Tom Slater Quotations

We've asked them repeatedly to produce a lease. A lease shows that there will be a continuity of care, that they'll be there, and not just on a month-to-month basis.

We feel as he gets back to full strength there's going to be some real potential there.

We know how good they are on the mound, and they've been swinging the bats of late.

Woodall was outstanding. He had total command of the mound and three pitches. They got one good swing on him, but other than that, they didn't take any good swings at him.

When he gets on, it allows us to steal some bases, hit-and-run, do a lot of things in the small game. It really helps our offense.

We've shown the ability to win a couple, but we also have the ability to lose to just about anybody.

When I was at Florida, I had told him I really liked him. And when he decided to leave Miami, he remembered that, and he called us.

Luke is capable of striking guys out and getting ground balls, and that's what he did for us.

Obviously we brought in a large class. We're going to get on the field this fall and determine some roles.

Obviously we are very pleased that we're below the national average in both syphilis and gonorrhea. We work very closely with our local health departments to provide educational messages and reach the appropriate population.

Obviously, our record isn't very good, but we are working hard. It will be a challenge playing a good Mississippi State team this weekend. They have so many returning players, and they've got a lot of guys that have been together for a long time. That shows in the relaxed way they play.

I am pumped to play at Arizona State. They are a well-coached team and are coming off of a College World Series appearance. They will return a three-game series in 2007 and it is important for Auburn to play a nationally prominent baseball program.

I am very excited about our 2006 schedule. It is important to play a challenging non-conference schedule to prepare us for the rigors of SEC play. This schedule is built to challenge us right away, which will help this young club grow as a team throughout the season and beyond.

I am very excited about our 2006 schedule, ... It is important to play a challenging non-conference schedule to prepare us for the rigors of SEC play. This schedule is built to challenge us right away, which will help this young club grow as a team throughout the season and beyond.

Chris has been good the last two weekends for us on Sunday. We had to take him off Friday and move him back to allow him to get his work in between starts. He doesn't bounce back and recover quick.

He will be limited. Where he might have been available twice in a weekend, he may only be available once. But having him once is better than not at all.

The purpose is to facilitate right turns off the Memorial Bridge for people heading to the downtown area. The work done for the cut-through had a specific purpose, and it was done by the state. This is a city project that will enhance the work done by the state.

He didn't give up a lot of hard contact. We didn't help him. The bottom line was walks and errors. Evan has been solid for us all year.

I think it is very important to play a challenging non-conference schedule to help prepare us for SEC play.

I think it is very important to give the Auburn people in the Montgomery area an excellent chance to see our young club play right in their neighborhood. I am very excited to have an opportunity to play in such a beautiful ballpark and I hope we are able to do this again.

I though we had good at-bats throughout the day. We had four errors to their one and that's the name of the game. We swung the bat well throughout the day and hit a lot of balls hard. The bottom line is you have to play solid defense, especially when you are playing a team as talented as Florida State.

I thought we played pretty good defense tonight. We made some nice plays behind Butts to get him out of some innings. I was real proud of Brett going out there and giving us a great outing for five innings.

I thought our kids really had good approaches at the plate against some pretty good Kentucky pitching. I was proud of the way our kids played.

I thought our kids really competed and played hard today. Evan did a great job in the start, and Luke did a tremendous job of keeping us in the game.

Last night was a tough, tough, tough loss. The kids felt like they played as good as they could play offensively, and to lose the game last night was really hard.

Our kids came out tonight, competed and enjoyed the moment and got after it. I thought we played the whole game well. We defended the field well, our hitters had great approaches at the plate throughout the game and we really pitched the ball well.

Paul Burnside, what can you say, he just continues to have great relief outing for us.

Paul Burnside was really the story today. He has really thrown well of late and he followed it up today with another outstanding outing. He got after and it and did a tremendous job. If Paul Burnside can't come in and give us the innings the way he did, it could have been a long afternoon. He just did a great job of running for us and I was really proud of him.

I was very proud of how we battled back in that ball game, but when you are walking people and making errors, you are not going to win.

I was very pleased with how composed our kids were in another extra-inning game. We had a lot of first-year Auburn players come to the plate in that tenth inning and I thought we handled the pressure very well.

I was real happy with (Brett) Butts, he mixed his pitches well. We played offense today. Any time you can get eight runs off of eight hits, you did a nice job of playing offense. All in all it was a pretty solid effort by our club.

We're certainly playing better. Whether that's just having gotten some games under our belt and guys feeling more settled or not, I really don't know. I know we've pitched better, and certainly when you pitch better that gives you a chance to win any game.

We're certainly playing better. Our pitching is better and that gives you a chance to win any game. When your pitching is better, it gives your offense a chance to just go and play offense.

We're very young, with 17 newcomers, so it's especially important to play a challenging non-conference schedule to get us ready for the SEC season.

We did the things we needed to do offensively to win this game tonight. We did a great job of getting guys on base and playing offense.

Up and down the lineup, we didn't have enough quality at-bats.

You have to credit Chris because he's tried to work through it. He just has a hard time getting all his work in. We just want to see Chris be at 100 percent. Hopefully, he made a step forward for that this week and he'll be good enough to go this weekend.

We were the first people he called because things were handled the right way during the first go-round. That gave us a shot at getting him the second time.

With every generation of collections stuff gets slimmer and slimmer and slimmer.

Fall practice to us is like spring training to the football team. This is where roles are defined.

We've been presented with an opportunity to regain access, and we will make the most of it.

We've got a chance to win this series, and I think our kids will come out ready to go. We need to pitch well.

What an outstanding pitching performance by Clarence Nicely. He came out and dominated the strike zone and really got us into the game. Clarence came into a very hostile South Alabama environment and pitched his tail off. That was a big-time performance by him.

We weren't good at the plate. We had terrible approaches.

We weren't good at the plate tonight. We had terrible approaches. Not to take anything away from Mike Cisco, but up and down the lineup, we didn't have enough quality at-bats.

Vanderbilt, since Tim has been there, they've been built around their pitching. They did a really good job of helping those kids develop and they've done a good job of recruiting their pitching.

We did a good job of playing offense three days in a row. I thought our kids had good approaches at the plate. (Sunday), just like Friday, we had all three phases of the game: Pitching, defense, offense - I thought we did OK.

We had outstanding pitching, and I thought we swung the bats well and were able to put some runs up on the board tonight. I thought our at bats throughout the game were pretty good, and we did a nice job of playing offense early, hitting and running and stealing some bases.

As the record indicates, we've been fairly inconsistent. We're capable of beating anybody in the country and capable of losing to anybody in the country. That has been the consistent pattern with this club.

Credit (Lance) Cole for doing a really nice job. He didn't try to get us out with harder stuff and we did a poor job of making adjustments to what he was doing to us.

There was a little extra bounce in their step. With the hard work they put in ever single day, it makes them feel better to know that they're being rewarded for hard their hard work. The most important thing in baseball is confidence. Obviously when you win, it gives you a little more.

It was way too many walks and way too many errors. When you're walking that many and making errors, you're not going to win. We had a productive day at the plate, but it doesn't matter how productive you are if you're giving up base runners.

The talent is there. Some days it shows up and some days it doesn't. When you talk about teams that perform consistently day in and day out, it's usually teams that have a lot of experience.

As deep as their outfield was playing there, you've got to take a shot to score there. I'd rather make an error of aggression than passivity.

That was a big-time at bat from Josh. I knew he had a hit when it left his bat.

They told us an extra day might help him be more 100 percent.

They're disappointed to lose the game. You go into the weekend expecting to win every game, and our kids played their guts out and competed their butts off. And they came up short against a good Kentucky team.

They reflect the opinion of Democratic activists. But I don't think you can extrapolate from the results the thinking of the general public.

As you get older, you become more consistent. With a first-year player, every day is an adventure. You never know which guys are going to show up. I wouldn't say I get frustrated --It's just part of the process.

It's just part of the process. I just look in the mirror and think about what I can do to make our club better. I try not to get frustrated.

That's part of being a freshman. He's had some really good bats at times, some really bad at-bats. It's part of the learning process.

Every one of the kids that was in the lineup today has played well. I'm not going to make lineup changes after one night of us not doing a very good job of making adjustments.

It's a matter of having guys relax and not try to do so much. They just need to take a deep breath and try to make good contact. Sometimes, everyone is trying to deliver that blow, maybe trying to do too much instead of relaxing.

It's important to play national name schools like Florida State and Arizona State. It's important to try to get at least one home schedule series a year with a national- caliber team.

It was a matter of priorities. They had the school parking lots all torn up and had other commitments. They felt the necessity to take care of those projects first.

They just compete. They don't hang their heads. Most of the games we've played this year have been close: The wins, the losses, everything. I guess you could say our guys are used to playing in big games this year.

Anytime you win a series it feels good. Our kids have worked very hard and they're very deserving. It's nice to see them get rewarded.

The fact that we've played such a tough schedule means that the game won't speed up on Friday night for us. We've played a good schedule so far, faced lots of good pitching and lots of good teams.

I'm not down on Evan Crawford or Johnny Thompson. Both of them had to scuffle tonight for the first time in a long, long time.

I have not seen any lack of confidence in these guys. Winning is nice. It obviously feels a lot better than losing. It's what we try to do every single day.

I had no idea they were on allotment or whatever they call it. I thought you could get all you could get, as much as you wanted but evidently not, now that I found today,

He's an explosive young hitter. He, like all the others, has a lot of work to do. We just want to get him healthy so we can get him in the field.

He's not felt very good since he threw Saturday. His arm feels great. The problem is he has some pain in his side.

He really drove that ball. I didn't think it was going to get out. I thought it was going to be a double, but it just stayed up in the air a little too long.

The kids bounced back (Saturday) and did extremely well, and then played well again on Sunday. So, from an emotional standpoint, and a confidence standpoint, it helps a lot. The hard work they're putting in every single day, this certainly makes them feel better to feel like they're being rewarded.

You've got to invest in your guys. You have to give them a chance to fail. This is a game of failure. We've just got to stay positive with them. We believe in our guys.

The effort and the way we competed for 18 innings today was outstanding. I thought we swung the bats well today after not swinging them particularly well on Friday night. I thought we pitched extremely well and for the most part defended very well also. Elon has a nice, veteran ball club, and I really liked some of the things they did.

All the credit goes to our kids. What a great job after a rough first game, and it started on the mound. Evan Crawford was really good and he did an outstanding job of getting us seven innings. Justin Bristow and Jonathan Rasberry then provided big, clutch hits for us late.