April 6, 2011

Recap

Postgame Quotes

Kansas 7, Missouri 1

April 6, 2011 – Kauffman Stadium

Kansas head coach Ritch Price

On how the team responded today after the tough loss last night:

“We were so flat last night. I was embarrassed last night. We walked in here today like it was the Big 12 championship; like we’re Texas. It’s a great night for our kids. I’m really happy for our team.”

On pitcher Taylor Thomas’ performance:

“The first nine hitters he went ball one on all of them. Then he struck out the side in the fourth and I thought he completely found himself. He was locating his fastball and mixing in his slider. I just thought he was really dominant from the third inning on.”

On what a game at Kauffman Stadium means to the local players on the team:

“What we’ve done is we’ve pitched the local kids when we’ve come here to play. It started with Shaeffer Hall and he pitched a shutout (in 2008). We’ve pitched Taylor (Thomas) the last two years. We do that on purpose. We run the kids out that have been Royals fans their whole lives and are from here to live their dream of pitching here someday.”

On outfielder Jordan Dreiling’s performance:

“I was really happy for Jordan Dreiling tonight. He is a utility player, but we’ve had nobody hurt yet this year. Last year he filled in 20-some starts and did a nice job for us. Now he’s out of position playing left field, but it was a time to give him an opportunity to see if he can handle a bat and show some positive things. I was happy with his two at-bats tonight.”

On how he thinks his team performs at Kauffman Stadium:

“I think when you walk in this environment you’ve dreamed of this since you were five years old. Those guys get the adrenaline pumping. It’s the easiest place on our schedule to go play so we always come in here ready.”

Sophomore pitcher Thomas Taylor

On pitching his second-straight stellar game at Kauffman Stadium:

“It felt the same, I felt real comfortable. I was pretty erratic at the beginning and struggled with my command, but I settled down after that and everything went really good.”

On what helped him settle down:

“I think I just tried to stop overthrowing and focused on the zone more and everything went well.”

On if it was the stage of a Major League ballpark that got him jacked up:

“I grew up around here. I went to my first Royals game when I was two and I’ve always wanted to pitch here. I wanted to pitch just as well as I did (here) last year and it went well.”

On if he thought he could pass or surpass his pitching performance from last year:

“I wanted to. But I wanted to just get through six innings the best I could.”

On what he attributed his career-high number of strikeouts to:

“After the third inning, I started to hit my spots more and everything fell into place. Getting ahead in the count (also) helped a lot.”

On how the starting pitcher’s performance helps the rest of the staff throughout the game:

“It helps a lot. If you can go out there and give them a start, go out there and get in the zone, then they can go out there and get after it right away.”

On if he thinks he’s cemented his starting spot for the game at Kauffman next year:

“That’s up to Skip (Coach Price).”

Sophomore utility player Jordan Dreiling

On how he felt getting a chance to play in the outfield, especially at this park:

“I felt pretty comfortable as far as the atmosphere and the environment. It was pretty easy to see fly balls tonight and there was no wind, so that helped me out a little bit.”

On his performance at the plate, especially his two-out RBI single:

“He went change-up twice in a row, and I was down 0-2 so I was just trying to battle. I got three balls so I knew he was going to comeback with a fastball, so I was just trying to get a barrel on it.”

On if he believes playing in this park is more special to the guys who grew up in the area:

“Yeah, I think so. You grow up being a Kansas fan your whole life and everyone hates Missouri, and wants to beat them as bad as they can. It’s good to come out here, beat Missouri and get the win.”

On playing behind the incredible pitching performance of Thomas Taylor:

“He was really special. It’s fun out there when you can watch him strike out the side, like he did in one inning, and just run back in and get back at it on offense. It was a lot of fun to watch.”

On if this game has salvaged the season for KU:

“Yeah. Jimmy Waters came in yelling ‘This is our season. Fight for our season.’ Missouri was doing the same thing, fighting for their season, as they also didn’t get off to a hot start either. It was pretty key for us to come out here and battle like it was our season.”

On the team’s confidence at this point:

“I think everybody’s believing in themselves, knowing they can go out there and perform. Our pitching is doing real well, our batters are starting to come around and get good swings. So it’s going well for us heading into this weekend.”