Clemson-Oklahoma State Quotes

June 1, 2009

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Oklahoma State Head Coach Frank Anderson

On Game “Obviously it was a well fought game. I am proud of our kids, I thought they competed very well. We had to have a well pitched game from our starter to give ourselves a chance, and on two days rest that may be as good a performance as I have had for a long time. I know Tyler and trust Tyler, knew he would compete and he did what I thought he would do which was give us a chance.”

On decision to leave him in “He is the toughest kid on our team. I have won a lot of games and lost some games, but this is the toughest kid we have on our club.”

On four run lead, and giving Clemson a sliver of hope with error “Well it was not from lack of trying, he is probably the best defender we have and then throws one away and usually a play will change the course of the game, and they did the same thing to give us a chance to separate a little bit right there. We had some opportunities earlier where we couldn’t cash in, if we get another run or two right there then score even more. That is a good club, you are playing in front of a really nice crowd that backs them really well. That’s the thing that I like about Tyler, he kind of took the crowd out of it about the first five or six innings. He gave us a chance right there, then we gave them a little sliver of hope and things start snowballing and they got those extra runs.”

On chances “Well that’s baseball. The outfield might be as tough an outfield of any place we have ever played. The left fielder is kind of in a hole to start with, then you go up to a rise, and then back down towards the drainage ditch. It’s tough to play out there.”

On Ninth Inning “I thought he was safe. I hope he is right, that sounds kind of funny after I get kicked out for the play, but I hope he is right. I thought he came off the bag. He is the thing, assistant coaches are not supposed to argue and if you do you better be right and he was pretty adamant right there. I thought he was going to get booted out of the game, so I was trying to get him to stop because I didn’t want them to eject him. We had some opportunities, but like I said I hope he is right.”

Tyler Lyons on emotion “It’s tough knowing that we created a little bit of a lead there and gave it back pretty quick. Just tough, we had them right where we wanted them for a while.”

Lyons on how he felt going into the game “I actually felt better the second game. My stuff was probably a little better, but overall I felt fine. I was trying to set myself up ever since I got off the mound Friday night to throw again Monday. I was probably able to throw in relief yesterday, but they didn’t need that so I just set myself up to have a regular start on Monday.”

Clemson Head Coach Jack Leggett

On Game “This was a tremendous ball game. I’m just so proud of my team. We battled; tonight was a battle and a measure of toughness and I’m so proud of how we came along. I thought we went out there and got a little bit behind early then had to dig from behind, and I thought that Thomas Cruz did a really nice job for about three innings, then Matt Vaughn came in and did a heck of a job for us. I couldn’t have asked for a better guy who’s more competitive, more loyal teammate to be on the mound at the very end. We made some big plays behind him and we got some big hits, huge hits. Offensively, we came alive a little bit at the end of the ball game, and their kid got tired and Chris Epps had a big swing to make it 5-3 after we had given up the 2 runs in the 7th and that was huge to get us back. Then we made a couple big hits there and Kyle Parker coming off the bench had a huge hit for us. We just battled. I’m really proud of our attitude and how tough we were tonight. We deserved to win, and we deserve to come back and have another weekend of baseball.”

On scoring runs with 2 outs “It was a huge, huge thing for us. We had to break the ice. The first run was huge just to get to 3-1, then when we got down in the 7th inning and didn’t play very well on defense, it was huge to get back to 5-3 real quick. We got some huge hits from all these guys, and the guys who were in the lineups from top to bottom got some big hits with 2 strikes, big hits with 2 outs, and big hits with men on base tonight. It was a little frustrating at the beginning but we came alive towards the end.”

On DH and Tournament MVP Chris Epps “It couldn’t happen to a better kid. He kept his mind and head in the game and kept himself focused. He’s a great team player, he has a great attitude, and a great outlook on things, and the game came around to him. He’s been a catalyst for us in the lead-off spot, and it couldn’t happen to a better kid. He’s worked hard and kept his mind in it. It’s a great story that I’ll be able to tell.”

Clemson RF/PH Kyle Parker

on game “I’ve been a little frustrated recently leaving guys on base. It’s kind of been biting at me not getting a clutch hit. I’m just glad I could go in there and perform for the team when they needed me, so I’m happy.”

On coming off the bench “It was definitely tough. It kind of puts things into perspective. I wasn’t really performing as well as I needed to be. The biggest thing you have to see is that its not about you; that’s just the little picture. It’s about this team and this university, and that’s the biggest thing. I wanted to go out there no matter how difficult it was. I was able to put that into the back of my mind and say that whatever opportunity I get I’m going to try and capitalize on it.”

Clemson 2nd baseman Mike Freeman

on winning late “We were never out of it. Our confidence was never down. After yesterday we knew we could put up as many runs as we needed to in one inning. WE stayed aggressive, and Epps had a huge 2run homerun, and I came up after that so it gave me some confidence, then Jeff Schaus right after me came and drives me in. So the ball was just rolling and then in the next inning Kyle came in with a huge hit. There is no one we’d rather have on the mound in the 9th than Vaughn and he shut the door pretty hard.”

Clemson 1st baseman Ben Paulsen

on Clemson’s resilience “It seems like we always like to make it tough on ourselves in every situation the whole year. That 40th game was a big challenge for us, and this week was a challenge for us. We’ve been resilient the whole year, we’ve been tough, and we’ve battled. That’s the biggest thing Coach Leggett preaches on, being tough. I think we’re going to go pretty far in this tournament.”

Clemson Pitcher Matt Vaughn

on closing the game out “For the past month I’ve been starting to feel like myself again. It’s probably the first time all year I’ve felt like I did last year. I’ve talked a whole bunch with Coach about when we get to this situation; I want to be the guy on the mound. This is my last game I’ll ever play at home, so it was do or die. I didn’t want to go out with a bad memory.”

Clemson DH Chris Epps

on being named MVP “The MVP award is an outstanding accomplishment, but this whole team deserves this award. We had Vaughn step up for us, our captain Mike Freeman as well, and this whole team battled 1-9 throughout the whole weekend and I couldn’t be more proud of these guys.”

On HR “It was actually an 0-2 curveball. I had to bury my shoulder in there, and he kept throwing a little slide-piece, slide-piece. Luckily he caught one up in the zone and I just had to react to it.”