Columbus State
Head coach Greg Appleton
“I felt like we just survived the game more than won it. We took advantage of some things that they gave us early and built a lead, and then we were just chasing outs.”
“They strung Kolton’s pitch count out there and he was just running on fumes. But he got us through the seventh, and that’s what I asked him to do. He did a great job.”
“It seems like they had two guys on base every inning, but we got some double plays and we got some strikeouts when we needed them.”
(On needing to win twice tomorrow) “The thing that helps us is we’ve done it before. It’s still a daunting task in front of us. Knowing that we have won doubleheaders throughout the whole year, that is something that helps us. But we’re staring a very good team in the face, a team that is 3-0 and a lot fresher than we are. It will be a real task for us.”
Starting pitcher Kolton Ingram
(On getting out of a first-inning jam) “I was just trying to get a groundball for a double play, minimize the damage, maybe just one run scores. But after I got the two strikeouts, I was just trying to get an out somewhere.”
Catcher Robert Brooks
(On his first-inning at-bat) “I was just looking to put something in play, make the defense work a little bit. When you put the ball in play, good things happen. He dropped the pop-up and we got two runs. It all went from there. We had a big hit from Frank (Wager) right behind me that was huge, getting another run in, and big hits after that, ended up putting up a five-spot.”
“We have all the confidence in the world in Kolton. He’s been in jams like that before and he’s worked out of it. We weren’t worried. It was the top of the first, and it’s a long ball game. We knew that he would grind and he would work. He threw some good pitches up there, some nice sliders to get those first two guys and then got the last guy to ground out.”
Outfielder Drew Webb
“Coach always tells us to play one at-bat at a time, one out at a time, one inning at a time. We try to not really look at the scoreboard, just play our game and not let that dictate how we play, keep our foot on the gas and play hard all the time.”
(On his third-inning at-bat) “I got a fastball and put it through the six-hole. I knew it was going to score a run. I was just trying to make a good, hard turn and I saw it had gotten past (the left fielder). I just turned on the jets. It was hot.”
Florida Southern
Head coach Lance Niekro
“It all started with that first inning. Bases loaded, no one out and we don’t score. We get their first two guys out, then load the bases (on walks) and make an error. It was hard to recover from that. It’s disappointing. When you look back, one of the things that got us here was our defense, and we made some really, really big errors in the two games we lost that led to a lot of runs. Pair four errors today with nine walks. That’s not a good recipe to have when you’re playing a team like Columbus State.”
(On his mid-game team huddle) “I wanted to tell them that we had possibly four innings left for our seniors. Some of them may never play again, and I just wanted them to refocus their energy on the team, have fun and go give it all we’ve got.”
“Take away the errors and we played a good game. We put runs up. The biggest problem was we didn’t the hits when we needed them. Five of the six runs we scored weren’t on hits. Second and third we got a sac fly. Bases-loaded and we hit into a double play. So we’re scoring runs, but we’re also putting up outs. That was frustrating.”
Third baseman Pablo Cabrera
“That’s baseball. Baseball is a game of momentum. First inning we got the bases loaded, had our dudes at the plate. Their pitcher just made the right pitches. He threw a hell of a game. We got the first two outs in their half-inning and were feeling pretty good about ourselves, then the error just opened up the floodgates.”
Relief pitcher Alex Kannell
“Our team has scored seven runs in an inning more than one time this year, so we never felt like we were out of it. Even in the ninth with two outs, we felt like we were just one or two good at-bats from turning the thing around and coming all the way back.”