Ray Tanner Quotations

We extended him a little bit today, he did a super job.

We're banged up a little bit but other teams are banged up too.

We ran out some pretty good guys in relief. Those guys need to prove themselves more than they have, but they've all done a decent job.

We're hitting a few bumps in the road. But we're working our way out.

Let's make no mistake; he was a good hitter to begin with. But good hitters need to be strong, too. The added strength has made a lot of difference for his this year.

My guys played hard but weren't good enough. We got out-hit and out-pitched.

My team has really played about as well as it can play the last two weeks. First part of the year, we weren't quite as good ... we've gotten better with a young team.

I feel like we have a pretty good bench, and a lot of times you can't get guys in, but we were able to give some guys chances. I thought we played well in all areas. We made plays defensively and only walked one.

I don't think we have awesome talent, but we have very good talent.

I don't think we've ever had a team where we've relied on freshmen like this season. They play with more maturity and poise than their age.

I don't usually go back that far. But that's when he caught my attention.

I don't think it should set off alarms. It sends a message that we're trying to get our best pitchers to eat as many innings as possible. That's the message we're sending to our pitchers. We've got to get our guys who are pitching the best to pitch the most.

He's had back issues. He's tried to fight through it. He's tried to rehab and get where he can play.

He has been a guy who has been talked about as a rotation guy. We haven't done it yet.

He has great poise and composure for a freshman. For any pitcher, you have to have those traits to be successful. He throws four pitches for strikes, and he'll throw them at any count. His competitive nature is as good as anybody. Plus, you throw in the fact he has the genes to be successful.

He never missed an inning for us. I couldn't get him to take even a half-game off. I would say, 'Landon, let's pull back in.' He would say, 'I'm fine,' and he would be back out there.

We feel like if we can get a pretty good offense together, we'll win some games. Pitching's been good all year long and the bats started coming around today, which is good because we've been talking about it way too much.

To continue this pace ... well, that's going to be hard to do. But he's got the mechanics to be a good hitter and things are going well for him.

He's a guy we sort of identified has the potential to eventually be a weekend guy or battle for some weekend innings. He makes a case for himself a little bit, but we're not making any changes right now. We're going to leave him where he is. But he's building a resume for himself.

He's been doing a good job for us. Beverly's been giving us five or six good innings each time, and we've been able to keep his pitch count down. He could go longer, but we want to make sure we use everybody in the bullpen and try not to wear ourselves down before the end of the year.

He didn't want to try and come back and pitch this year if he wasn't a hundred percent. I certainly agree with his decision.

I think it's great that we have two teams playing baseball tomorrow where it's hard to get a ticket. That's outstanding.

Pelzer looked good coming out of the blocks. We thought he threw the ball well, and we actually thought about getting him out after the fourth inning but decided to leave him in for a few more pitches to try and get the decision. He'll be in the mix all season.

Our pitchers once again did a great job.

Some guys that work hard and don't get that many opportunities got in there and swung the bats. I was glad to see that. That gives you a good feeling about your bench and depth.

That adds a little bit to it. I know that we'll have to be very good this weekend.

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 impressed with the quality of Elon and I wasn't surprised by that. This was a good weekend for us to get better, and I think we learned a few things about this club. We won the series, but couldn't win them all but I look at it as a positive weekend.

I think he likes it. He likes to be out there when the game is on the line. He really does flourish in that situation, knowing that when his name gets called, it's important. Regardless of whether it's a short stint or we put him in in the fifth, he realizes that it is big.

I think he will. I'm sure they want him to ease his way back into catching because of the squatting involved, but I think he will show them.

I thought he was trying to be too perfect. I told him we needed to be competitive because the bullpen was getting ready to warm up. He responded.

I think this gives us a little validation. We think we've got a pretty good team, but we're young. Unfortunately, you've got to turn it around real quick and get on the road.

I think this gives us a little validation. We think we have a pretty good team, but we're young. It helps us a little bit regardless of what happens tomorrow. I think our guys will feel like, hey, we're pretty good, too.

That was really impressive. I told him after the game, I don't know that he's a Friday night guy yet, but he just got closer.

That's the way this game is. We caught this team at a time they were playing their best baseball.

That's baseball. They did more things to win the game than we did.

I was really optimistic going into practice. I thought we were a little more comfortable at the plate today.

I was optimistic going in after the week of practice that we had. I thought we were more comfortable offensively. We swung the bats better, and hopefully things will continue in that direction.

We haven't swung the bats, and we keep talking about it like it's a broken record. I think we'll get better as we go. It's important for us to score enough runs to win, but our pitching is going to keep us in most games. Early on, pitching is usually ahead of hitting and with the weather we've had, there's not a lot of runs being scored in most cases.

We caught Alabama at a time when they were playing their best baseball. Today it was simple, pitching and hitting. They did both better than we did. My guys played hard but they weren't good enough.

We've gotten better, but as I reminded the team there is just a few steps between the outhouse and the penthouse. You've got to play with heightened awareness all the time.

We haven't put him in many situations where there is a lot of breathing room, and he has responded. We're happy with the role that he's pitching in, although I don't have a name for that role.

To beat them you've got to be at your best and tonight we weren't.

We played about as well as we could.

We probably could have left him out there for around five innings, but we just wanted to give the other guys a chance. I was pleased with the bullpen, certainly.

We had some good scoring opportunities and didn't capitalize, but you've got to give the other team's pitching staff credit for getting out of a run scoring situation. It was a game that could have gone either way.

We were a little more comfortable offensively and we did swing the bats better. Baseball's a hard game and we have to be more comfortable when we play it. Scoring early today helped us relax a little bit.

We're excited to be moving ahead with a stadium and a location that will be second to none in college baseball. The new facility will be a special venue for our former players, current players and our fans.

The fact that he uses the whole field ... that's when you get excited about a young hitter. You always preach that. The fact that he does it helps others see the advantages. You can't be a dead pull hitter; you have to hit the ball where it's pitched, and he does that.

We left some runners on early in run-scoring opportunities that eluded us, but we hit some balls hard.

We're trying to make some changes. We're at the point in the season that we need to get some quality innings.

We can't play any better than we've been playing. We've been able to pick the ball up on defense, we've pitched as well as we can pitch, we've scored runs at a greater pace than we have all year.

We have been pretty consistent offensively. We've scored some with two outs. You have to do that.

We're trying to fill the holes that we have from last year. It is going to be real difficult to replace a guy like Steve Pearce.

We just weren't able to get anything going.

We didn't get quality pitching at the beginning of the game. They got the key hits and the big at-bat. They got some runs early and it held up.

We didn't get quality pitching at the beginning of the game and they were playing really well. They got some runs early and Kopp pitched pretty good.

We had a couple of run-scoring opportunities, but we weren't able to do anything. Crawford was outstanding, and we just weren't able to muster any offense.

The past few days, the phone's been ringing off the hook. I think the most important thing for me this weekend is to see how grounded our guys are and check their poise and composure.

There are guys who pitch on Friday, but there are only a few Friday night guys like Wade LeBlanc, those special guys. He may be the best guy in the league.

We had to have a guy out there who had some big-game experience. We've got to get the right guys in the right situation.

We gave him a start early in the year. We kind of made a decision that we don't like him out there for five or six innings; we like him a little bit shorter than that. We extended him a little bit but he did a super job.

We always knew he could hit. He's hitting the ball well, and those he's not hitting well are finding a hole. That's what happens with good hitters; they get their share and a few more, too.

When you lose an inning-eating guy, you have to find another one to step up. That was definitely a big blow.

We've probably got more youth that is probably going to get immediate playing time than ever before.

We just had everything going for us. We were catching some breaks. We were hitting the ball hard and doing a good job, but it seemed like everything was going our way. It was certainly a great day and a great weekend for us.

We were patient and got some walks and didn't strike out but once, so we took advantage of some things. Today we got some extra outs and were able to score guys that got on base other ways than with hits. We hit balls hard, but again we didn't have a lot to show for it.

We chartered a couple times in my career, but we go commercial most of the time when we fly, and we try to bus as much as we can. It's hard to move a baseball team commercially.

To be honest with you, it's very exciting. It's also very scary.

Everybody has turned it up a notch. The teams that were a little bit short years ago have narrowed the gap. You can't pick a team to play. It's one of those things that's hard to put a finger on other than to say, 'Everybody's good.' And it's not just coach talk.

Baseball's a tough game. We're making a lot of progress.

Baseball's a hard game. And some days you're really good and some days you're not quite as good. Sometimes you have to be concerned that you make moves too quick. ... I'm going to do my best not to make any decisions from a panic standpoint.

Did he interfere with Widmann? No, but the rule says you have to go straight in and he didn't go straight in.

Do we want to win? Yeah, we want to win. I don't think we've been struggling ... but we've got to be able to win some close games.

(Cruse) was only going to go two or three innings at best, and obviously it wasn't a good outing for him, so we went ahead and sat him down.

Cruse gave us the performance of his career. I'd like to get a few more hits, but we played about as good as we can and pitched about as good as we can pitch against a team of that caliber.

Drew understands our situation. Most other guys would have been in my office by now. He has an argument for being in there every single day.

Everything went well. The doctor told him that he should be ready to go by the time next season begins.

There's nothing better than a veteran team, that plays hard, that plays smart and has great leadership. But there's some teams where you have young players on and this is one of them.

It was another great game in a great rivalry. It's always a great game when we get together.

Quinnipiac isn't in awe of South Carolina, and they are coming down here to win. The fact that we were able to answer whenever they got some runs was big.

Probably the best case for him would be (out) six to eight weeks. If he does have to have surgery, then he'll be gone for the rest of the year and possibly next year.

Probably scoring early today helped us relax a little better offensively. We'll do a better job with the bats than we've done in the past couple of weekends.

That game was exactly what I was expecting. I knew it was going to be one of those games that could go either way.

You would expect runs to be at a premium. But you can never tell when these teams get together.

This is an outstanding class with numerous potential draft choices. The talent level in this group will make an immediate impact as we continue to compete for SEC championships, postseason NCAA berths and a return to the College World Series.

They've got a great team and if you're going to beat them you have to be at your best. Certainly tonight we weren't.

They had runners in scoring position and it was tied at one and with a big hit there things could've gone a different way. We took advantage of an opportunity in the bottom half of the inning without getting many hits. You have to be opportunistic and we've been able to do that the last few weeks.

They're blue-chip prospects. They have been everything I have thought they would be and more. Not only are they talented, but they handle themselves well for young players. ...They will make an impact.

They're a great college baseball program. When we get together it's always a good game and a good atmosphere and well attended.

It's a conference that has administrators who care about baseball and resources are provided, and they try to put you in the best situation to win.

It is very important. (But) will this weekend have any affect on what happens in the end? I'm not sure it will. There's 27 games, counting this weekend, left.

I told our guys after the game that for almost three weeks we've done almost everything in an execution situation to win the game. But tonight we just came up a little short.

It's very disappointing because he had to overcome the shoulder injuries. He's expected to play next year and we're optimistic that'll be the case.

It was a great weekend altogether for us. We did some good things, and some things went well for us. We hit balls that found holes early. We're certainly happy to be in the position we're in right now.

It was a great weekend all around for us. We hit some balls that found some holes. Our guys responded and did a good job.

It was one of those deals it was going to come down to who had the last shot, maybe.

I want them to do well now and I'm pulling for them so hard, I sometimes feel I'm putting too much pressure on them, which I'm not. I'm just trying to help them get through this.

They did a nice job hitting in clutch situations and we weren't able to get some across when we had to.

They are no average freshmen. They are above average talents.