Alabama-Troy Postgame Quotes and Notes
3/8/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 8, 2011
Head Coach Mitch Gaspard
Opening statement:
"It was one of those games. We had nasty (weather) conditions all night, but I thought we competed really hard throughout the ball game. Down twice late, we found a way to come back and tie it, obviously Miller gets the big hit at the end to win it. Jonathan Smart, I thought, was really good tonight with his start, and then I thought Nate Kennedy came in and did a really good job after that. I thought our hitters just really competed, they pitched well and did some things, but like I just told the team, you have to keep competing, keep going and that's why there are 27 outs. We were right there down to our last strike and found a way to get it done. It's a big win for us for this new team, and I think that can carry us forward as we move on."
On the team's four-game winning streak:
"We're improving and that's what we're looking for right now. When you have a new group and you have a really bad weekend where you don't do much right down in South Alabama, we came back got right to work and regrouped. Right now we're moving in the right direction, we still have some holes, we still have some breakdowns right now, but overall we're competing a lot harder. We're starting to pitch better and when you pitch better everything starts to work. Offensively we still have to find a rhythm, but it was good to bounce back and win four straight after losing four straight."
On pitching in the rainy, wet conditions:
"We tell them with their mentality, it's just like an infielder to just try and stay the same and try to block it out as much as you can. It can be difficult because you're dealing with a wet mound, you're dealing with a wet ball and I thought our guys did a really good job. You could see it in the last inning, it really started affecting their guy at the end. It's difficult, anytime you have a wet ball and rain like that you really have to block it out and really concentrate on your execution of what you have to do."
#2 Andrew Miller, LF
On his game-winning hit:
"Before I went out there (assistant coach) Dax Norris came up to me and said, 'I'm sick of the rain, let's go out and win it right here.' I hit something in the gap and that's what I did."
On his approach to the game-winning at-bat:
"You go up there with a different approach, you go up there with the approach to win the game. Dugas had just faced him and I faced him earlier in the game, he was throwing a lot of changeups, so I just pulled my stance out wider and sat on changeup and then I got a fastball."
On the long-run implications of the victory over Troy:
"It's huge. We're in the locker room for four hours just sitting there thinking about the game. Then you go watch it rain, you're thinking, 'Are we going to play, are we not going to play?' But it's huge to come out and jump on them like we did in the first inning and just stick with it and come out with a win."
NOTES
* Junior center fielder Taylor Dugas led off Tuesday's game with a double, marking it the fourth time this season he has done so. It is the seventh extra-base hit for Dugas to leadoff a game this season. Overall, Dugas is 7-for-11 (.636) with a walk to lead off a game this year, and has a .750 on-base percentage.
* Dugas has scored runs in 11-of-13 games this season, seven of which have come in the first inning alone.
* Senior left-handed pitcher Jonathan Smart set a career-high with 6.1 innings pitched in his start versus the Trojans. His previous high had been 5.0 innings versus Stony Brook on March 14, 2010. Smart also set another career mark with 98 pitches on Tuesday, breaking his old mark of 63 pitches set on Feb. 27, 2010, versus Illinois-Chicago.
* Smart pitched 14.1 innings before allowing his first earned run of the season in the seventh inning versus Troy on Tuesday.
* Before allowing three runs in the seventh versus Troy, Alabama had pitchers had thrown 21 consecutive scoreless innings dating back to the second inning of the March 5 game versus Northwestern State.
* Sophomore left fielder Andrew Miller finished the night 1-for-3 with one run scored and two RBI. Over his last five games, Miller is 7-for-15, including three doubles with five runs and four RBI, after starting 1-for-11 in his first five games. In 20 plate appearances during those five games, Miller has reached base 12 times for an on-base percentage of .600.
* With his 1-for-3, one-run performance versus Troy, senior second baseman Jon Kelton is now 4-for-7 with three runs and two RBI over his last two games, after starting the season 1-for-10.
* The walk-off victory marks the first for the Tide since a 5-4 walk-off win over Minnesota on March 16, 2010.
