Texas Tech University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
March 09, 2010 | Baseball
March 9, 2010
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Head Coach Dan Spencer
On the pitching shakeups tonight and how well they worked:
"They did for the most part. We're a work in progress on the mound. We are trying to find guys that basically will just compete, throw strikes and give ourselves a chance to play. We feel our strength is the way we play defense because we can cover some ground and do some different things. We feel like most the time we can score. We just need to throw more strikes. That's where we are addressing. We are going to try and ride the guys without getting a guy hurt obviously. But we are going to ride the guys that throw strikes. I thought John Neely was great. He made a lot of zeros. By moving Chad (Bettis) to the bullpen, allows you to use Jay (Johnson) earlier and that worked out. Having Chad in the game at the end of the game, is a good feeling."
On concerns about the starting rotations after moving Chad Bettis to the bullpen:
"I am a little concerned about the front of the rotation but I want to give us a chance. If we can hang around in the game at the end of five innings, we feel like then we can fire our bullets. I feel like this will give us the best chance to win a series on the weekend. Kind of like last year. Now I feel like we have a couple more pieces but we need a couple guys to join the party."
On pitcher John Neely's performance tonight:
"He did settle down. I thought he pitched with a lot of character. He had three pitches. He kept them off balance and he came out of the game, not because he wasn't doing fine, but because he was getting into unchartered waters in regard to how many pitches he has thrown. We got him to about 60 and extended him a little bit. He did a great job. He really was the key to the game. You give up five (runs) in the second inning and you feel like you're watching a rerun in our dugout. It's a bad feeling. The other side of it was our guys did a good job of staying with it offensively. I think they'll do that but you have to give them hope. Neely gave us hope. Then we felt like we were in good shape."
On the offensive performance tonight:
"I thought the front of the lineup does good getting on base and the back of the lineup does too. I thought the middle of the lineup took care of business a little more tonight. Big hit for Scotty (LeJeune). We know Scotty. He could go for eight for his next 11. He could really get going. Barrett Barnes had a big night with just playing the game and doing things right offensively as far as taking what they give him such as a fly ball RBI, a groundball RBI and he hit a couple balls hard at the end of innings. We had some big at-bats in the middle of our lineup."
On tonight's win over Gonzaga being a big win for the program:
"No doubt about it. They're all big. A midweek win, yeah it makes me sleep better on Tuesday night. That's a good thing."
On who will start on the mound tomorrow against Gonzaga:
"(Scott) Erzinger tomorrow."
On pitcher Brandon Petite's performances so far this season: "I think he's going through some growing pains. I also think that he doesn't have a lot of confidence in his stuff. He is, for whatever reason, just young and laboring. The yard is playing a little hot. You know how it is, a walk, a walk, and boom in this yard. You can't do it especially against a good bunch. We're going to stay with him and give him another chance down the road and hope he progresses because Brandon Petite is going to be a good pitcher in our program. I hope it's sooner rather than later. But we're asking him to do a lot. We're asking him to start and be a midweek guy as a freshman."
On the plan for the starting pitching staff after moving Chad Bettis to the bullpen:
"We'll leave Bobby (Doran). We'll go (Brett) Bruening on Friday night and leave Doran on Saturday night and TBA on Sunday."
On if Chad Bettis would pitch the Sunday game if he hadn't pitched the previous two games in the series:
"Yes, he would."
Catcher Jeremy Mayo
On tonight's win over Gonzaga after last weekend's losses in Houston:
"It was nice to get a win after that trip to Houston. Just have to battle and come back. You're going to get beat but it's how you bounce back from it. We showed character tonight by getting that win."
On the offense remaining steady regardless of the pitching: "You have to hit every game. We just keep doing our thing. If the pitching's not there, you just have to hit a little more. Score more runs then they do."
On the Gonzaga team:
"They're a good club. They're a real good club. They made a regional last year. They came out and swung it. The pitcher pitched pretty well. In the end, we finally got some pitches to hit. It's good to beat good clubs like this."
On last weekend's losses in the Houston College Classic:
"It was frustrating coming off two big losses, TCU and Houston. We should have had Rice. A couple hits here and there. It shows real big character in our team coming out and getting the win over Gonzaga and being so close to a No. 9 team like Rice. It's huge for our club."
On pitcher Chad Bettis returning to the bullpen from his starting role:
"That's what he did all last year so I'm used to it. Chad's great wherever he pitches, it doesn't matter. He comes in and gets all the outs."
Infielder Nick Popescu
On tonight's win after the past weekend losses in Houston:
"That nine-hour trip, that little debacle we had just trying to get back to Lubbock, we all got together just sitting around the airport and on the bus ride back and knew we were playing a good team in Gonzaga and just wanted to get a few wins going into TCU this weekend. I think we did tonight."
On the pitching staff shakeups in tonight's game against Gonzaga:
"(John) Neely settled down after a 5-2 start. We knew our pitchers had to come together and put up a lot of zeros around the board. Our hitting came together right as soon as that happened. That's what happens in baseball."
On pitcher Chad Bettis returning to the bullpen from his starting role:
"We're real excited about that. We have Jay (Johnson) coming in right in there and (John) Neely before that and then Chad (Bettis) came in. We knew exactly what was going to happen. It was a great `W' for us. We're looking forward to getting back out here tomorrow."
On the Gonzaga team:
"Gonzaga is a well-coached ball club. We knew what we were going to get from them. They're a great team and we knew we just had to come out here and settled down and just play Red Raider baseball. That's what we did tonight."
Pitcher Chad Bettis
On returning to the bullpen from his Friday night starting role:
"I did it last year and this summer. It's just a lot of fun. I love adrenaline so that's what I run off of. Starting, it's hard to get yourself amped up like that but everyone has their `tick' and I guess closing is mine."
On how it felt when Coach Spencer told him he was returning to the bullpen: "It's whatever the team needs me to do and whatever we need to do out here to get wins is definitely our number one priority. So if that means I start Friday nights or I do like I did last year as a flex pitcher, then that's what I'll do."
On winning tonight after losing three in Houston:
"I think it was just a big step for us. I think coming out here and winning one against Gonzaga, and then to come out here and hopefully take two, it's just a big step for us and what we need to accomplish."
On how far the bullpen can carry this team:
"If everyone does their job, we're going to be perfectly fine. Everyone just needs to come out here and throw strikes, whether I am the setup man for Jay (Johnson) or Jay is the setup man for me. Regardless of what our roles are, everyone just needs to do what they're doing right now."
