Baseball

Stanford-Texas Baseball Quotes (June 3, 2006)

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HEAD COACH MARK MARQUESS
Opening comments
"It was a great game with many ups and downs. Just when you felt like you were in good shape something would happen for both teams. I was pleased with the way we played defensively. Nolan Gallagher really settled down after that first inning, and I thought the key was John Hester's grandslam that put us right back in the game by putting us up a run. In the bottom of the eighth, those three runs we got were just huge. Overall, it was a great college baseball game, great crowd, good atmosphere and a big win for us."

On Stanford's offense
"We were just fortunate that we got some really timely hitting, obviously with the grandslam, but we also got a couple of other ones."

On the game
"It was unusual. I think if you would have asked before the game if you we had expected that there would be that many runs scored, I don't think either [Texas head coach] Augie [Garrido] or myself would have believed that, but it's tournament time, so you just never know. It was an offensive day and how do you figure. It was just one of those things."

On Erik Davis
"That was a big outing for Erik Davis. He's done that a couple of other times this year but nothing bigger than this. He had a lot of poise and made good pitches. He has good stuff. It's just a matter of being able to do it in this type of situation. That's tough for a sophomore to be able to do that, but I was proud of him to come in and hopefully [this will help him] for his development the rest of this year and next year."

On being 2-0 in the Regional
"Well, I like it obviously, but we've got to win more. I don't think we'll be overconfident. We like to be in our position, but we know we have to play good baseball whichever team we play [in the championship game]. We'll have to play good defense and continue to pitch and hit. Hopefully, we can do that. Obviously, I would rather be in our spot than any of the others."

SOPHOMORE PITCHER NOLAN GALLAGHER
On pitching after John Hester's grandslam
"John's grandslam helped put everything back in place. After the first inning, everyone was telling me not to worry because you're not going to win a ballgame with three runs. Having the four-spot put me back on with a three-run lead. From then on, our team continuously brought in more runs, which just kept me fighting."

SENIOR CATCHER JOHN HESTER
On his second inning grandslam
"Any time you get a big hit like that, it definitely lifts the spirit of the team. The fact that we were down by three and then gained the lead with one swing of the bat really turned the game around. Most importantly, it wasn't just that one hit. We stayed after it with the bats for the whole game. Those three runs we scored in the bottom of the eighth were probably just as important, but hopefully that one swing of the bat helped spark our offense. I can't remember the last one I hit. I think it might have been before high school, but I'll definitely remember this one."

On Stanford's offense
"We were winning big spots and hitting everything they threw at us."

On playing well against Texas
"We've played our best baseball against Texas this year. We have swung the bats well, played good defense and pitched well [against Texas]. For whatever reason, we tend to come out on top against Texas, but we don't have their number. We just play good baseball against a good ballclub and have been able to come out on top."

SOPHOMORE PITCHER ERIK DAVIS
On his big seventh inning spot
"It always feels good to come in during a situation like that and kill a rally. It means a lot that the coaches have the confidence to use me in that situation."