June 4, 2011
Belmont Quotes
Head Coach Dave Jarvis
Opening Statement…
“I just thought it was a very well pitched ball game on both sides of the field. I thought (Oklahoma State pitcher Brad) Probst did an outstanding job. We were able to take advantage of just a couple of mistakes that he made. He was mixing his pitches extremely well and did a great job of executing his off-speed pitches for strikes. He set up his fastball – it’s not a tremendously overpowering fastball but he did such a good job with his off speed stuff and I thought it made a big difference for our hitters. Of course, the job that Chase (Brookshire) did, and you have to give Matt Zeblo a lot of credit as his battery-mate and the job that they did together today. The job that they called, I thought it was an outstanding performance and the difference maker in the ballgame.”
On the game…
“The way that Chase was cruising along in this ball game, you kind of knew that the weather could end up being a big factor at the end of this ballgame, so we had Jon (Ivie) up and moving. Chase wanted the baseball in the ninth inning. His pitch count was not extremely high, and he wanted to be out there. We were going to stick with him, but then at that point after we saw him begin to struggle with his control a little bit, which was out of character for the rest of the ballgame, we knew that his gas tank was probably running empty. It was time to make the move to John.”
On what the win means for the team…
“It means a tremendous amount to me personally, just because it’s an opportunity to see these seniors get to play another game and continue to move on in this tournament. I have such a special appreciation and affection for this senior class that we have this year and this team in general. It’s special for me to of course accomplish our first NCAA win. For the university, we’ve had other teams compete in an NCAA Regional, and advance in tournament play, but this is our first win for Belmont University, and I’m very proud that this group of kids have come together to accomplish this feat.
Chase Brookshire
On his effectiveness…
I was able to execute all four pitches for strikes and be down in the zone. Where I struggled this year was when I left balls up, so being able to keep balls at their knees and really letting our defense work for it. It’s been effective.”
On the mentality of the team…
“Obviously we lost last night, so this was an elimination game for us, but I didn’t feel like we’ve had to play with much pressure. Coming in as a four-seed, really there pressure is on everyone else. We could just go out there and be loose and be relaxed and just play our game that we’ve been playing all year.”
Jared Breen
On playing in the bright sun…
“It was definitely a high sky, but our second baseman and I were both wearing our sunglasses, so I didn’t really have that tough of a time seeing the baseballs come off the bat today.”
Matt Zeblo
On the mentality of the team today…
“I feel like we always come into the game with confidence. We’ve been playing so well in the recent weeks. Vanderbilt is a fantastic ballclub and they can matchup with anybody in the country I think. We can’t be too upset about last night. We can only play our game coming into today, and we did.”
Oklahoma State Quotes
Head Coach Frank Anderson
Opening Statement
“I thought Brookshire was pretty good. He threw four pitches for strikes and in about the fifth inning, he threw the curve ball that kept us all balance.
“Brad (Propst) settled in, gave up some runs early, but hung in there and gave us a chance. We fought to the ninth there and gave ourselves a chance. We just came up short in the end.”
Talk about Brookshire’s performance:
“I thought he was really good. He threw the fastball, slider and changeup for strikes, then starting throwing his curve. He went out there and threw strike one and got ahead in the count. We didn’t hit many balls on the nose until late in the game. Today he could pitch in any league in the country.
“He had a plan. When he got ahead 3-0, he did what he was supposed to do. He’s been their Friday night guy and there’s a reason why. He knows how to pitch. Absolutely.
The importance of pitching at the NCAA regionals:
“In our sport, it’s the guy that’s on the mound, anybody can beat anybody. We faced two guys that can pitch in our league, the SEC, the Pac-10 or any other eague. Pitching negates a lot of things.”
Talk about the disappointment of dropping two straight in Nashville:
“I’m disappointed that we didn’t win and keep going. I felt like we’d fight back and we did.
“We didn’t play as well down the stretch and that’s mainly caused by the pitching. Early in the season, we won these type games. Late in the season, we didn’t pitch as well.
Starting pitcher Brad Propst
Talk about your pitching performance:
“I think it’s the most I’ve struck out in my career at OSU. I got the changeup working, but it didn’t go enough.”
Talk about playing in the heat (94 degrees):
“It was definitely hot but they were out in it too.”
Second baseman Davis Duren
Talk about the outcome of today’s game:
“It is definitely disappointing. We thought we had a pretty good chance (to advance). We knew Vanderbilt was a good team, so maybe we got caught looking ahead too much. Troy is a good team and so is Belmont. We didn’t play as well as we should have, got in a funk at the end of the season and couldn’t figure a way out of it.
Talk about the difference in the outcome:
“I thought Brookshire threw well, but Brad (Propst) definitely gave us a chance to win. We should have been able to put up more than two runs. We pitched well enough to win, really in both games, but our offense just has to come.
“We battled in the ninth and gave ourselves a chance to win there late. The guy just made a good pitch and got a double play ball.”
