March 18, 2007
Vanderbilt vs. Ole Miss
Sunday, March 18
Hawkins Field
Head Coach Tim Corbin
“Today we won in spite of ourselves. We made a lot of mistakes defensively early in the game. We made some mistakes late in the game, made some base running errors. But in saying all of that I don’t want to sound like the `glass is half empty’. There is some character to what the kids do. That’s nine, ten comebacks right there. When there was a huge momentum shift in the top of the ninth when your closer is out there and you think `Okay, we can just knock down the inning and get out of here. Then they pull up. We got one out and then we made something happen with one out.”
On Macias’ hitting
“You know how hitting is. It’s contagious, We don’t feel comfortable in the middle of the order. You guys can see that. Those guys are going to hit at some point, and I don’t worry about that. I just want them to get their heads right. A little guy like that who’s been struggling and probably taking more quick left turns than he really needs to, coming up with a hit. I just felt good about him winning the game.”|
On Meingasner
“Big home run and then some big hits with men in scoring position. He’s a senior now, he was a junior college kid coming in here and a lot of times the junior college kid comes in here and act like a freshman. He’s comfortable now and I hope he gets to the point where he feels like an everyday player and he believes in himself where he hits that way.”
On White being thrown out at 3rd
“He was on his own but he hesitated going around second base. That’s an easy read. Fuller Smith launched that ball twenty-five feet above the cutoff man’s head, you just keep going. But he stopped and then picked it back up again. He needs to go and he needs to be safe, especially a guy who runs a 3-9 to first base.”
On Minor
We wanted to get him in SEC action. I thought threw okay. He left a breaking ball over the plate to Power that Power almost deposited. He didn’t get enough of it but it was close. But good job throwing strikes. And a potential first and third trick play which we talked about that could have happened and he handled it okay.”
On the confidence built from coming back
“That’s a huge intangible right there.. That’s something that you can’t discredit. And sometimes you can overcome sloppy play by the ability mentally to think that we’re not going to lose because no mater what they do, we’re gonna come back and win. That’s a very good baseball team on the other side. I don’t think they lose much from where they were last year. I know they lost some seniors but they look pretty impressive. We beat a good ball club”
On what he told the team after it’s first loss on Saturday
“The first thing I told them [after Saturday’s loss], was how proud I was of how they started off the season. I had never talked about record before and I’d never talked about ranking. I just kind of complemented them on the season. Then I said, “okay, today wasn’t our day. We’re not a one hit team though.’ I said, `You gotta give some credit to the kid on the other side of the field even though you don’t really want to sometimes. It wasn’t our day but it has no effect on what is going to happen tomorrow. They can’t carry the runs over to tomorrow and as long as you don’t carry that same mindset then we’re gonna be fine.”
“My last at bat, I saw Brad drop that bunt down and I got so excited and I just knew were going to win it just the momentum was on our side. I got a good pitch to hit and I hit it.”
On his game winning hit
“He threw it up there and I was able to see it and I hit it right in the hole. It feels good. I mean I was struggling but I didn’t really try to change anything. I just kept trying to go up there and see the ball and get on base. It feels good.”
“It’s been a great three games. We come back Friday and then Sunday to take the series. There’s no putting this team down. We’re always fired up and we’re never down in the dugout.’
On his hit
“It was a slider. I faced him on Friday night and that was pretty much all he threw me. The first pitch he threw me was a slider and I was pretty much sitting on that pitch right there.”
His homerun
“He made me look kind of bad on a couple of the pitches. I had two strikes and I was trying to show him up and he left a change up up a little bit.”
On coming back to win
“You could just see on Friday night that we’re never out of it. Pulling out the game on Friday gave us some confidence going into the last inning on Sunday and we got it done.”
