June 3, 2010
Head coach Craig Gibson
Opening statement:
“We’re excited to be here and honored to play. We’re excited about playing the Yellow Jackets tomorrow night at 7.”
On starting left-hander Brandon Love against Georgia Tech:
“That lineup can get you in trouble and score early and often. We are going to go with the match-ups and start [Love] up there against them. Hopefully, we’ll have some success.”
On what the NCAA bid means to the school and program:
“It’s special. I’ll tell you, it sort of validates all the work and time we put in.”
On talking to his team about past regional upsets:
“I really feel with the landscape of college baseball now – with the limits and the structure – it gives the mid-major really a fighting chance. Having a 35-man roster, 27-scholarship limit has given all the mid-majors a chance. I think that’s why you see Lipscomb, Southern Miss, East Carolina, Mercer, Jacksonville and other quality mid-major programs in this position to win. That’s just the way college baseball is and you better be able to recruit and coach and develop talent.”
Second baseman Michael Langley
On the team:
“We’re a team that plays its best when we’re loose. There was a point in the middle of the season when we hit about a five-game losing streak and we were all playing tight. We were pressing too much and that resulted in us not getting a lot of our jobs done. We just told everyone, `Loosen up. Have some fun. We’re just playing a game out here.’ And ever since then we’ve kind of been on a roll. We all really like each other and we just like to have a lot of fun, so that’s the way we play our best baseball.”
On second-half surge:
“The talent on this team is unbelievable. It’s the best team I’ve ever played on since I’ve been at Mercer. If you trust each other and don’t try to do too much, then good things are going to happen. If I’m having a bad game or (Jacob) Tanis is having a bad game, then we’ve got other people who can pick him up and we can still win games. And our pitching is as good as it’s ever been. We don’t have to necessarily score eight or nine runs to win games anymore. So that’s relaxed us and I think that led to the good run.”
Pitcher Lath Guyer
On the team:
“Our goal at the beginning of the season was to win the conference championship and that entire tournament we played with just a great attitude, great energy. We just felt like we couldn’t be beat and I think that’s kind of rolling over into this. We’ve got to play loose, because if you don’t come out loose, then things are going to happen that don’t usually happen. But, we’re playing great ball right now, so there’s no reason to press. We have nothing to lose and we’re just having fun playing baseball.”
On facing Georgia Tech for a third time this season:
“We’re definitely confident coming in here. I think it’s a different situation coming in here for a regional then coming in here in a regular-season game. We’re throwing our best and we’ve been playing so well the past few weeks. We feel confident that we can really hang with them. I think we’re much more confident coming in this time than a few months ago.”
