Postgame Quotes vs. Missouri State
April 5, 2011
Postgame Quotes
Missouri State 5, Kansas 1
April 5, 2011 – Lawrence, Kan.
Kansas head coach Ritch Price
On the game overall:
“We have great kids in our dugout and we have great young men in our program. There are days when we are offensively challenged. That was an example of it today. I have to give Missouri State credit. They have a senior-laden team and we spanked them good the last couple of years and they spanked us good twice this year. Obviously, they are on a really good roll right now.”
On Missouri State’s Pierce Johnson’s pitching:
“He used his fastball away. If you look at his numbers, he walks in with an ERA of 10.48 and he hadn’t gone six innings in a start all year. He located his fastball away and then he was able to use his breaking ball. He got ahead in the count and then we weren’t very disciplined. I’m not sure of how many strikeouts we ended up with, but almost every one of them was on a breaking ball that wasn’t a strike. Once he got ahead we were chasing the ball out of the zone and that’s not a formula for success.”
On the team’s inability to manufacture runs:
“We didn’t do a very good job. The quality of our bats was really poor. It was as bad an offensive performance as we have had in a long time.”
On Kansas’ inexperience as a factor in the game:
“You can look at the difference in the two dugouts. Their seniors go home run, home run, two-run single and our seniors don’t get a base hit today. If (Jimmy) Waters, (Brandon) Macias and (Casey) Lytle don’t hit we aren’t going to score. We aren’t talented enough one-through-nine in our lineup for that to take place. I’m not being negative. That’s a reality. Those guys have to hit and have to produce with runners in scoring position or we are going to be offensively challenged.”
Junior first baseman Zac Elgie
On moving to the fourth spot in the lineup:
“It’s just one of those things where it doesn’t really matter where you are in the lineup. You just go up there and see the pitches and try to hit the ball. It’s just a spot in the lineup. You go out there and try to give it your best all the time. I got a couple of hits today so I’ll take that.”
On Missouri State’s Pierce Johnson’s pitching:
“He just left a couple of pitches up to me and I put good swings on them. I tip my cap to that kid. He pitched pretty well against us. We are kind of disappointed. We could have had a better approach at the plate. It kind of stinks today, but on to the next one.”
On how Kansas could have better approached the plate:
“We had to see balls up. We were swinging at balls in the dirt. It’s impossible to hit the ball when it is almost bouncing in there every time. When you get a pitch put a good swing on it. With pitches that are up it’s a lot easier to do than pitches that are down in the ground. We could have done that and maybe taken away that slider and make him use the fastball a little bit more. He got us today.”
