Post Game Quotes: St. Louis v. Illinois State
June 05, 2010 | Baseball
June 5, 2010
Illinois State University vs. Saint Louis University
NCAA Regional
Jim Patterson Stadium- Louisville, Ky.
Illinois State Quotes
Senior IB Evan Kohli
(On the increased power) "It just started before the game. We just wanted to have a good first at bat to start off the game and one through nine we started out good and we just rolled from there."
(On what the win means for the program) "For me, being here last year and then moving over into this year it's a big difference and a big step ahead for us. These two guys next to me are freshmen, so we're bringing in the right kind of guys to keep moving forward in the regional every year and I think we will be a contender. I think it is going to be us and Wichita State for quite awhile here and I'm just glad to be a part of it"
(On being taken out) "That's fine. My buddy Gabe (DeMarco) is another senior and I wanted him to get an at bat. It wasn't a big to me at all."
Freshman Pitcher JD Learnard
(On the rough start of the game) "Yeah, a rough start. I don't know if it had anything to do with jitters. I felt fine, but the team could put the ball in play and a leadoff walk, probably a pitchers worst friend. I just got off to a rough start, but Coach Mohl was coaching me a lot throughout the game and picked up on some mechanic things that we could work on and it seemed to help throughout the game."
(On drawing from his good game against Wichita State) "Wichita is a great team, so is Saint Louis and you just have to come back and realize you have done it before. When stuff starts to go wrong, you have to think back 'What did I do?' and it is just a confidence thing. You just try to not be too hard on yourself. It 's always the next pitch, try to win every inning."
(On how helpful it is when the offense is exploding) "It's a big boost of confidence. You go out there on the mound and I struggled a little bit with control today, but it's always nice to know the offense can gain some ground with one swing of the bat. They did that today and with our defense playing as tough as they did it kind of let's you relax a little bit especially being the first regional game. It kind of helped me relax and settle in."
(On what the win means for the program) "I know me personally just being new here and this being all I know but coming to the regional. I think it sets the bar high for us in the future and over the offseason will make us work that much harder and over the fall. I just want to get back here and see what we can do this year. It sets the bar pretty high for us."
Freshman OF Chad Hinshaw
(On his four hit game) "Ever since I watched some video like Coach Kingston said, I feel really comfortable at the plate and I was able to put some good swings on it. He left a few pitches up and I was able to do something with it."
(On what the win means for the program) "It's a great start to what I believe will be the future and to let teams know that we will be around for awhile.
(On being nervous) "I think ever since the Wichita series, we know that was our first big conference series, but also playing in the tournament last week I think we're really rolling and lost most of our nerves with that. Obviously you're going to have a little nerves. But overall I think we have come along on the trip enough to not have too many nerves to mess up our game."
ILLINOIS STATE COACH MARK KINGSTON:
"First of all, congrats to Saint Louis on a great season. In terms of Illinois State, I thought we played as well as we could ... no errors, 13 hits, 8 runs, a freshman (JD Learnard) on the mound who gave us everything we needed today.
(ON JD LEARNARD): "For him to go into the seventh inning was exactly what we needed, with our bullpen getting overworked (Friday) with the 13-inning game. This was about as complete a game as we could play based on the fact that it was an elimination game."
(ON THE SEASON HIGH 5 HOME RUNS): "We talk about trying to find a way to win; sometimes you have to bunt to win, sometimes you have to steal bases and use hit-and-runs. Today, we used the home run to win the game. We had some very good at-bats and their pitchers made some mistakes up in the zone. We have good hitters who can take advantage of that."
(ON ILLINOIS STATE'S DEFENSE IN THE TOURNAMENT): "Playing on (turf) helps ... We have very good athletes on the field and that's the No. 1 thing you need to have a good defense. We work very hard on defense and our defense has gotten progressively better as the season has gone along. What you have seen here in Louisville and what you saw in Wichita was no fluke-we have very good defenders on the field."
(ON KEVIN TOKARSKI'S HOME RUN IN THE 4-RUN SECOND INNING): "That got us out front. That's kind of our M.O. We try to get out front, hold that lead and then turn it over to our bullpen. That's a big momentum shift when Kevin hit that home run. I believe that was with two strikes and two outs. You are one pitch away from having a really tight game. Instead (with the three-run homer), you have a bit of a cushion."
(ON THE FIRST ISU NCAA BASEBALL VICTORY SINCE 1976): "I hope that everybody who has ever been part of this program-former players, coaches, fans, parents, everybody-is taking a lot of pride in what's going on right now. We want this to be a program that people can be proud of, that they know we do it the right way. Regardless of what era you came from, or identify with, we want everybody to feel like the Illinois State program is something they want to be proud of so we can continue to push this thing forward."
Saint Louis Players
Outfielder J.D. Dunn
(On reaching regionals as a senior) "It's been a great experience. You fight four years then you finally get to make it. That's what you work hard for in the fall and the winter. You hope to make it every year, but making it in the last year was a pleasure. Like he (Coach Hendrickson) said we're not for moral victories. It would have been a lot better to win at least one or a couple, but it's been great." (On growing up near Vanderbilt and the possibility of playing them) "My mom and dad got to come up, so that was good. Playing Vanderbilt would have been great."
(On how J.D. Learnard was able to hold them down) "I didn't know his name was J.D. I think our approach was not all the way there. Consistently it wasn't. We had a couple of bad breaks. We hit some balls hard. I think overall, during the span of the game, we didn't capitalize on some of the mistakes he made. That kind of hurt us."
Saint Louis Head Coach Darin Hendrickson
(Opening Statement) "I want thank the University of Louisville for having us in. We are not for moral victories so that is not what this speech is about. We got the most out of guys that we could. We had a ton of young pitchers there at the end that pitched in this game.
Illinois State put five home runs on us. It is hard to defend that. It kind of took the wind out of our sails a little bit. I thought [Kevin] Tokarski's hit was the game to be honest. It was 2-2 after we had just hit their guy around in the first inning and Danny's ball was unbelievably crushed, hits the guy in the foot and goes to the shortstop or that inning goes on for who knows how long. That was a huge play in the game. To me, there were three key components and that was one of them. Another was the 2-2 breaking ball that was supposed to be down and away. Overall, the body of work is what I am most proud about our team. [They] made a crash landing into a great run."
(on J.D. Dunn) "He is everything that I am trying to bring to Saint Louis, culture-wise, attitude-wise, work-ethic wise. He would be the first to admit he has come a long way, certainly got the most out of his ability. I think in NCAA sports that is all you can ask out of a kid.
J.D. embodied our team, he was our leader. I never had a better defensive center fielder in my entire career. I have coached some All-Americans and some drafts picks. Nobody goes and gets the ball like him. I think his work ethnic rubbed off on some guys. We are just a young team and I guess we were not supposed to make it and we did. I think is just the feather in the cap of a guy like J.D. who has seen this program go from 16 wins his first year, to 24, to 30 and now to 33.
He just capped off a nice career. You wish you had a lot of J.D's through your years and when you do, you do not take him for granted."
(on giving up five home runs) "You are always surprised when you give up five home runs. The way Patterson (Stadium) is playing and the wind, considering we rolled out four freshmen, I guess I should not be surprised. When you look at it all, it is hard to win when you give up five homeruns. How many games have you seen when team scores more in one inning than you do all game. It is just one of those games, but like I said a crash landing into a really good run here. When they get five home runs unless there are solo shots you are probably not going to be on the right end of that."
