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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Sam Houston vs. Troy
6/2/2007 | Baseball
SAM HOUSTON
HEAD COACH MARK JOHNSON
Opening Comment
"It was a good game, good day for the Bearkats. Anytime you can win in regional play, you take your hat off. It might not have been as pretty as we would have liked, but I thought we did some things well. Certainly Jesse Marshall didn't have all his stuff. We thought the match-up was good with the left-handed pitcher, but Jesse struggled a little bit. He does create problems during innings but gets out of it. They started to get one run here, two runs there, so we didn't feel like we had to bring Luke in to save him. We went ahead and put Stephen Price in. He was probably the hero of the day and took the shine away from Luke a little bit because Luke always gets to be the hero of the day."
On who will be starting the pitcher tomorrow
"I don't know who the starter is tomorrow, so I can't really talk about that. We had some guys up in the bullpen. Matt Fry did a tremendous job for us in the Southland Conference Tournament. We had him up in the middle there when Stephen was having some problems. We probably would have knocked on his door before we would have went to Luke. But we didn't strike it, so Matt would probably be a candidate."
LUKE PRIHODA, SR., PITCHER
On the ninth inning
"I didn't feel like I had much of my velocity, but I thought my breaking ball and my split finger were working ok. In the ninth, I just labored a little bit. I missed a spot to get the lead-off hitter on, and I worked a little better off the wind-up, got a little more rhythm to it. Getting into the stretch, I just had to work really hard to get the job done. I came out, and we got the W."
On Troy's Ian Craze's at bat
"He came up, and I knew that they were probably going to try to bunt, but he didn't show it right away, so it was a drag bunt or a hit, and if it's a sacrifice, it's a sacrifice. First pitch got past him and the second pitch, I was hoping he would try to bunt again. I tried to throw a fastball up and get him to pop it up. He popped it up foul. Then I knew that I had to get him out without building too much.
KEITH STEIN, JR., OUTFIELDER
On the comeback from yesterday and the 3-0 defecit
"We've always believed in ourselves. It's one of those things that it is early in the game, we took a punch in the face, but our motto has always been to punch right back. We came back, and basically we punched right back. We are not going to just sit there and get hit."
TROY
HEAD COACH BOBBY PIERCE
Opening Comment
"Today's game was a hard fought elimination game. I am proud of our team and their accomplishments this season. Defensive miscues allowed some runs, which is uncharacteristic of our team. We've played so well defensively this season, it's disappointing but that's part of the game. We battled and competed hard, but we had trouble getting some runners across and getting that timely hit. We just didn't come with our best game today."
On the atmosphere:
"This has been a great venue for an NCAA Regional, and it is one of the most impressive environments I've witnessed. Oxford is a truly unique and positive atmosphere, and we will leave here with a great appreciation for it."
On the missed opportunities:
"We work as much on bunting as anyone, but we had a sub-par year in that area. We had opportunities and couldn't get the job done at the plate. We've struggled with that throughout the season."
CLINT ROBINSON, SR., FIRST BASEMAN
On the team's performance in the regional:
"We expected to come into this environment and play well, but we just didn't do what we needed to. We didn't play the type of baseball we expected and that cost us."
On the errors
"In these types of ball games you can't make defensive mistakes like we did today. When you make plays like that you're not going to be successful."
JOSH DEW, SR., INFIELDER/PITCHER
On his performance:
"I've pitched a lot better when the game is on the line, but I just wanted to come in and help the team the best I could. Although I came in when our team had a defecit, I have the same mentality whether we are up or down."
