Smoke Laval Quotations

We're finally starting to get our offense in sync. We haven't been pitching well, and now we lose a handful of key guys when we really can't afford to. So now we're forced to throw some of the guys who really struggled back into the ring of fire.

We're playing an Alabama club that's always feisty. They have a great Friday night guy and two others that take them deep into games, and they have a good closer.

I always thought he would hit in the middle of the lineup.

Hopefully, we can turn it around this season.

He was in the zone with three pitches. Even the one ball that was hit really shouldn't have been swung at. That was as good as I have seen him pitch.

He (Coleman) was much better than his last outing. He showed that he can pitch at the Division I level.

He just ran into one, and he was looking for something to drive. I think he was really trying to stand tall and hit a double, but he hit it well.

He keeps giving you a chance to win when he fills up the zone with three different pitches for strikes.

Late in the game, when you get your best swings off, good things will happen.

I was very impressed with our offensive at-bats in both games. I think we had quality at-bats, hard outs and the base hits were hard. Once again, we played very good defense.

We were more opportunistic tonight than we have been in recent games. That was the key; we took advantage of opportunities and we had some consistency at the plate.

We could make the tournament, but I'm more concerned with how we're playing. We could play better baseball and still not do anything. Or we could play the same and get in the tournament. I want us to play better.

We have been getting beat by a better ball club right now, and our guys are hurting. South Carolina is good, and they have been playing at their best right now.

We are still feeling our way. We are going to give (senior right-hander) Justin Meier a bullpen tomorrow or he may come in relief to get him ready.

Dirks took us late into the game and it was a good win.

(Dirks) really didn't catch his groove until somewhere about the fourth inning. I think the fifth is the first time we had the first 1-2-3 inning. We needed it.

That gentleman from Vanderbilt, probably in three or four years, major leaguers aren't going to want to see him on a Friday night.

This is a rebuilding year. But you can't say that around here. These new guys don't know any better. They don't realize we're usually doing better than this. It's the veterans we have to make sure aren't trying too hard.

They're a club that's always feisty and well-prepared. They seem to be on a really good roll right now.

It's a tribute to the character of our club to come back and win this series. I'm very proud of the way the guys competed, and we hope we can build some momentum from this.

It was brutal. With the wind chill, the temperatures were in the 30s. We've got a lot of kids under the weather right now. I'm glad we won't be playing in those kind of conditions again.

It was a tough day to judge. We made some competitive pitches when we had to so I was very pleased. Today we had to fight through the elements, but that is one of the things you have to deal with this time of year.

That's the best thing about it. We came up with the hits when we needed them. Now, maybe that will give us some momentum.

That's opportunistic. That's what we had not been doing.

Nobody believed they were any good when they beat us. Now, they must be good.

It used to be a two-tier league. I can remember in the late 1980s, early 1990s, there were some automatic wins against maybe four or five teams. You were pretty sure to win two out of three. Now, I don't even look and see who any of them is playing this weekend. Because it's not like, 'Man, maybe we can catch a break.' You just have to play them all. There's not one team that I think you can label second tier.

You circle 'em up. That's the nature of the beast, especially in Baton Rouge. It starts with football, goes right through basketball and to baseball. You're expected to win every one. Until you experience it, with a lot of the younger guys, it happens too fast.

You can't really judge pitching on a day like today because anything can get out of the park. If you swing the bat hard enough, good things will happen. That was our game plan today, to get quality swings that we didn't have last time.

The good thing is he didn't panic, and he didn't rush to try to get people out. He let it happen after that. I was very impressed, not only with him but the pitching the whole time.