Texas Tech University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
February 25, 2010 | Baseball
Feb. 25, 2010
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Head Coach Dan Spencer
On the offensive performance tonight:
"I thought we did a good job. We scored in a lot of innings. I thought when they pressed us a little bit in the seventh, we answered and scored a couple runs and we needed them. They are a scrappy bunch. They have some talented kids in their lineup. They're aggressive. They don't have any fear and they compete well. We needed all the runs we had tonight."
On the offense counteracting the early runs by Bethune-Cookman:
"It's tremendous. That's part of picking someone up. I thought Chad (Bettis) was good. I thought they had a good approach on him early and they jumped him a little bit with some fastballs. But then Chad (Bettis) adjusted and started throwing more breaking balls and change-ups and let us get a chance to separate some. In the seventh, they scored really quick because we couldn't pick up a ground ball and then we walked a guy or two that inning. We've got to get over that. We can't give up three runs late in the game. You don't want to give them up at any time, but especially in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings."
On the ability of the lineup to power past anyone at the plate in any situation:
"I don't think we do at all. I don't feel like anyone in America has that kind of lineup that you can dig a hole, either on the mound or defensively, and then dig out just by scrapping at the plate. I think we have a very good lineup and we are very fortunate tonight that Chad (Bettis) pitched for us because he kept us in the game. We felt good that he was going to get out of the inning and not create any more damage. I thought Chad (Bettis) did a great job on a day less of rest and then he'll get that day back next week. We felt it was important to run our best guy out there early and we did. We got a win, we'll take it and hopefully we'll play better tomorrow."
On closer Jay Johnson:
"Well, if (Brennan) Stewart would've gotten that last guy out, we wouldn't have had to pitch him but we're going use Jay (Johnson) on days he's available. If the game gets to a point where we need to use him, we will use him. We'll rest him when he needs it but he was obviously fresh and gung-ho and ready to go tonight."
On the expectations for tomorrow's match-up against Washington State:
"I expect Bobby (Doran) to be good. I like our starting pitching, I like our pitching. I expect him to be good. I think he'll accept the challenge. I think Washington State will be a good club just like Bethune-Cookman is. They'll be an athletic, fast club, and confident because they've won some games. I think it's going to be good baseball. I wasn't sure, early, if folks knew we were playing tonight. But I guess it's a Thursday night at 4 o'clock so they're saving it up and coming out tomorrow."
On the confidence a win over a team who made it to Regionals last year means:
"I hope it does. You fight a little bit is we've been playing for 10 days and they haven't had much adversity yet. They haven't been beat and we haven't had an 0-for-14 from a guy yet so you have guys that are a bit giddy. Maybe the game closing up tight, today, will help us lock in a little bit and take care of our business. At this point in the year, before you get to conference play, it really doesn't matter who you beat, wins are wins. Every win we've had, I consider a quality win. It beats the alternative. I think we have high expectations of this club and they have high expectations of themselves. You have to play well and be consistent."
Catcher Jeremy Mayo
On pitcher Chad Bettis' performance:
"Chad (Bettis) was good. He came out and got banged around a little bit but he came back and started throwing strikes for us and we got the win."
On the offensive performances in the first five games:
"We're seeing pitches well. We're taking that off-speed pitch down. We're just seeing the ball in the zone and getting good swings on it."
On the confidence a win over a team who made it to Regionals last year means:
"It absolutely helps with confidence. We come out 4-0 but we don't really look at that. We just come out and look at every opponent as it comes. Every wins important especially coming in and beating a regional team. Now we're just excited to come out and play the rest of the weekend."
Outfielder Taylor Ashby
On the offensive performance today against Bethune-Cookman:
"I thought we did well. We stayed down on a lot of pitches. Obviously, whenever you put up 12 runs, it's a good night for the offense. We did give away a few at-bats in there but as a whole, I think we had a good night offensively."
On his performance today:
"As the season goes on, I'm getting more comfortable. We need to just hone in our defense. We made a couple of errors and put Chad (Bettis) in a jam but he battled and got us out of it tonight so it was good."
On his expectations for the weekend match-ups:
"They are both going to be good competitors. We have to bring our A-game if we want to beat these guys. We need to come to the field ready to play each day."
On the new guys getting used to Lubbock weather conditions:
"We got a fungo-man so we've been taking some really high fly-balls, some that would never be hit in a game. I think Barrett (Barnes) in the outfield and the other guys are getting more used to it. Today was obviously pretty bad but I think we looked pretty good out there."
On the ability of the lineup to respond to an opponent's rally:
"We kind of get pumped up in there every time our pitchers and/or defense give up some runs and we try to get it back. That's kind of our deal is to get in the dugout, get everyone fired up and get our runs back that we gave away."
