Alabama-Ketucky Postgame Quotes and Notes
3/25/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 25, 2011
Head Coach Mitch Gaspard
Opening statement:
"Another great outing from (Nathan) Kilcrease. He commanded all of his pitches and he never really let them make a run. When they had a little something he was able to get the groundball, and he got a couple of double plays to get him out of trouble. He worked from ahead all night and was just really locked in. When it got late, he just had that look that we've seen before that he just was not going to let them score tonight. I'm glad he's on our team, he's a good one. Offensively, we are starting to get Josh Rosecrans going. That's back-to-back games for him where he has had some pretty big at-bats. As a whole offensively, we held to our plan coming into tonight against Meyer, who has tremendous stuff. We wanted to grind out at-bats and get his pitch count up. We got him up around 75 or so pitches through just four innings, and even though he was able to stay in the game for a long time, we did a good job working each at-bat. We missed a couple of opportunities but we worked really hard to get them, and that led to a couple of runs late in the game."
On Kilcrease's shutout:
"Well their guy is six-foot-nine and is probably going to make a two million dollars in the draft, and our guy is five-foot-five. But it's like I told the team, I wouldn't trade our five-five guy for anybody out there. He's been the heart and soul of our pitching staff for the last two years and you just trust him. You know what you are going to get from him when he's out there. He is going to give you a chance to win. He's pitched in every role possible for us, and now he has the opportunity to pitch on Friday nights. I think he is just as good as anyone else in this league."
On Kilcrease's location:
"He stayed in the bottom of the strike zone. The breaking ball was really good tonight, and he really had all three pitches going tonight. One thing he has been able to do, along with Adam (Morgan), is really throw that first pitch breaking ball for a strike. Then he can work off his fastball a little bit. He's just a veteran, and he knows double play situations and what pitches to make to get the ground ball."
#6 Josh Rosecrans, DH
On how he is hitting:
"I'm just hitting the ball well. I'm focusing on hitting the fastball, really, that's pretty much it."
On supporting the pitching when it's going well:
"That's real big. All three of our weekend guys keep it close and keep the runs off the board. We know that if we score a couple, they can keep it there."
#28 Nathan Kilcrease, RHP
On his shutout:
"I felt good. After the first inning, the offense got on top of him quick and just let me know early that the team was behind me. That gave me an opportunity to be myself and just throw strikes and let them just give themselves out."
On his location:
"I think late in the game I let the ball get a little up, and that's when they got a couple of hits off of me. For the most part, I kept the ball down at their knees, and when you do that, there isn't much that they can do with it other than ground out or pop something up real short."
On the early run support:
"I enjoy whenever they get runs early in the game, but I know that they are all behind me even when the runs aren't coming. Last week they ran into a really good arm, but the next day they found their stroke, and really that has carried on through this week."
On pitching against the other team's ace on Fridays:
"I look forward to it. He's a great pitcher who'll get drafted at the end of this year and will play ball for a long time. I really like to come out and pitch against everybody's best each weekend."
#41 Brock Bennett, C
On Kilcrease:
"He was unbelievable. It makes it a lot of fun to catch out there. He had a lot of confidence in every pitch he threw, and the whole team has confidence in what he does. Every time he comes out here he is out here to compete and give everyone a chance to win. He loves any competition you bring on. From the Omaha challenge in the spring to Friday night under the lights here, and that is something you have to love about a guy on the mound."
NOTES
* Nathan Kilcrease threw the first complete game shutout of his career, striking out six while scattering seven hits. It was Kilcrease's third career complete game. His last complete game came in Knoxville against the Volunteers on May 21, 2010.
* Taylor Dugas had an infield single in his first at-bat to extend his hit streak to 13 games. That's the Crimson Tide's longest hit-streak so far this season.
* Allen Dye saw action for the first time since March 11 against Eastern Illinois as a pinch runner and collected a stolen base for the Crimson Tide before he came around to score in the bottom of the seventh. It was Alabama's 18th stolen base of the season.
* Rosecrans now has seven RBI in the last two games. He only had eight RBI on the season going to Wednesday's contest with Jacksonville State.
* Kilcrease kept the ball low in the zone tonight and forced the Wildcats into 14 groundouts on the night. He also struck out six, four batters flew out, and one lined out to second.
* The last time the Crimson Tide shut out a conference opponent was May 11, 2007, against the Arkansas Razorbacks.
* Tonight's game is the second complete game shutout of the season for Alabama; Tucker Hawley shut out Eastern Illinois on March 13 to earn the first.
