Postgame Quotes
April 22, 2009
Recap | Final Stats | Notes |
Postgame Quotes
Kansas 7, Missouri 3
Kauffman Stadium – April 22, 2009
Kansas Head Coach Ritch Price
On Preston Land’s offensive performance:
“I feel really good for him. It’s great to see him break out. He had a nice weekend last weekend at Texas Tech. We’ve just tried to get him more aggressive in the count because he takes way too many pitches. He’s obviously got great talent, and it’s nice to see him finally playing up to his ability.”
On Kansas’ offensive production:
“The only way we’re going to be a good club is if we’re solid all the way through our lineup, especially seven, eight and nine. We’re finally starting to get some help. We haven’t had much production out of those spots lately so it was nice to see them (Preston Land and Jimmy Waters) and Jason Brunansky finally contributing.”
On the Kansas pitching:
“I was really pleased with the way Bollman gave us a quality start so we could set up our bullpen and use it properly. He was right at his pitch count – we wanted him to go no more than 80 – so we could use him on Sunday out of the bullpen if he was needed. We were also trying to protect our bullpen for the weekend and that was crucial for us, along with trying to win a baseball game, too.”
On winning the game:
“I think it shows that we’ve got good players. We’ve got really good players at the top of the order; the first three guys are really special and now we’re starting to get some contribution at the bottom of the lineup. My only disappointment of the game was that we were sloppy defensively. That’s something we haven’t been doing, we’ve been playing very well defensively. And that infield is perfect – you can’t blame any of those errors on that infield. I think it was a little bit of nerves.”
On Nebraska:
“First off, it’s obviously a huge weekend for us. We need to continue to win series at home in order to put ourselves further up in the (Big 12) standings and continue to build on our resume for the NCAA tournament. The second thing is, those guys (at Nebraska) aren’t going to quit. I guarantee with what’s happening up there right now, their coaches are frustrated, their players are frustrated, and they’re looking for a way to redeem themselves. We just need to make sure it doesn’t happen this weekend.”
Kansas SS David Narodowski
On playing in a Major League ballpark:
“It is awesome, the atmosphere and the rivalry is just awesome. I had a great time and it is good to get that win.”
On Missouri getting ahead early in the game:
“It was early still so the game was not slipping away. We still had five or six innings left and that is a lot of at bats. No pressure definitely.”
On the play of Preston Land:
“It is awesome. It is good to see him back. He had a rough start to the season and it is good to see him hitting the ball, getting some RBIs and hitting the ball out of the park. It is just awesome and gets everyone excited.”
Kansas 1B Preston Land
On his home run:
“It felt great; I had a couple of bad at bats before that. I hit it and I knew that it had enough to get out, but as I was rounding first I saw that it was letting up a little bit but it still went over. It was a huge lift for our team, especially after making an error earlier in the game and putting those runs back up on the board. It felt really good.”
On his recent offensive tear:
“It is just baseball and I have just kept working at it. I feel like I am starting to see the ball better at the plate, feeling comfortable, attacking more pitches, and it is just coming together right now. Hopefully I can keep it up the rest of the year.”
Kansas C Buck Afenir
On Preston’s homer bringing the team back to life:
“It was kind of a frustrating night for Tony Thompson and I, but it was good to see other guys come through in the clutch.”
Missouri Head Coach Tim Jamieson
On his thoughts of the game:
“I don’t think we swung the bat particularly well. So many chances we had in the game, and they swung it well when they needed to and they pitched better then they needed to.”
On deflated feeling after home run:
“I’m sure there was. We got the gain and we were almost out of the inning and we don’t get it done. We’ve got to recognize they played better than we did. They made a couple errors and gave us some chances to score some runs, but outside of that they pitched it better and hit it better. “
On Different feel from here and the game at Busch Stadium:
“I don’t know that it was. I think it’s just the atmosphere, the crowd was great. This is just a neat thing for both programs. I’m sure it’s something we will continue to grow. If you can’t get excited to play here or Busch stadium you need to get your head examined.”
On Berger pitching more than one inning:
“We want him to get it done. The games that matter more are the ones we play on the weekend in Columbia. We weren’t real excited about showing them the things they will see when they come to Columbia. We wanted to get this game, but this game at the end of the year it doesn’t matter.”
Junior RHP Ian Berger
On the rivalry game:
“This is a big game and we were ready to play. Just one big inning for them and the momentum shifted a little bit.”
On the momentum while Clubb was pitching getting the double play:
“That was huge. [Ryan Clubb] has been pitching great. He’s a freshman and he’s going out there, competing hard.”
Missouri CF Greg Folgia
On the attitude coming into a rivalry game:
“We probably have a little more fight to us, but some things didn’t go our way today. We didn’t play badly, it just wasn’t a good game.”
On the difference between this trip and the trip to St. Louis to play SLU:
“They are all fun trips, just a little more emphasis is put on this game because it is KU and there is a rivalry there. Rivalries are fun.”
On the difference between playing in centerfield and leftfield:
“Yeah, I was a little surprised because obviously Ryan [Lollis] is amazing at center. The balls carried today. There were some good hits and I had to get there some how.”
On the momentum shifting back to MU after the two runs in the fourth:
“It was good to be up for a little while. It was good to have that in our favor, but we still have to keep it. “
On losing chances to score:
“We had the bases loaded at one point, and we had guys on base, but we just have to get the big hits. Right now we are still not as consistent as we want to be so we have to just try to play for runs and keep knocking them in.”
