Post Game Quotes

May 30, 2009

Tennessee Tech Head CoachOn the game… “I’m just really proud of our young men for being able to bounce back after a tough loss last night. I believe in our young men and their tenacity and capability to respond to adversity. We knew win or lose, we would compete really hard and give it our all.”

On pitcher Michael Alcorn… “Michael was just phenomenal and has been a blessing to have around, not just as a pitcher but as a young man.”

On double plays… “The double plays were vital today. Our middle has been dynamite and I just thought we played pretty good defense overall.”

On the win over an SEC school like Alabama… “It’s huge for our program, but it doesn’t really matter who we play. We expect to win and want to win when we take the field.”

On production of the bottom of the lineup… “The bottom of the order today was fantastic. I think Cory Wright would be the one guy I would mention there. I think he had a double early in the game that led to a run and then he had a big bases-loaded single.”

On having a pitcher go the whole game… “It is huge. Any time you play a game, it’s great to get a complete game. But, to get it in the tournament is obviously phenomenal. We were able to save our bullpen, which is great going into tomorrow.”

Chad OberackerOn his bunts… “We all have our roll on the team and with A.J. (Kirby-Jones) hitting behind me, getting people in scoring position is part of my job. If we each just do our jobs, hopefully it will lead to victory and it did today.”

“Bunting has a lot to do with placement. Good bunts create problems for defenses.”

Michael AlcornOn the win… “I’ve had some back problems in the past and I give God a lot of glory for helping me heal my back. It feels great to get back out there again. This was a huge win, a huge team win for us.”

“I was just locating stuff better today. If I can get my off-speed stuff over, it sets up everything else. I pitch a lot of guys backwards, so I was just trying to get in a rhythm.”

On pitching the whole game… “I wanted to stay in there. I was going to stay in until Coach Bragga pulled me out. If I start something, I like to finish.

Alabama Head Coach Jim WellsOn the game… “Tennessee Tech’s pitcher did a great job today, I thought our guy did well. We miss handled some bunts today and Kriese came in and got a couple of hits. Their guys stayed in the whole game and pitched great. It is tough when you only score two.”

On handling bunt… “We don’t deal with that much in our league, of course we work on it in practice and such. A couple of them were well placed bunts, one was a little indecision and another was thrown away. The fundamentals of the game hurt us, because it certainly wasn’t balls in the gap that got us beat.”

On promising season… “We will get together later. We did a lot of very good things, a lot of good people here like these two guys up here. The whole team was a great group of kids, a lot of seniors, never gave us any trouble, practiced hard, just played poorly the last few weeks. I have nothing but great memories of these guys, its as good a group of people that we have ever had. I am very proud of them, and it is just tough that it ended this way.”

On play at plate… “He was just trying to make something happen and the guy came up with it and made a good throw. You have to take some chances when you are struggling offensively.”

Kent Matthes “I can’t really put it into words, the past few years I have just gone home in the summer and watched the College World Series on television and always thought that we could be there next year. Now I will go home and watch it, but there won’t be a next year. Obviously the past few weeks have been tough, this is a great ball club. This has been the time of my life playing these last four years.”

At – bat with runners on base… “That is the way I had pictured it all year. Me up at bat in that situation, he made some pitches and I just missed it. There are no excuses for that, I have to get it done in that situation.”

Ross Wilson “I think for me it is just disappointing. We had a pretty good year and just didn’t play well down the stretch when we needed to. We would like to play better for these guys like Kent, Tyler, and Austin Hyatt had good years but we didn’t. There is nothing we can do about it now.”

On bunt… “I was playing the double play, it wasn’t like a bunt defense or anything. It was just a good bunt, the pitcher didn’t know whether to go after it. It was a good push bunt. That’s what it is supposed to be like.”

On pitcher for Tennessee Tech… “He did a good job. He kept the ball down and didn’t really miss all day on anyone. He would throw the curve ball in there to get a little respect and he threw it for some strikes. He just didn’t miss, and when a guy does that and keeps you off balance it is not easy to hit. When we had chances we needed to take advantage of them, and we didn’t so that’s why we lose.”