June 4, 2010
MERCER COACH CRAIG GIBSON
Opening Statement:
“Pope was outstanding tonight and it was the “Tony Plagman Show”. I thought our guys played hard; hit the ball well, but I think Tech showed why they are a national seed. It was a great environment and really tough to beat those guys.”
On Georgia Tech’s Mark Pope:
“He was good the first time we faced him. He got a little bit ahead in the strike zone tonight. He competed a little bit more. I think he rose to this environment. His pitches were sharp and he was tough tonight.”
On the pickoff in the first inning:
“I think it changed some things. I wanted to come out and be aggressive. I gave him the green light, I wanted him to go. Pope has a really good move and we knew that. I didn’t want to sacrifice in the first. I wanted to try to get us a “crooked” number on the scoreboard. I thought leading off the game with a base hit got us going a bit, but he has 28-29 stolen bases, so I wanted him to run there. Pope made a great move and got us out.”
On keeping their season alive:
“Certainly, our club belongs here. It was an extremely tough opening game. We knew it was going to be tough. Georgia Tech is one of the best teams I have seen in 17 years of college baseball. We are excited to play tomorrow. We have a great arm going on the mound. Offensively, we will regroup tomorrow and we will come out ready to play. Hopefully, we will get on the right side of things tomorrow.”
BRANDON LOVE, So. LHP
On Georgia Tech’s Tony Plagman:
“Plagman is a great hitter. We have known that from the start. Tonight, he just sat back and hit whatever I threw. I had no idea what to throw him. He had my number.”
On the strike zone:
“Earlier in the game, the strike zone was a little bit bigger, but you can’t complain. I threw my pitches and I felt like I made some quality pitches, but their hitters are really good and they hit all of my mistakes.”
TYLER MCCARTHY, Sr., INF
On Mercer’s Offense:
“I felt like we hit the ball pretty well. We just couldn’t find any gaps or anything. I think we had eight or 10 balls that we hit really hard, but right at someone. That’s the way the game goes some times.”
On Georgia Tech’s Mark Pope:
“He got a lot better as the game went on. He was spotting everything up. His curve ball was really good tonight and his change up was really good, too. He’s a good pitcher.”
