Pitchers Quotations | Page 4

Our strength will be our defense. Our pitchers will learn to use the defense, knowing they don't have to go for the strikeout and can get the ground balls.

Our starting pitchers did an excellent job and we played pretty good defense today, so it's a good way to start.

Our goal is to send the pitchers back to their respective clubs after the competition in better shape than they would have been under a normal spring schedule. And the last thing we want to have happen is to get someone hurt.

Our goal coming into the game was to get all our pitchers some starting time out on the mound and we got that done.

Our fans will get to see another guy that's listed among the top few pitchers in college baseball that's draft-eligible. He's a guy who's supposed to have electric stuff.

Overall, I was pleased with the way our pitchers stayed in control and our approach at the plate. But our defense got sloppy on us in the second game.

Overall, it was a not a badly played game. Both pitchers did a good job. I even thought Burke did a good job.

Our two pitchers right now are going back and forth. It's good to see right now.

Our two freshman pitchers pitched outstanding today. They stepped up big for us and pitched the way you'd hope they would when you recruit them.

Our biggest improvement is our pitching staff. We have a much deeper stable of arms and our (Nos.) 1 and 2 are back, so we have experience. Our pitchers have worked hard and learned new pitches. They're going to keep us in games. We just have to find a way to score some runs.

Our bullpen is very solid. If we have the lead going into the sixth or seventh inning, we feel real good about our chances to win the game. Our relief pitchers have been pitching very well and we hope that continues throughout the rest of the season.

Other than that inning, we didn't play too badly. I thought the first six innings were very promising for us. Billy Darryl Grant pitched well again and we got an opportunity to face three Dunbar pitchers who would be among the best in our region.

Right now with all the rain, the pitchers are definitely ahead of the hitters. And this might hurt us a little more than other teams because we are so young.

(Rogers) pitched well. Really well. Him and (Minnesota starter Brad) Radke are both veteran pitchers and they went out there in the heat and did well.

Pitching should be our strength. We have two juniors and a sophomore with varsity experience. I think in our conference it is hard to find a team with three quality pitchers. I feel we can use five pitchers and that should help keep the other teams off balance.

Pitching is going to be a huge key for us. We have a lot of experience in the pitching circle which is a good thing to have with a young team, because at least we are going to have the pitchers to keep us in the game.

Pitching and hitting are her strongest areas and that is what she will be used the most. She is definitely one of our top pitchers and certainly one of the power hitters we have.

Pitching and defense was the key today. The pitchers threw strikes and I thought Pedro (Alvarez) and Ryan (Flaherty) made some nice plays at the corner infield spots.

Pitchers want to play for him (Reed). He's got a lot of experience and he's done a good job with the staff.

Pitchers today are only expected to pitch into the sixth inning. I read where a pitcher pitched deep into the sixth inning. Isn't that something? Deep into the sixth inning.

Pitchers today are only expected to pitch into the sixth inning.

Pitchers scare me to begin with. I don't know how much work pitchers have done.

Pitchers don't get hit that often, especially above the chest,

Pitchers don't get hit, really, that often, especially above the chest. A broken bat is a situation where I have to cover first base, and that took me right into the path of the bat. It's definitely odd, but it happens. What are you going to do?

Pitchers are generally ahead of hitters early in the season. She is pretty good at changing speeds but I thought we did a nice job of making adjustments when we needed to.

Our region is tough. We're going with the same lineup to give our players a lot of at bats. Right now, we're sore. We've played a lot of games with a little rest. Our pitchers are doing just enough and Maple Woods is a good team.

Our offense really relied on the pitching. It's sometime harder to get motivated for games like this. I think we came out a little flat, but our pitchers took it over.

Our offense really came alive tonight, and that was good for us overall. That gave our pitchers something to work with, and then it gave us more confidence going out between innings.

People have to realize that. He won seven gold gloves. It's not like we have to clean him up. The biggest thing right now is learning our pitchers and how they throw. Any catcher that comes over here would have to go through that process.

Sure, we'd have liked to win all three. But it's a tough ballpark to play in. They threw three good pitchers at us. We still find ourselves in a good position. You don't want to lose a series. But the position we're in, we're OK.

Stacey Nelson has done an excellent job and she certainly hasn't pitched like a freshman. Our pitchers really showed some character. They kept us in the battle, which is a really good sign.

Starting March 3rd we had 17 pitchers coming in before school vying for what has become nine spots. So we felt, despite losing Cantwell, we would have some pitching depth this season. And we knew we were going to need it.

(Starter) Ike (Martinez) was getting tired. He was losing velocity on his stuff. So right now we only have the two pitchers due to all the injuries.

Some of our other pitchers are going to have to step up and help us this week. We're going to have to look at some younger guys.

That (defense) was one of the big talks we had Friday night. We took care of business on defense Saturday and our pitchers did their jobs.

Nate pitched extremely well; he had great control today. All our pitchers did today. I was real pleased with our pitching effort from everybody. Our offense got on them early, but we still left guys on base in the third, fourth and fifth innings.

My philosophy is that really good pitchers know their mechanics and are able to self-correct when the game is on the line. A pitching coach can't go out there every time there's a tough situation.

Let me say that our pitchers now have a disadvantage because our pitchers usually have games where they pitch 125 pitches. And here they were limited to 65, 80 or 95. So our starters are used to playing seven or more innings.

Mark has got a lot of ability. He's learning more about himself and more about the pitchers in the American League. He's still growing as a player and doing the things that will enable him to reach his full potential.

I will stick to the rotator cuff program that pitchers use for the rest of my career.

I was very pleased with our pitchers today. I thought they both did really well. It was Heather's first time to pitch, but I thought she handled the pressure well.

I was hoping to use one or two less pitchers than we did today. It's unfortunate it was a little bit chilly because it was a quality baseball game for the fans. ... We made a mistake early that allowed a run, and they made one late that allowed one.

I was glad to see all of our kids got to play. A couple of our pitchers did a good job, held them to two runs. And we swung the bats pretty well.

I think our pitchers relaxed a little bit with a big lead. As soon as you relax, you're in trouble.

I think pitchers always have the advantage this time of year. Our pitching has been outstanding, and it's good to get the bats going.

I think Pelfrey is on a quick road to the big leagues. Of course, you don't want to rush a young pitcher, but depending on how well he does in this league, and with the needs they have for starting pitchers in New York, he may find himself in the big leagues as early as this season.

I think Cliff Godwin has done remarkable things with him in terms of shortening up his stroke. Even though he had great years the last couple years, sometimes his swing got a little bit long and there were certain kinds of pitchers that could get him out. I don't think there's any kind of pitchers that can get him out now.

I think once the kids started playing games, they got excited and really started to execute well. We work to get one run each inning and we're executing defensively. Our pitchers have been throwing strikes and letting the defense do the work for them.

I think if you look what he's done over the last two seasons, he's been one of the most dominant bullpen pitchers in the American League.

I think he's one of the most underrated pitchers in the league. In the first inning, he was pushed under the gun a little bit and he went to his two-seam and pretty much stuck with that all night and that's why he got the action and some of the quick outs that he did.

I think he'll play catch up most of spring training just because of the time he's missed. He's going to play catch up the whole year really ... but that's OK. A lot of great pitchers have had to do it.

I think he has a chance be a terrific offensive player. But part of becoming a great offensive player is having a full understanding of the strike zone and understand what pitchers try to do to him in certain situations. The only way you get to that point is you keep carrying the bat to the plate.

I think his personality in the clubhouse and his ability to communicate with the pitchers will be good. That's not taking anything away from Josh. Josh brought a ton of communication with the pitchers and he did an excellent job with that, communicating back and forth. I know Dougie really well. He's a very good friend a great teammate.

I think Mark is one of the most underrated pitchers in the game right now.

I thought my relief pitchers coming in did a very nice job. Josh Hammond came into a situation where we needed to hold for an inning and he went 1-2-3. I thought Mitch was solid after a rocky start. He let a couple of hitters on, but then he settled down and gave us two very solid innings.

John looks ready to go. He's one of the top pitchers in our league. He had quite a year.

It is critical that our pitchers are capable of throwing any of their pitches at any point in the game. Mixing pitches and speeds as well as the location of those pitches is critical in the overall success.

I think this was a good idea. It allows our pitchers to get their arms ready for scrimmaging when practice starts.

Maybe I shouldn't have cursed. I had just given him the highest compliment last week when I said he's one of the pitchers I respect most in the league, because he doesn't clown, he doesn't showboat. He just pitches.

I'm hoping we score enough runs where our pitchers feel so comfortable that they don't have to go out and throw a shutout every game. Hopefully, we complement them a little bit better this year.

We've told them all year that it comes down to offensive production in this league. You've got to put up runs. But give their pitchers credit. We've got to be better than that. We're too good of a hitting team not to make adjustments. But to their credit, they (Houston) were better than us today.

We need some pitchers to step up and take charge and want the ball when the game is on the line. I think we have some guys that are ready to do that.

We need a better effort out of the majority of our players. Defensively, we need to do a better job going after balls. Our pitchers have to do their jobs better. We need to play all three parts of the game including some timely hitting.

That was great pitching from both sides. You know Harden is one of the top young pitchers in the American League. We had a couple guys out there who were dealing.

That was great pitching from both guys. They're the top two pitchers in the county.

That won't sink in for a while. He's one of the greatest pitchers of all time.

That was a great experience. The thing that I realized was that the game isn't any different, it's just that everyone's more consistent and the pitchers are around the plate more. That's really the only difference. Nobody was real overpowering.

That was a good ball game. Both teams battled nose-to-nose. Both pitchers threw well.

That was awesome. That was really cool, getting to meet one of the great power pitchers in the history of the game.

That's very important. I like my pitchers to stay focused and execute pitches and not get wrapped up in the score, but that's not very easy to do. Jae got a little tired at the end. We had some long innings, but he did keep us in the game as far as getting throught the first five pretty easily.

That's the way we played all year long. Our pitchers are not afraid to pitch to contact and get the groundball.

That's the way we played all year long, ... Our pitchers are not afraid to pitch to contact and get the groundball.

That's the way this team works. We score a lot of runs in one inning because we work pitchers and work walks and eventually there is no room to put anybody else.

That's typical Staton. A lot of pitchers don't make the plays that he made. It helps to have a shortstop on the mound. He battled and battled. He goes as hard as he can. That's the way he plays the game.

That's two pitchers and a catcher (missing time). That's a whole battery right there.

I was really pleased with all of the pitchers today; they all threw really well. This was just a good team win, almost all of the kids contributed to the win. If I can get 15 hits a game (in league), I'll be tickled.

I was more proud of our pitchers just going out and getting their work in and putting up zeros. Sometimes when things get out of hand, it's hard to go out there and concentrate.

Mid-America was the best hitting lineup we've faced down here. Our pitchers did an outstanding job.

You just lose your timing, and baseball is a game of rhythm. Guys are used to playing every day or just about every day. So to have 10 days off and then try to jump back into it is tough. Their pitchers did a pretty good job too.

Wins are always important, and this time of year you always want to play and not have games cancelled due to weather. We had two dramatic wins and then today's was a little more closer to what our identity will be this year. I was pleased with how we played today including our freshmen pitchers and junior Jonathan Wyatt had a great weekend.

We couldn't generate any offense. Most of that was due to Lieber. He's one of the best pitchers in the league.

We can run four pretty good pitchers at you, and we've caught the ball behind them.

We don't think 11 pitchers are really necessary in a five-game series, especially with the way we line up. We like our pitching staff.

We don't seem to be able to handle pitchers we don't know. First-time guys, we seem to struggle with them. We're just not swinging the bats very well right now.

We don't seem to be able to handle any pitchers we don't know well. He mixed up his pitches pretty good. He moved it around. Still, we weren't very selective or very patient at the plate against him.

We really struggled with making the routine plays. Every team has to make the plays when your pitchers work hard for you and get a ground ball. You have to get the outs.

We played today exactly like we practiced yesterday and we can't get away with playing at anything other than the top of our game the next three games. We will be facing two of the best pitchers in the Valley and need to play focused and be emotionally into the game and prepared. When we play focused and disciplined, we can beat anyone.

We have a lot of good arms, which is critical in a tournament like this. You need more than one or two good pitchers to make it all the way.

We played very well defensively and got out of some bases-loaded jams. Our pitchers came through in clutch situations by throwing strikes.

We have 10 pitchers who can help us win.

We had an excellent effort tonight. We lost facing one of the top pitchers in the area. We made a lot of contact, but we just couldn't get hits when we needed them. We did a good job defensively. If we keep that kind of effort we will win some games.

We had a lot of success last season with guys that came with major-league experience. I'm glad to see that we're going to have about five pitchers with big-league time with us to start the year.

We've got other pitchers down the road. We might even take a look at them.

We have been very lucky the past few years in getting very good pitchers into the program.

We have to look at the positives. Randy pitched well, our pitchers are pitching well, our bats were better tonight and we just have to make plays.

We're very proud of these two young ladies, not what they do just on the field, but also they're great people off the field. Coach Phillips is getting two quality people to play softball for him. We want to thank him for most definitely picking up two of the best pitchers in the state of Arkansas.

Usually you come right in and face 'live,' but you get into bad habits because you're trying to protect your hands and protect your bats. Basically, this is more for the pitchers the first couple days than the hitters. The main thing is, you hope they can throw strikes.

We've discovered the hard way there's no way to pitch to him. He's such a disciplined hitter at the plate and has such good plate coverage, it's almost like you can't even trust your pitchers to pitch around him. You've just got to intentionally walk him.

We're really pleased. He's been very vocal to our staff, that he's here to serve them. He puts the lion's share of his focus on defensive play. He's a real pro. Pitchers sometimes shake to the wrong pitch. The sign of a real good catcher is that he runs out there and doesn't let the pitcher make that mistake. He's shown a propensity to do that. I'm really impressed.

We have a lot of young kids that are going to pitch for us. We are preaching throw strikes and keeping the ball in play. We are trying to grow them into varsity pitchers fairly quickly.