NCAA Starkville Regional: Campbell Quotes (June 5, 2021)
June 05, 2021 | Baseball
NCAA Starkville Regional
Postgame Press Conference - Game 3
Campbell
June 5, 2021
Postgame Press Conference - Game 3
Campbell
June 5, 2021
Justin Haire | Head Coach
Opening Statement
JH: "I'm glad that we could get the tournament schedule back on track with that two-hour game. What a battle, back-and-forth. Not the cleanest game, obviously. Not the most well-pitched game, but that's two teams that are certainly fighting for their lives and trying to extend their season one more day. Just really fortunate that our guys just kept playing and kept holding. Coach Casey Dunn's guys did as well."
"It didn't lack for entertainment value. What we had was entertaining for sure, drug on at times. Probably took some life out of all of our time clocks, but real thankful that we got the opportunity to play today. Played through the rain and found a way to come out on top. Really proud of that and impressed with redshirt senior Kevin Westlake coming in and being able to close it down for us there at the end. That was a special moment for him and our team."
Q: What was it you told you guys, if you told them anything? How proud you are of them for flushing last night and putting that behind them and taking care of business today?
JH: "We just spoke briefly before we got off the bus today that we wanted to have a lot of fun. We wanted to love each other more, we wanted to set aside our differences and have one common goal on a high attention to detail. Just go out there and leave it all out on the field, as cliché as that sounds."
"I think we talk about brotherhood a lot in our program. The definition for us of brotherhood is we're not going to get along all the time, but that we can set aside our personal differences. We get into early gym, and we've been around these guys in hotels and buses and planes. Just like any family, they can get on your nerves a bit. So, you got to set aside some of those things that are bothering you for the one common goal, which was being 1-0 today. That's what we talked about just briefly. We're not big into motivation. I'm not [1980 USA Hockey Coach] Herb Brooks, and I've said that before. I'm not as good as he is, and I'm not as smart as he is. Our guys just showed up and did everything they could to be 1-0 today."
Q: How important is it to have seniors like you have on that squad?
JH: "These guys know, they've been through the ringer when it comes to postseason play. There's a few of those guys – Logan Heintzman, Jack Yusko and Ty Babin, guys that were here in 2018 when we had a very similar situation in the Athens regional. We didn't finish off a game against Duke. That's how our season ended after a rain delay and up 7-1. They came out of the rain delay and came back on us. We had a rain delay in 2019 against North Carolina State. We're always playing in the rain in June, but those guys have been through the ringer. They've had to do what it takes and play all 27 outs. It's great to have those guys to steady the water a little bit."
Q: Talk about your pitching plan for tomorrow
JH: "Grant Harris, he may throw tomorrow. We'll figure it out. There's some guys that are still down there that have some good stuff that have a chance to jump in and do some things."
"I have a sneaky suspicion that they're some guys that have already thrown that got their feet wet yesterday and who didn't throw so well that will want that ball again. We're going to do everything we can to keep scoring, try to keep trying to finding a way to put up zeroes and extend this thing as long as we can."
Spencer Packard | LF
Q: How were you able to come into this game after losing big last night?
SP: "We have the thing called the midnight rule where we just flush everything after midnight. Whether how good or bad it went, it has to be past. We had to come out today and play like we did."
Q: How were you all able to keep scoring runs throughout the game?
SP: "You can never have enough runs as you can tell. We didn't let our foot off the gas and keep going because you never know."
Grant Harris | RF
Q: What was it like being a part of an odd game like this one?
GH: "We've had some crazy games all year. We know we have to keep going for all nine innings, you never know what can happen. You can get rallies out of nowhere. We've done it, other teams have done it. So, we just have to keep going the whole nine."
Q: What were guys talking about in the dugout as the game kept going back, and Samford kept fighting back?
GH: "Offensively, we were just saying that we needed to continue to put good ab's [at-bats] together, keep getting baserunners on and scratching runs together. We know that no lead is big enough in this kind of a tournament. We kept doing what we were doing and kept getting runs for our guys."
Q: How do you feel about tomorrow?
GH: "We will probably watch the game tonight and get ready for tomorrow against whoever we got. We're looking forward to it."
Q: Is a little pressure good for this squad?
GH: "I think so. With how many veteran guys we have on our team, we have a lot of games under our belt. So, we know if the game gets tight, there's no need to panic."
Opening Statement
JH: "I'm glad that we could get the tournament schedule back on track with that two-hour game. What a battle, back-and-forth. Not the cleanest game, obviously. Not the most well-pitched game, but that's two teams that are certainly fighting for their lives and trying to extend their season one more day. Just really fortunate that our guys just kept playing and kept holding. Coach Casey Dunn's guys did as well."
"It didn't lack for entertainment value. What we had was entertaining for sure, drug on at times. Probably took some life out of all of our time clocks, but real thankful that we got the opportunity to play today. Played through the rain and found a way to come out on top. Really proud of that and impressed with redshirt senior Kevin Westlake coming in and being able to close it down for us there at the end. That was a special moment for him and our team."
Q: What was it you told you guys, if you told them anything? How proud you are of them for flushing last night and putting that behind them and taking care of business today?
JH: "We just spoke briefly before we got off the bus today that we wanted to have a lot of fun. We wanted to love each other more, we wanted to set aside our differences and have one common goal on a high attention to detail. Just go out there and leave it all out on the field, as cliché as that sounds."
"I think we talk about brotherhood a lot in our program. The definition for us of brotherhood is we're not going to get along all the time, but that we can set aside our personal differences. We get into early gym, and we've been around these guys in hotels and buses and planes. Just like any family, they can get on your nerves a bit. So, you got to set aside some of those things that are bothering you for the one common goal, which was being 1-0 today. That's what we talked about just briefly. We're not big into motivation. I'm not [1980 USA Hockey Coach] Herb Brooks, and I've said that before. I'm not as good as he is, and I'm not as smart as he is. Our guys just showed up and did everything they could to be 1-0 today."
Q: How important is it to have seniors like you have on that squad?
JH: "These guys know, they've been through the ringer when it comes to postseason play. There's a few of those guys – Logan Heintzman, Jack Yusko and Ty Babin, guys that were here in 2018 when we had a very similar situation in the Athens regional. We didn't finish off a game against Duke. That's how our season ended after a rain delay and up 7-1. They came out of the rain delay and came back on us. We had a rain delay in 2019 against North Carolina State. We're always playing in the rain in June, but those guys have been through the ringer. They've had to do what it takes and play all 27 outs. It's great to have those guys to steady the water a little bit."
Q: Talk about your pitching plan for tomorrow
JH: "Grant Harris, he may throw tomorrow. We'll figure it out. There's some guys that are still down there that have some good stuff that have a chance to jump in and do some things."
"I have a sneaky suspicion that they're some guys that have already thrown that got their feet wet yesterday and who didn't throw so well that will want that ball again. We're going to do everything we can to keep scoring, try to keep trying to finding a way to put up zeroes and extend this thing as long as we can."
Spencer Packard | LF
Q: How were you able to come into this game after losing big last night?
SP: "We have the thing called the midnight rule where we just flush everything after midnight. Whether how good or bad it went, it has to be past. We had to come out today and play like we did."
Q: How were you all able to keep scoring runs throughout the game?
SP: "You can never have enough runs as you can tell. We didn't let our foot off the gas and keep going because you never know."
Grant Harris | RF
Q: What was it like being a part of an odd game like this one?
GH: "We've had some crazy games all year. We know we have to keep going for all nine innings, you never know what can happen. You can get rallies out of nowhere. We've done it, other teams have done it. So, we just have to keep going the whole nine."
Q: What were guys talking about in the dugout as the game kept going back, and Samford kept fighting back?
GH: "Offensively, we were just saying that we needed to continue to put good ab's [at-bats] together, keep getting baserunners on and scratching runs together. We know that no lead is big enough in this kind of a tournament. We kept doing what we were doing and kept getting runs for our guys."
Q: How do you feel about tomorrow?
GH: "We will probably watch the game tonight and get ready for tomorrow against whoever we got. We're looking forward to it."
Q: Is a little pressure good for this squad?
GH: "I think so. With how many veteran guys we have on our team, we have a lot of games under our belt. So, we know if the game gets tight, there's no need to panic."
Wednesday, June 03
Wednesday, June 03
Monday, June 01
Monday, June 01