June 1, 2013
Recap | Box Score | Breedon’s Photos 
Vanderbilt Head Coach Tim Corbin
Opening statement
“Well it was a tough game, basically a tale of two different games really. The first part of the game, the first four innings, were a grind. They played very aggressively. I thought we gave them some opportunities, they capitalized on it. They were going to run the bases, they were going to try to make anything happen and basically try to play our game against ourselves. We should have known that because they’re a very good base running team, but the tide turned. We had a couple big innings, I think our kids responded very well. Michael (Yastrzemski) had a great night and the top of our lineup had a great night. Tony (Kemp) had a tough night last night and responds in such a big way. Really the first swing of the game was a good one, but Mike (Yastrzemski) broke the game open. Carson Fulmer was nails he did so well tonight. He came in, it wasn’t Tyler (Beede’s) night, and he came in and pitched five excellent innings to keep the game stable. I credit him as well and we had some nice defensive plays as well. Good to win and move forward.”
On Carson Fulmer’s relief appearance…
“At that point we didn’t want to extend another arm. You never know how far you’re going to go or how many more innings you’re going to pitch in. Carson essentially did a similar thing last weekend against South Carolina so he was repeating a really similar performance, and he’s a starter that has been pushed through a long relief role or a closer role. He has just got a great mentality. He just wants the ball. He loves to throw. If you’re here early and watch him long toss, he’s long tossing from one side of the field to the other, and he will do it tomorrow. The mentality is what we needed in there at the time. We needed a change up. The momentum was not in our favor at all, and if that game continued it would have been back and forth and back and forth, and we had to grab the momentum and take it on our side.”
On Tony Kemp’s second at-bat…
“That was a big at-bat. I knew Tony was going to have a good night before he stepped on the field. I think using the middle of the field was the key for him and getting on base the way he did. He scored three runs. I think it was Tony’s night tonight. He was all-inclusive. The defense was incredible.”
Vanderbilt outfielder Mike Yastrzemski
On his performance…
“The last couple weeks I was struggling a little bit with hitting the ball the other way and kind of made a last minute adjustment with Coach (Larry) Day and Coach (Travis) Jewett. Just trying to see the ball and letting the guys in front of you do their job. None of that happens if they’re not on base. I felt like there were a couple guys in scoring motion every time. The credit really goes to them. Not only are they getting on base, but they’re causing distractions to cause the other pitcher to make a mistake. When that happens all you have to do is try to put the ball in play.”
Vanderbilt pitcher Carson Fulmer
On coming on in relief and getting the win…
“You try to treat the situation like every other one. My job was to come out there and throw strikes and make the defense work. The constant pressure we put on Illinois in the later innings of the game, I knew it was going to be something that was going to happen. My job was to go out there and pound the zone.”
Illinois Head Coach Dan Hartleb
Opening statement
“Obviously disappointed, but we played a very good Vanderbilt team and it’s easy to see why they are as successful as they are. They play very unselfish and they move runners. Fundamentally, they were very solid and that was the difference in the game. We weren’t very fundamentally sound in the game tonight. We’ve been on a stretch of about 12 or 13 games where we haven’t made an error and we didn’t do a very good job in that aspect tonight. I thought from a pitching standpoint we fell behind and didn’t throw enough pitches in the zone. We didn’t control the running game very well and when you don’t get outs on bunts and simple rundown plays, things get away from you.”
On allowing five runs in the eighth inning…
“We talk about all the time, in any bunt situation make sure you get an out. Obviously if you can get a lead out, that’s a bonus, but just get an out and we didn’t do that. It turned into a track meet that inning. Even if you get an out it’s one or two runs and you still have a tight game. I thought we competed well. I thought early we did a good job of putting pressure on them. I thought we made Vanderbilt do some things they didn’t want to do. We stole some bases and we were an active team, but in that eighth inning we didn’t get our jobs done.”
On Vanderbilt’s Carson Fulmer coming on in relief…
“If you look at both pitchers (Vanderbilt) threw today, they are obviously high-velocity pitchers and I thought we handled that well. The thing that made them both effective is they were able to throw multiple pitches for strikes. It seemed like every time we got in a situation with runners in scoring position, whether they had been wild or walked someone or we got a hit or two, they would come up with a big pitch. They had good arms and located. They came up with the big pitch and we couldn’t come up with the big hit.”
Illinois pitcher John Kravetz
On Vanderbilt’s Tony Kemp…
“He’s the motor for their offense. He gets everyone going and I think he got two hits off me and then stole second both times. There’s a reason he is the SEC Player of the Year.”
Illinois shortstop Thomas Lindauer
On lost opportunities offensively…
“Yes, but five hits isn’t many, especially against the kid (Tyler Beede) who started. He’s 14-0 because he’s doing something right throughout the whole year. The way we started out, I really liked the way we battled. It really came down to that one inning where it all came apart. Besides that inning (8th inning) I really liked how the team battled. We kept pressing on and did what we could. We made mistakes and they didn’t and that’s what it came down to.”
On his leadoff triple to open the game…
“I got ahead in the count and got a fastball in the middle of the plate and hit it to the right-center gap. I thought (Mike) Yastrzemski actually caught it because I couldn’t see the ball land. It was big, especially playing in front of a crowd this big. We haven’t played in front of a crowd like this all season and it was fun. It’s one of those things you don’t get to do very often, so I really enjoyed that from my personal opinion.”
