Head Coach Skip Johnson
Opening Statement…
“You never know what is going to happen in regional game. Liberty went out and had a really good first at bat and hit a quality pitch and they took the momentum. Our offense fought a bit in the first inning
and when [Kendall Pettis] had the game-tying home run, it settled Jake [Bennett] down. He settled in and was making pitches when he needed to make them. It was a great offensive day for us, we
separated balls from strikes most of the day and we got some big hits in some key moments. The bullpen was good coming in and throwing strikes, which was huge. Credit to Liberty, I thought they had a really good club – they can really hit.
On Jake Bennett’s performance and getting out of situations when he didn’t have his best stuff…
“That’s why it’s called pitching. If we expect him to go out and throw shutout innings every pitch, he probably wouldn’t be here. That’s the biggest thing he is going to learn from that outing – taking it one
pitch at a time. He settled in, got a little tired at the end, but we wanted to keep him in to get that last out because he said he was good. Credit to their offense, they kept battling and got some good two strike hits. Other than that, I think Jake was outstanding.”
On coming back after the three-run first from Liberty…
“I consider that more so the resilience of this team. It was just the first inning and they understand momentum of the game. We talk about it a lot and as far as the freshmen go, Coach Overcash, Coach
Willits and Coach Van Hook do such a good job of teaching those guys about playing against the ball and just playing baseball. You’re on a stage like this where you’re facing a senior that’s a hitter or whatever the situation is, the biggest thing they say is ‘Try to win pitches.’ That’s what it is all about – trying to be in the present moment and winning pitches.”
On extending their lead to be able to get some fresh arms in…
“It was huge, you never know what is going to happen in this game. Getting those guys out there and being able to save some arms for tomorrow and hopefully the next couple of days was really good for
us.”
Senior Outfielder John Spikerman
On what it means to make the most of each opportunity…
“It means a lot. Especially since I haven’t been able to play a lot of baseball over the last year or so… I’m thankful for the opportunity from the coaches. It means a whole lot. Like I said I haven’t played a lot of
baseball in the last year or so, so it was good.
On hitting back-to-back homeruns with Kendall Pettis…
“It was pretty cool. He hit one. I think I was more pumped up for his than I was for mine. Yeah, it was cool.”
On having confidence as a team…
“Having confidence comes from our preparation. I don’t think there are many teams that work harder than us or are more comfortable than us in big moments. It just comes with preparing. The little things,
all of the fundamentals, so when the moment comes in the game we don’t have to think about it.”
Redshirt Sophomore Outfielder Kendall Pettis
On overcoming adversity…
“Ever since I got back from my injury, I figured I would go through some adversity. I knew it would be tough. Starting to see pitches again and going in and swinging and having confidence to take swings. I would be nervous to take a swing because I didn’t want a reaction or anything like that. Once I got the brace off… I got back into a grove. I got a little more confident in my swing. Then I put in more work. I was not able to swing a lot when I was hurt. Once I was able to swing more and more often I just stayed in the cages and worked my butt off. I try to be the spark plug and hype everybody up and make sure everybody stays levelheaded. I just do what I can do whenever the time is there"
On Oklahoma’s strong lineup…
“We prepare for this. We work so hard in practice. We really just go out there and try to have fun. We’re not trying to press, we don’t try to make the game harder than it already is. If someone has a bad at bat or something doesn’t go right, we pick them up. The next person is there to pick them up. We always talk about picking each other up. Being part of a group of guys that are really comfortable around each other. We always like to have fun… having that core group of guys is really important. We started to click at the end of the season and hopefully we take it through the playoffs.”
