Pitching Quotations | Page 7

Our starting pitching was, to put it bluntly, lousy this weekend. We know we're having some defensive problems, but we can't expect to be a contending team in the Valley with starting pitching like that.

Our starting pitching wasn't what we thought. (Jason) Schmidt started opening day. Kirk Rueter was the second day. Then (Brett) Tomko, then Lowry. Then the whole picture changed. Rueter's not even here now. Tomko is in the bullpen twice. Lowry is our No. 2, and we don't have a No. 3. We have three children we could throw in any order.

Our starting pitching was erratic, and we got in a hole.

Our starting pitching has been outstanding. We expect it to be good; (Bowden) is going to give us a chance to win every time out.

Our starting pitching has been consistent and our bullpen seems to be stabilized. We are playing pretty good baseball right now.

Our success this year will depend on how well our pitching comes around. Brian had good success as a freshman, so we expect that to continue and improve. I've seen some real good things from Ryan and Rhett as well.

Our goal is to just develop some consistency, so we know when we come out to the ballpark how we're going to play. We haven't done that except for pitching and good defense. We've had a hard time getting going offensively.

Overall it's been a surprise, so far. We went 2-1 at a Clovis tournament with some players out of position, junior varsity players who have stepped up and most of our pitching still playing basketball.

Overall, I thought Esteban threw the ball well and I think I didn't throw the ball as well. Walking five guys, pitching out of the stretch, pitching out of a lot of jams, it's hard to win that way.

Overall, I think it's been really good. That's an expectation here. Our goal every year is to have the best and deepest pitching staff in the country, so we expect them to be successful.

Overall, our pitching is doing well and our defense is doing well. Our hitting will come along. It's early in the season. We just need a few more timely hits and we'll be fine.

Overall, our pitching has kept us in games, and that's why we're kind of hovering at that .500 mark. We want to get over that hump. Our starting pitching did a good job and we ran the bases really well. ... We're not only more aggressive, but we're more confident.

Overall, getting out of the gate with good starting pitching like we've gotten ... we've seen some really good performances out of some people.

Our biggest question is how do we replace the consistency at shortstop that we had the last four years with Jennifer Johnson . We also need to establish our pitching depth and the catcher position. Like last year, I feel very good about our offense, which is why our defense will be so important.

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.

Our bullpen glued it together really well. I thought we played a great game with our defense, pitching and offense. It's good to win the home opener.

Other than that second inning our pitching was pretty solid. I thought defensively we played a real solid game, making only one error. When it's this cold defense is a little tougher than your usual day.

Our added power combined with our speed is interesting, but I'm never going to settle for just power. Good pitching can always take that away.

Right now, our offense is really putting everyone else on its back and carrying us. There's going to be a time when the pitching is going to put everybody on its back and carry us. I just think it's important to note that for us to win a championship, everything has to be going in the right direction. I think that's right around the corner.

Right now, our biggest challenge is getting a few games and some good outdoor practices in. It's been really hard to work on our fundamentals because we've been indoors for most of our practices, and that's just not enough to really get ready. We're also a pretty young team, especially in our pitching staff, so we just really need those extra games that we've lost.

Riverside has great pitching. From what we're hearing from other players and coaches, they might be the best pitching team in the conference.

Roger pitched a Roger game. They got two great pitching performances and we haven't been able to score. But if we win tomorrow, we're even. There's a lot of games left to play.

Roger is probably the biggest freak I have ever seen in terms of how he keeps himself in shape. I can't imagine pitching like that at his age.

Roger Clemens is pitching the fifth game right now,

Pitching-wise, I can't tell you who the 1,2,3,4 guys are. I wake up in the morning and wonder who we will go with. That is how it will be until we get our pitching established. But we have four pretty good arms.

Pitching will become big again. The ERAs will drop again. The next 15 years, the game will be fun. There will still be home runs; weight lifting will be big. That's part of the game. But the days of 70 home runs are probably over.

Pitching well in this league is not a velocity issue. A lot of people equate velocity with success, but that's not necessarily true. He knows what he can do.

Pitching was our strength. We had two 12-year-olds (Kyle Hughes and Ryan McCarthy) who were just dominant. Pitching and defense is what carried us in the playoffs, and the kids played their best when it mattered most.

Pitching was our Achilles heel last year. I think it's gonna be a lot more consistent.

Pitching wasn't the biggest issue. We know he can pitch. It's a durability issue and whether he maintains his stuff.

Pitching was great tonight - outstanding. We just had too many missed scoring opportunities.

Pitching was definitely the highlight of the day for us.

Pitching was again a struggle for us. We weren't able to produce and execute the plays.

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 should be one of our strengths. We have a lot of depth.

Pitching should be a strength for this team. We have three guys that can throw in the mid 80s and two others that we think will do well.

Pitching one drug when in fact there are other options that could be more effective -- that I believe can be dangerous.

Pitching might be pretty easy, I think. And I'm just basing that on what's coming back from last year.

Pitching is our biggest improvement from last year. But, the team's attitude is a lot better, too. The team chemistry has improved, and that shows in everything we've done so far this year.

Pitching is keeping us in pretty much every game we play, no matter who it is.

Pitching is going to be our strongest asset.

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 is going to be a challenge. I've never been the type to overwork my pitchers, so I probably will have to use a few more guys than we usually would.

Pitching in this series is not easy, because every team is good and can hit. I was feeling really good out there. I had a headache yesterday, but I woke up feeling fine today. I was not affected by that at all. I am happy, but we still have another game to play.

Pitching in games that are tight like this, it just seems to do wonders for you. It feels familiar, because that's what you did last year. Every time you go out there, it's a clutch situation. You just try to harness that adrenaline and put it toward getting people out.

Pitching has looked great. Liz is pretty much used to pitching like that. She has been our pitcher since her sophomore year. She is durable, and she can go. She got a little ill on the trip but worked through it.

Pitching has been the key. But with top competition every (game), they know they have to battle every night and can't just go through the motions. The guys we've put in have stepped to the plate and done their job.

Pitching has always been the dominant thing for me, ... The campus is beautiful, the people have been helpful and courteous everybody has been great.

Pitching depth is a concern, but it should be better now that we're playing two games a week instead of six.

Pitching can be hard at times, but when you think about it, it's very simple. I've thrown a million pitches in my life, so I shouldn't be out there making sure my leg kick goes here, my arm comes here. I should just be out there nice and slow and relaxed and letting my arm go to work.

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 won't win it for you, but it will keep you from losing. It kept us in there until our offense got going.

Pitching and defense wins you games in the tournaments. We have an excellent chance to make a lot of noise.

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.

Pitching and defense is something we've seen every day. But you don't know how your hitters are going to hit against somebody else's pitching.

Pitching and defense have been there all year for us. And tonight we got some timely hits. Hopefully we'll keep it going and hopefully put up a few more runs.

Pitching and defense has been the name of the game in baseball forever. I don't care what level you're playing at. My philosophy since I started managing has been that, before you can look at any other phases, you've got to feel fairly comfortable that you've got some people who can pitch and you've got to be able to catch the ball. If you can't do either one, your chances of being very good are slim.

Pitching against (Johnson) was an honor -- a great joy. Even though I lost, it was an honor to be out there against him.

Pitching against a guy like (Zambrano), you can't give up five or six runs. You just can't do it. He's going to have a day every once in a while where he does, but they're going to be few and far between.

Playing down there is like the World Series, you know. Those kids they don't want me to get on so they were pitching me tough. I was glad that happened, because it got me more ready when I come here and I know what I'm going to face.

Really, to start the game, I just planned on him pitching three innings. But I thought we'd see how far he could get.

Really, the hard work that I get accolades for, he's the guy behind the scenes that has much more on his shoulders than going out and pitching a ballgame. This is something that we'll share together.

Recruiting and coaching pitching are the two things I've done since I started coaching in 1996,

Our offense was outstanding. We always get pretty good pitching but we really hit the ball today. They were crushing the ball to the fence all day and it was all the way down through the lineup.

Our offense was clicking in the final two games. We were able to bust it open and that is really good for our defense, pitching and coaches.

Our offense picked up our defense and pitching today.

Our offense knows it has struggled lately, but we're still of the opinion that seeing good pitching on a consistent basis by playing such a tough non-conference schedule will continue to make us better for our MAC run.

Our offense had an opportunity early to set a precedent for the game. Four out of the first five innings we had opportunities to move runners and make contact to score runs, but we didn't do it. We had an opportunity to take some pressure off our defense and pitching and we did a poor job of that.

Our mantra is good pitching and good defense, so that was kind of a typical game for us. For (Peacock) to be able to command three pitches like that was very impressive.

Our last two pitching performances have been great. The defense is making the plays behind them. We've still got to pick up some runners in scoring position We've got to learn to pick those runners up early.

Our lack of aggression at the plate hurt us. Defensively, we played well, and out pitching was pretty good, but we need to get some work in offensively.

Our middle of the lineup and our average with runners in scoring position just haven't been that good. We haven't given our pitching staff any margin for error yet, and that's been a little frustrating.

Our mistakes turn singles into doubles and triples. For us to win we have to score a lot of runs, and against quality pitching that's hard to do. Dexter is probably one of the top two or three teams we've played this year.

Our defense was key - Natalie Hackett had three big catches to save us runs in both games. Our pitching was not as sharp, but it was good enough to keep us in the game.

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.

My style of pitching was to make the other team hit the ball, but on the ground.

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 pitching wasn't always in the strike zone. I never thought that would happen. It's too bad it couldn't have been like in Phoenix.

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.

Liz did a great job pitching and she didn't give up a lot of hits. (The Hawks) just put back-to-back hits and got their runs.

Mark was unbelievable today. He provided us with an absolutely huge pitching performance. I can't say enough about what he did for us this afternoon. He came up with the effort that could save our season.

Mark is going through so much, ... There's a lot of significance in really the hard work I get accolades for. He's the guy that's behind the scenes that has much more on his shoulders than going out and pitching a ballgame. This is something that I'm sure we'll share together. ... He was happy I wasn't able to get it in Atlanta or Florida. I might actually have him sign it.

Like I say every day, I think the pitching sets the tone. When you've got a pitcher go there and do what Jose did today, I think everything goes perfectly.

I will take care of it. I want him to keep pitching inside. Now I want him more than ever.

I won't say it doesn't mean anything, but it's not as big a deal as it was because there are less and less players who are there when I was. Pitching against them will always mean something. It's not like me pitching against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I was trying to be too good too early, and you can't do that at this level. Everything is faster and quicker and the pitching is a lot better in college. I'm finally started to see the ball better and was able to hit hard a few times.

I was very happy with the pitching today.

I was up all night looking at those numbers. Our pitching did a great job.

I was extremely proud of the pitching staff. They did an incredible job.

I was expecting lights-out. Typical Randy, going out there and pitching his game.

I think I got a lot of progress. I had better control of everything. Just being able to throw my slider. How to pitch in a game. Pitching in different situations.

I think our starting pitching will do pretty well. Those two guys will be strong for us.

I think our power numbers are directly related to our franchise situation. Those guys cost money. Would you rather go with pitching and have a chance to win every night, or go with a power guy who can maybe carry you for a while but who also goes into slumps?

I think our pitching will hold up real well. With the guys we have coming back on the infield, and our speed in the outfield, I think we'll do well defense-wise.

I think our pitching was great. Actually things kind of flip-flopped a little bit. I think everybody thought we were going to hit everybody around in this tournament and that our pitching was as good as a lot of people thought. Our pitching did a very good job, and we just fell short. It wasn't lack of pitching at all.

I think our pitching staff is pretty good, ... The pieces are starting to fall in place, which is good. We have a month and a half left, so every game is important.

I think our pitching is our strength this year. We're very deep and we've got guys that throw strikes.

I think our pitching is going to be pretty deep we've got a lot of pitching. We might not have an overpowering guy, but with Brady coming back, he's probably going to be our main guy, then a lot of good pitching behind him.

I think our pitching has gotten stronger in the last two weeks. We still have to continue to be better, but we added some depth in our bullpen.