MSU-Middle Tennessee Post-Game Quotes
MISSISSIPPI STATE HEAD COACH RON POLK
Opening Statement ...
"As always it's good to win that first ballgame. We put some decent at bats together early against (Steve) Kline. I'm sure he was dissapointed. He has probably pitched better and longer in ballgames, but we got eight hits off of him in two innings. The one negative thing is that we did strikeout 11 times. (Shay) Horseman came in and kind of knocked us down a little bit but at the same time you feel good when you give Paul Maholm a four spot to start the ballgame. I thought early in the game they put some balls in play pretty well. You never take things for granted and thankfully Saunders Ramsey came in and threw strikes when we had the lead."
On Thomas Berkery's injury at the plate ...
"He fouled it off the top of his foot and there isn't a lot of meat there. He was in a lot a pain but when he started to walk around some of the pain went away. I've seen a lot of kids get hurt badly that way. He'll be a little sore tomorrow but he should be alright."
MISSISSIPPI STATE JUNIOR INFIERLDER STEVE GENDRON
On tonight's offensive output as compared to the SEC Tournament ...
"We knew we had to come out and swing the bats to win. Everytime we hit the ball we win because our pitching and defense are so solid. I think that the batting average in Birmingham is kind of misleading because we swung the bats well but things weren't falling. Today things were falling and it helped us win the game."
MISSISSIPPI STATE SENIOR INFILEDER MATTHEW MANISCALCO
On the other teams in the regional possibly being intimidated by the environment ...
"I could see that happening, just look at this place. Our facilities are tops in the nation and as crazy as our fans get it could be intimidating. I thought that they looked shaky in infield/outfield and I was hoping that it would get into their heads."
MISSISSIPPI STATE JUNIOR PITCHER PAUL MAHOLM
On working with the early lead ...
"Whenever you go out there with a four run lead it's huge and you just try to go out there and throw strikes. In the seventh inning they put up some runs and thankfully we had enough run support to fend that off."
On his stuff tonight ...
"Early most everything was working and then late I got a little wild and my curveball wasn't as good. After that they started hitting a lot of fastballs. Whenever you have a big lead you just try to throw strikes, and they were sitting on my fastball."
MIDDLE TENNESSEE HEAD COACH STEVE PETERSON
Opening Statement ...
"Great atmosphere, I made statements to the paper that I thought we would feed off the atmosphere, but defensively we did not. First couple of innings there were a few plays we had an opportunity to make and we didn't. I think we got caught up in the surroundings and the background of the crowd and everything like that. I think that effected us a little bit. Steve (Kline) just didn't have his stuff. If we could have made those plays, who knows what would have happened. They were eyeing Steve (Kline) pretty good, and it wasn't a real good matchup when Steve gets the ball up there. We got behind real quick and didn't play real good defensively. We've made those mistakes before during the season, but it was a lot earlier. So I thought some things happened defensively tonight that we haven't done in the last third of the season and that's why we're here. So we just didn't play the way I would hope we would have played."
On the pitching of Paul Maholm ...
"Offensively, I have to give all the credit to (Paul) Maholm. He pitched a great game, moved the ball around, hit his spots, and didn't try to get into a throwing contest and overthrow. He's very well-coached and he is being thought of as a first-round draft pick, and I can see why. It wasn't the crowd tonight, it was Paul (Maholm)."
On Tomorrow's game ...
"As far as a mentality going into this game, it is like I told the team. Right now our biggest concern is to win a game. We can't think about winning this tournament until we win this game. We are one loss away from inventory. So we have to do everything we can. We can't save any pitcher for tomorrow night's game."
MIDDLE TENNESSEE SOPHOMORE INFIELDER JOSH ARCHER
On facing Paul Maholm ...
"It seemed like when he had to make a pitch, he did. We did have some guys on early, and we might have had two outs, but those were the biggest RBI's in the game."
MIDDLE TENNESSEE SOPHOMORE PITCHER STEVE KLINE
On his performance ...
"When I was in the pen, I felt good and my arm felt good. When I got into the game, I don't have any excuses at all. I just got the ball up and they took advantage of it. I made mistakes and you just can't do that against a good ballclub."