively, took advantage of some miscues and obviously a couple of big hits, big blows as well. Smaldino, and then, of course, this guy Landon Harrison, with a couple of home runs there, Matt Polk added on a home run late, so all around good effort by our guys. Super proud of them. Just a fun team to be a part of right now.”
On the team’s all-around offensive performance
"I think that's what we're capable of. Obviously, there were some defensive miscues that we took advantage of, but I was really impressed. We did a really good job on the bases, taking extra bases tonight, and taking advantage of those types of things. Again, we swing the bats decently as well. We have to just continue to keep our head down and play the best baseball we can this time of year. And guys are going to step up and have big time performances, and these two guys to my right (Hairston and Penn) are examples of that tonight, so the great thing about our team is that it's not always the same guys every night. It's somebody different, and everyone's contributing. So when you have an offense one through nine that everyone's contributing makes this awful dangerous.”
On witnessing Hairston’s record breaking season
"I don't know if I can really put it into words, just from a standpoint of, we all know the history of Arizona State and the amount of players that have come through here with the 118 major leaguers, and a lot of them are very storied and household name type guys, and a lot of them had phenomenal careers as players at ASU, and gone on and had huge careers in the major leagues. So for this young man to be on top of that mountain, that's pretty damn special. It's amazing, and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to recruit him, get him here, coach him, and then have him essentially be the cornerstone of a very good offense for us, and do what he's doing. I’m just super proud of the way he's handled the attention, for lack of a better term. He's done a great job with just staying even keel. Everyone was anticipating him breaking this record, and there were a few weeks there where he didn't get home runs. But I've said it all along, he may get mad at me for this, but he's not a home run hitter, he's just a flat out pure hitter that happens to hit home runs, and to me that's a compliment. He's just an all-around pure hitter. So, even though that stretch, where he wasn't getting all of his homers, he was still getting his hits, he was still getting on base, he was still being a catalyst for our offense. To me, that's just a sign of a great hitter and a great player. So, for now, him to stand alone on top of that mountain is pretty damn special.”
On Taylor Penn’s performance out of the bullpen
"It's extremely valuable to have a guy like T-Penn, he epitomizes an out-getter. You can plug him in. If a guy can't get out of the first inning out of our start, you can plug him in. You can start him, obviously. You can put him in the back end when you need outs and need strikes. Just the guy that you can count on to be ready at all times. And for me, the biggest thing is, the dude just comes in and pounds the strike zone and throws a lot of strikes. There's times in the game where it's like, we got to get this game going and the momentum going and get the opposing team's bats going and swinging, so he just sets us up, and it gets us off the field quickly, to get our offense back to work, and having a guy like him is extremely valuable in the fact that he checks his ego at the door every day,. He could be squawking at me, “I want to be a starter.” I never heard that out of his mouth once this year. He's like, "Dude, just give me the rock whenever you need me to.” He always wants the ball. And he'll probably be hounding me tomorrow for the ball at some point. I can't say enough about how valuable it is to have someone like that on your staff.”
Outfielder Landon Hairston
On hitting his record setting 28th home run of the season
"It feels amazing. To be a part of something in such a storied program, it means the world to me. There are no words to describe it. It was a big weight off my shoulders, that's for sure, but I’m just super excited. I knew right when it left the bat that it was gone, and it's no better feeling in the world when you square up a ball like that, and you know it's gone. So super excited.”
On playing in front of his friends and family
"It's awesome. I don't know if you guys saw it, but a big part of my family was there today, so that's a huge advantage playing for your hometown team, having your family at every game. I know this isn’t Muni, but it's pretty close. So having my family, my friends, people I grew up with at these types of games is special.”
Pitcher Taylor Penn
On his versatility in pitching in different situations
"Just having a good routine, really, and just knowing whenever Willie (Bloomquist) puts me in the game just to contribute, fill it up, let your defense work. I feel like when the defense is in the game, it kind of affects the offense as well, so you're not watching somebody walk the whole time. Just whenever I get a chance to pitch, it's a blessing being able to pitch anytime, starting or relieving.”
