Alabama-Florida Atlantic Quotes and Notes - Game 3
2/19/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 19, 2012
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 
HEAD COACH Mitch Gaspard
Opening Statement:
"Give a lot of credit to Florida Atlantic, they played tremendously all weekend. They really exposed a lot of areas that we have to get cleared up. We just had too many errors at critical times. I thought pitching-wise we had the same sort of problem. We have to make big pitches at the right time. The offensive end was the most surprising to me," Gaspard said. "We've been pretty good offensively through the fall and early spring. Our offense just didn't show up today, nor did it show Friday or Saturday. We have a lot of work to do this week."
Thoughts On positives that can be taken from this game:
"The only positive to me is that we were able to run out a lot of pitchers. They were able to see the mound for the first time and some of them did okay. I really think that the pitching wasn't as bad as it appeared, it was just some critical errors that made it look a lot worse than it did from a pitching standpoint. But from top to bottom, it was a very disappointing and frustrating weekend. But we're going to play 56 games, we've got to tighten the belt and really get to work at improving our game this week."
Thoughts On the goal of using a lot of players, and whether that was detrimental to the game:
"I think that with our pitching staff, there has to be a plan in place. Obviously, we didn't foresee this weekend coming, but I still think we have to pitch a lot of guys for this team to be successful. For that to all take shape, you have to be a good offensive team, and have to play really good defense. We really didn't do either this weekend. This really exposed some things on the other end, but I still think that for us to be successful we have to ease our young guys along throughout the first part of the season. As we get into the middle of the year, hopefully we'll have that 10 to 11 man pitching staff built."
Thoughts On the intended response to this weekend:
"Well, I think that it's one of those situations where we're so mental right now. We've got a lot of guys that are really searching right now, and are kind of in their own dome. But this is baseball. This is one of those games where you can look as poorly as we did for a weekend and then all of a sudden a win and a big hit gets you going in the right direction. I've seen this team through the fall and early spring and I believe in this team. These three games aren't going to change that. I think that for these guys right now it's a combination of guys who we have to get into a little bit and guys who we have to uplift a little. We just have to start building this group back mentally as well as physically."
Alabama Player Quotes
#1 Taylor Dugas, CF
Thoughts On whether or not the players saw this coming:
"I don't think anybody really saw this one coming. But we faced a little bit of adversity right here, we just have to have a good week of practice. We have to get better and we have to hold each other accountable out here. We just have to play better next weekend."
Thoughts On the disappointments of this weekend:
"We just didn't generate enough offense to really get going. I think that if we would have scored runs early on it would have changed the flow of the game. Not to take any credit away from them, they played really well, they're a good team. I think that if we would have scored earlier, got runs on the board and got a lead, I think that things would have been a lot different."
#3 Kenny Roberts, 2B
Thoughts On this weekend:
"It was a tough weekend. It's never a good thing to get swept, we just have to come out tomorrow and practice hard all week."
Thoughts On his home run in the fifth inning:
"It felt great, but at the end of the day I'm still upset that we lost and got swept. But for that moment I had a feeling that we were going to pull through. The home run kind of excited me and excited my teammates. I just felt that we were going to pull through, but we came up short."
POST GAME NOTES:
* Freshman pitcher Justin Kamplain made his first career start on Sunday and struck out the first two batters he faced.
*Kamplain lasted 3.0 innings, allowing four runs on three hits with four strikeouts.
* In the fifth inning, Kenny Roberts hit the first home run of the season for Alabama and it was his first career home run.
* The three RBI game for Roberts was the first multi-RBI game of the season for any Alabama player.
* Taylor Dugas' third inning RBI was his first of the season.
* Dugas was 1-for-4 and extended his hitting streak to seven games (last four games from 2011 and first three in 2012).
* Dugas has now reached base in his last 15 games (12 from 2011 and three in 2012).
* Jared Reaves notched his 31th career multi-hit game after going 2-for-3 against the Owls on Sunday.
* In the fourth inning SS Jared Reaves hit the 23rd double of his career.
* Ben Moore notched his first multi-hit game of his career, after going 2-for-3 with two runs scored.
* Moore's first career hit was a double to lead off the third inning.
* In his first appearance after having season-ending elbow surgery in March of 2011, Jay Shaw threw 0.2 innings, allowing one run on two hits.
*Case Nixon tied his career longest outing with 1.0 innings pitched on Sunday. He also recorded his first career strikeout in the fourth inning.
*Adam Windsor made his first appearance of the season. He threw 0.2 innings allowing two hits.
