Todd Abbott Quotations

We started off slow and they started off a little bit faster than we did. We finally made some good adjustments at the plate. We got guys on and made things happen. We just have to do that sooner.

We faced a really good pitcher our first game.

But we've got to take it one day at a time.

Barnes came in and did a fantastic job by throwing strikes and keeping them off balance. He came in and stopped the bleeding, pitched a heck of a game and we make adjustments at the plate.

Fort Scott is getting a quality player who brings many different skills to the field. Brandt covers ground in the outfield as well as anyone. Brandt has worked hard for this opportunity and it is starting to pay off. We are proud of what he has accomplished and wish him the best at the next level.

(Hedges) did a great job. That?s what we need, especially from the seniors that have the experience.

We took the lead in the fifth but they came right back and put some runs up. Rogers had some timely hits and they had base runners every inning.

What you saw today is exactly what he has done the past couple of weekends when he?s gotten to pitch. He?s proving his worth on the mound. You need somebody to stop the bleeding.

He's done a great job for us this year, defensively especially. The No. 1 thing we need from catchers is defense. It's a huge role on the team and he's done a great job back there. And he's getting better and that's encouraging because not only has done a great job and he's getting better, but he's coming back.

I think it's warmer now. That was a much better game offensively.

Our guys showed a lot today. We go down, give up a home run, don't score. We continued to battle and have good at-bats.

That was a much better game, offensively. We swung the bats well enough to keep us in the game and we made the plays when we needed too. Timely hitting is what is going to win games. We got the timely hits when we needed them.

I was proud of our guys for picking up the slack on that play. That was a huge play that really could have been a momentum change.

We're definitely trying to grow. It's not going to be too far off, it could even be next year, when we're going to have 200 freshmen on campus.

We had two solid pitching performances, good defense, and timely hits with runners in scoring position. I was proud of our guys the first game, when we were down four and just chipped away and chipped away, took the lead and held on.

We need to work out the kinks and get things ironed out. We will pitch everybody this weekend. Everybody will be on a pitch count.

We were just flat. The first three innings, we made errors and didn't pitch real well. You've got to take care of the baseball.

We were just flat. The boys didn't play very well the first three innings. From the fourth through the seventh, we played real well. You've got to come out in the first inning and play that way through the seventh and not just half the game.

We'd like to play. Now you're looking at a week in between games. Regardless of who we're playing we'd like to play a couple times a week.

What we've been looking for and we've had it just once or twice it seems is that complete offensive game. And we've got to compliment that with good pitching and defense. We're getting to that time of the year where it's an excellent time to start doing that.

We are so ready to play. Winning would be great, but we just want to get out there.

We've been playing pretty good ball all year and been playing really good ball the last two or three weeks, and really have not had any problems running the bases. And tonight it looked like it was the first week of the season. Who knows if (they) would have led to a run, but it sure led to an out.

Two conference wins - we'll take them any way we can. We just battled back, chipped away and were able to score some more runs.

We just hung our heads like we felt sorry for ourselves. We no longer had those good at-bats, and the life just went out of the team.

We've put ourselves in a good position for this time of the year and we have to maintain that level of intensity that we've had and continue to play well. There are no state playoff spots determined y e t. We've been blessed to start off that way but we have to continue to work and show up every week for these big conference games. Hopefully we'll continue to play well and earn a spot.

You get those two guys on and then you have some pretty good hitters coming up behind them who have a good chance of scoring some runs. Those two (Wallace and Barnes) combined have been a big part of our offense because of their ability to get on. Brandt has done great.

Brandt Barnes came in and did a fantastic job. He just threw strikes and kept them off balance.

There's not a part of our schedule where we can relax.

The tradition is strong here and it's been an excellent program the last several years because of the players. Those expectations are there. The expectations are high and these guys know that.

I've never seen a ball leave the park like that before.

Ryan Lee and Brandt Barnes did not have their best stuff tonight. But they battled and made the pitches that we needed when we needed them.

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That's what we need this time of the year. We need to be hitting the ball and we had a good time at the plate. We're making plays and pitchers are throwing strikes. This is when we need that to happen and it's starting to come together. Hopefully we'll keep it up.

Zach (Hedges) started out a little shaky. But then he settled down and only threw 66 pitches through six innings. That is phenomenal.

Zach did a heck of a job on the mound.

A lot of that has to do with between the ears. So much of this game is in the mind. Hopefully we'll be ready to go next time.

This is what we need this time of year. We need to be hitting the ball, we had a good day at the plate today. We had some good at-bats.

They're already talking about adding on or building a new one.

As well as things have gone, it's still not over. You have to take care of your business. It's nice that we're in control of our own destiny. We don't have to count on anybody right now in doing anything else. If we can take care of things, hopefully good things will happen.

It?s going to be a special place. And not just for baseball, but because you have that whole row for the athletics complex. We?re going to have these nice new fields, something all the kids can be proud of.

I'm proud of them. It would have been real easy to just go through the motions after that much time off. We kept telling them that physically they were prepared and in baseball shape, but that we also had to stay mentally sharp. Tonight, they looked mentally sharp. They came out ready to play.

If you don't win the first game, you need to come away with the split. We did that and you have to be pleased with that. That was big for us.

If you look at the conference schedule, there's going to be a lot determined here in the next three or four weeks. It's going to be tough but that's the way we want it. We want to earn everything we get. We've got to be ready to play.

Before we start playing, (winning a conference title) is a goal. We sit down and that's something all of us want to achieve. It just so happens we're in a position where we can reach that goal. We're still far from it, but it's reachable. And that's a tribute to these guys. They have set some goals and that's one of them and they've put themselves in position to achieve that goal.

He's stinking strong. He's starting to put a better bat on the ball and starting to be more selective at the plate. That's encouraging when a guy's big and strong like that. His strength is in the gaps, he can put one out (in the gaps). If he can learn to wait and trust that he's going to get that pitch to drive, good things will happen.

He's young and he's strong and he's got a good bat. He's been given an opportunity, and he's taking advantage of it.

He's not a power pitcher, so he's got to make them put it in play. He started slow with his first two guys, but then he settled in and gave us four solid innings.

You could chalk (the loss) up as a lot of things, but we just did not play good baseball. Why? I don't know. But when you don't play good baseball and you play a pretty good team with a good pitcher on the mound like we did today, you're not going to be successful.

You can't start any better than 4-and-0. Those are huge wins, and they're especially big because we got a sweep on the road against a quality club. The 4-and-0 start helps, but we've got 12 more. We're going to enjoy this one and get up in the morning and start all over again.