Vance Arnold
Vance Arnold
ask heel hurt pitcher strikes threw walking
(Cosby) has a hurt heel and he couldn't get comfortable, but he still battled. He still threw strikes and he wasn't walking people. That's all you can do as a pitcher and that's all we can ask for as coaches.
baker early kept kids knew pitch plan rolling tried
We knew going in that we were going to pitch by the innings. (Drew) Baker pitched really well for us early on, but he got tired, so we said, 'Oh well, we'll use Plan B, then Plan C, then Plan D.' So we just kept rolling and tried to let the kids get outs.
factors kids pull van
Van Buren, Conway. The kids are thinking, 'hey, we're always going to come back and pull it out and we can make this happen.' I tell the kids there are many factors involved: Weather, umpires, luck.
defense earned great guys hit hits played several sixteen step
We had several guys step up and hit the ball. Sixteen hits and we played great defense and earned some respect.
ball bases bats guys juniors running swinging waiting
We're swinging the bats right now up and down the lineup. We've got so many guys who can put the ball in play and make things happen. We're running the bases well. Even some of the juniors who are waiting to play are swinging the bats well.
bad ball count frustrated happened hit pitch swing wrong
We really hit the ball early. But when bad things have happened to us, we swing at the wrong pitch on the wrong count and we get frustrated at the plate.
bases bats chances ended few five game hands home obvious ourselves played ran saved second smarter third took trying
We ran ourselves out and took the bats out of some hands in a few innings. We made outs at bases we shouldn't have, trying to be too daring. If we would have played a little smarter we could have ended the game in five and saved some pitching. We wanted to take some chances going to second not third and home and we made some obvious misreads.
bats boys couple easy game hit kids knock needed swinging unselfish walks
We accomplished what we needed to. We're really swinging the bats right now and a lot of kids had unselfish at-bats when the game was still tight. We had some walks and a couple of kids got hit and then the big boys knock them in. We just don't have an easy out in the lineup.
advantage best came close handled himself innings kept performance pitching situation tough turned
That was the best pitching performance he's turned in. He came in and handled himself well in a tough situation and got out of two tough innings back to back. He kept us close and we were able to take advantage late.
guess knew listen pitcher smart
It didn't look like we wanted to play very bad. I don't know, we just didn't want to play smart baseball. We know Rogers, we knew what their pitcher was going to do. I guess they just didn't listen during practice.
baker bunt drew drove excellent great job laid late perfect playing position run
I thought Drew Baker did an excellent job playing a new position at first base. He did a great job at the plate, too. He laid down a perfect bunt in our big inning and drove in a run late for insurance. It was a big day for him.
anyone ball balls coming defense double earned gets good ground high loves million opportunity season strikes throws turned
If anyone has earned this opportunity it's Grant. Because he was real good when he was young and then kind of disappeared and he's battled back and he's come a million miles. Our expectations weren't real high coming into the season but he's never turned the ball down and the defense loves him because he throws strikes and gets ground balls and double plays.
anywhere ball defense good outfield surprised throw turned
From the outfield to the infield, we can pretty much throw a ball and get it anywhere pretty quickly. And frankly, we were a little surprised that our defense has turned out to be so strong, but we feel really good about it right now.
aggressive bats came forgot game guys happened kids losing people positive second swing talked
We talked after losing the first game that positive people make positive things happen. We forgot about what happened in that first game and the kids battled in the second game. We told the guys to just swing the bats and be aggressive and they came through.