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LSU Baseball Advances Past Jackson St., 11-7
LSU Head Coach Paul Mainieri
Opening statement…
“I
don’t know what adjective to use. Maybe one of the more painful wins
that we’ve had in our time. We’re glad to win the game of course, but
the biggest concern is Alex Bregman and Raph Rhymes with the collision.
We’ll just pray and hope that they’re going to be okay and be able to
get back to playing. It was a rough game. Nothing went by script today.
Obviously Ryan [Eades] had a tough time with his command, and Kurt
[McCune] came in and saved the day for the Tigers. He was phenomenal –
just absolutely outstanding. This was the longest he’d thrown in a
long, long time. The other guy that I think really stepped up for us
off the bench was Jared Foster. Chris Sciambra came up and got a big
hit for us, and Jared Foster had a big day hitting the homerun and a
sacrifice fly. There were a lot of things that didn’t go so great
today, but there were a lot of things that were also really
outstanding. I’m really happy that some guys really rose to the
occasion for our team. So we’re going to hopefully get through this
thing – health-wise – and we’ll just dwell on the fact that we won the
ballgame and we’re okay and move on to the big game tomorrow.”
On the collision between Alex Bregman and Raph Rhymes…
“I’m
not really concerned about concussions at all. Raph Rhymes could have
continued to play in the game but I just chose to take him out of the
game. He had a laceration on his lip and needed some stiches. He took a
good blow to the nose so he might have a couple of black eyes – I don’t
think his nose is broken or anything. There was no concussion or
anything like that. I just felt that the heat and the shot to the head
and everything, the best thing was just to get him out of the game.
Alex [Bregman’s] situation is a little bit more concerning to us, quite
frankly. He’s at the hospital right now and getting some tests done on
the bones in his face and I haven’t heard any report yet, so that’s as
much as I know.”
On LSU’s relief pitching performance…
“[Nate]
Fury did a good job, I thought, and so did Joey Bourgeois. Kevin Berry
didn’t and Hunter Newman didn’t. The only reason I took Kurt [McCune]
out of the game was because of the balance of playing one at a time,
and also knowing you’ve got a long tournament. There’s always a
challenge. It’s more challenging because Cody Glenn is not with us. I
thought that the game was not in hand but close to being in hand and we
could get through two innings, the plan was to go with Kevin Berry for
the eighth and [Hunter] Newman for the ninth. Kevin [Berry] got the
first out and looked like he was throwing the ball pretty well and all
of a sudden just kind of lost it. [Nate] Fury came in and I thought he
did a really good job – got us out of the inning. I was going to start
the ninth with [Nate] Fury, but I thought let’s try to save the pitches
with him, especially after we tacked on the one additional run in the
bottom of the eighth inning. Unfortunately, Hunter Newman walked the
first batter and gave up a homerun and walked another batter. But Joey
[Bourgeois] I thought did a great job.”
LSU Players’ Post Game Quotes
SEAN MCCULLEN
On his hitting performance against Jackson State…
“I
just wanted to hit the ball on the ground and keep it out of the air. I
didn’t want to do too much. I just wanted to get on base.”
On Jackson State’s pitcher…
“I
think their pitcher did very well for them. All we were trying to do
was keep the ball on the ground and out of the air. I think we did a
pretty good job of that in this game. Hopefully we will carry it over
to the next game.”
MASON KATZ
On his hitting performance…
“Pretty
much every situation I came upon in the beginning was a man on third
and one out. I had to hit a pop up or fly ball. Then on the homerun
there was two outs and I was trying to hit the ball hard. I worked a
pretty long count. Chris did the hard work with the first two out RBI.
I was able to put one into the wind.”
On his home run…
“I
worked a pretty long count. I took a couple good cuts. He was throwing
a lot of changeups and getting guys up front. He did throw me a
fastball earlier in the count. I fouled it straight back. I was still
sticking to the approach to hit the ball to right center, I just tried
to get that run in any way possible. The wind was blowing that way. I
think it was a three-two count. He threw a fast ball in the middle and
I was able to stick to my approach and fell right into what I wanted to
do.”
KURT MCCUNE
On his pitching performance today…
“I
am just really happy that I could help my team out today. I went in
with the mindset to just get out of the inning. I never expected to go
as long as I did. I am glad did because we were running low on arms. I
am just thankful I could do that.”
On pitching multiple innings…
“I
loved it. Being able to be out there for a couple innings helped me get
into a groove and figure out what was working. I was able to see what
pitches were working for me. I think I figured out a lot today.”
Jackson State Post Game Quotes
Head Coach Omar Johnson
Opening Statement
“They
came out and played like the No. 1 team in the country. They did not
make any mistakes; we anticipated that. We knew coming into the game
that we were going to have to play a clean game to have an opportunity
to win.”
On pitching plans for tomorrow…
“Well (Desmond)
Russell will probably play tomorrow. We still have a couple of arms. We
are not the most over powering bunch but these guys are going to throw
strikes, you have seen how we pitch. If you don’t stay back and get on
some pitches we are going to get you out. So again, Russell will throw
tomorrow and we still have an outstanding chance.”
On Jackson State starting out aggressively…
“You
always talk about trying to get a lead in the beginning. These guys
play on momentum. So, getting a lead, getting up by one run early,
gives these guys so much confidence. But, you have to consistently play
throughout the game in order to win the nine-inning game.”
On a late game rally…
“We
left too many out there. We left too many runs on base, but they kept
chipping away. When they start getting a little erratic and we start
taking pitches and getting base runners that’s when you know. If you
look at the eighth or ninth inning when we had the tying run on deck
that is a testament to these guys that they are not going to give up
and they will keep battling.”
On LSU’s Kurt McCune …
“He hit
some spots. One thing about pitching is that it is not always about the
velocity all the time. It is about him being able to locate well.
(Kurt) McCune made some key pitches when he had to. When McCune struck
our player with the bases loaded that was a big time play in the game.
If he does not strike that player out right there with the bases loaded
we possibly go up two. Because really, you take away the four errors,
it is a tie game. You take away the homerun from (Mason) Katz we win.
That is wishful thinking, but at the same time that is how a baseball
game is played out. You cannot make mistakes and expect to beat the No.
1 team in the country.”
P Aneko Knowles
On his big day offensively…
“I’ve
seen these type of pitchers all day and I knew I could have a day like
today. I look it as just another pitcher on the mound and you just have
to hit the ball.”
On possibly coming back…
“All year we’ve
known that we just have to battle back and we could come back. We just
had to get some hits back-to-back and we would be right back in it.”
P Alexander Juday
On his pitching…
“I
didn’t locate very well today. I just wanted to come out and compete
for our guys. I felt like I did that for the first two innings but
after that I missed with some pitches and they squared off.”
OF Charles Tillery
On the big offensive day…
“I knew coming in I just had to get myself prepared to hit. I had to try and turn something around.”
On starting fast…
“Coming in we knew that we could do what we did. We’ve seen great pitching all year and we knew we could hit off of them.”
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