Dan Hartleb Quotations

We can control our own destiny. We can push some team ahead of us down a little bit and raise ourselves up at the same time. That's what you want. Just an opportunity to control your own destiny and we are capable of doing that.

Minnesota is always a quality club. They have very good pitching and are solid defensively. They are similar to us, but they do have a little more experience than us. Yet, I expect us to be able to compete very well with them.

I was pleased with the way Aaron performed. Looking back at his last outing he really struggled, but he took a step forward today. He got us off to a good start and got the team off on the right foot.

I was pleased with our situational hitting today. I told our players that we are good enough to take games over and take the pressure off of our pitchers and defense and we really took the game over offensively. I was pleased with the strides we made between the two games.

He is so successful because he's such a competitor. I can't say I'm surprised he's doing this, but it's pleasant to see.

He'll be in the lineup, probably mostly at second base. He is a person who is athletic enough who could move to third base or the outfield. I've talked with him that if it means getting the best nine on the field, we could do that.

I thought we played very hard the entire weekend regardless of what the score was. I would just like to see us in a situation where you win the first two games to have a little bit more of a killer instinct. Hopefully, the next time we're in this situation we can go out and set the tone and put us in a situation to win the series.

Overall I thought from both sides of the field we weren't a very good team today. We got runners on base but didn't do a good job of playing team baseball.

Our bullpen was poor. We walked too many guys and the only time we pitched well was when no body was on base and there wasn't any pressure.

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.

I was happy we did some things early. It relaxes everybody to get some early hits. You get a little mental momentum.

We've bounced back all year. We have been back and forth between good and bad stretches all year. Everyday is a new day and every game is a new game. We have to look forward and get in the right frame of mind to perform.

We go into every game to win. I think we are a solid team when the right people are on the mound. I expect our guys to play hard but we need to continue to progress and we aren't a team that can just walk on the field and things will just happen for us. We have to play intelligent and have to pitch well and play error free.

We had a little bit of everything last week. We had an extra inning game, some long games, some exciting games and then the rain game. So hopefully it's just four games this weekend and we go out and take care of business and come out on the winning end.

This year for sure he'll have some football responsibilities. It is something that can be worked out.

We got some pitches up and they didn't foul them off. We had opportunities but we didn't make contact.

We did a poor job out of the bullpen.

At this point, he's got football responsibilities. The next four weeks, I don't expect him to be around baseball much. Once he gets done, we'll have him back full time. He's shown he deserves to be on the field.

It's always nice to get off to a good start in conference from a mental standpoint. We got off to a good start last year and that propelled us into the season, but I don't think that any one weekend makes or breaks you in the long term.

I'm not discouraged from the standpoint of did we play hard or not. I'm just upset we didn't make adjustments, and baseball is a game of adjustments. If a certain player is doing certain things against you, then you should go about things a different way.

I'm proud of how our guys fought back after last weekend to get back to .500. We moved the ball around the field and some people produced in positions they hadn't played yet.

I really like our work ethic and the athletes we have. I'm anxious to get them on the field. I think we're very capable of being a quality team but at the same time we need to see them in action.

Chase has matured a lot as a person and as a player. He got a good number of at bats early in the year and is starting to feel comfortable at the plate and is seeing the ball very well. He has learned to use all fields instead of being a one-dimensional hitter.

The home opener isn't going to be any different than any other game we've played this year. It's going to be fun playing at home and I think we are ready to go into the Big Ten season. I believe we're ready and capable to handle anything thrown at us.