Texas Tech baseball came back to win the final game of the five-game series stretch this weekend as the Red Raiders defeated Stetson, 5-4. Head coach Tim Tadlock, Josh Jung and Bryce Bonnin talked with the media after the game about the performances of the team.
Tim Tadlock
- Tadlock started off saying he thought all three pitchers threw the ball well today with the starting pitcher being Bonnin and then Dane Haveman and Ryan Sublette relieved. “(Bonnin’s) pretty confident as it is. If he gets anymore, we’ve got our hands full. He’s a confident young man.”
- Tadlock said there will be some internal discussion on who to start and who to have in the bullpen.
- On Easton Murrell’s performance, “Easton is a winner. He’s always won, kid’s won on any baseball team he’s been on. He’s going to do things that will help you win baseball games.”
- Tadlock said yesterday’s game against Stetson was not fun. “I think the guys learned quite a bit from playing five days in a row. Today was definitely a grind for them. Monday is usually their day off after a three-day weekend much less a four but the game will reveal whose got routines and who’s diligent.”
- Tadlock said if they were not punished by the RPI for any losses, then he said he would have the team play every day for about a month.
- Regarding changing the start of the batting order by putting Dylan Neuse ahead of Gabe Holt to lead off, Tadlock said he liked the balance. “Neuse has been swinging the bat better than Gabe. That spot comes up a lot of times. I don’t mean getting hits, I mean hitting the ball hard.”
Josh Jung
- Jung started by saying he was tired after going five games straight. “I’m sure we’re all pretty tired. I don’t think anyone’s done this, maybe high school tournaments and stuff but nothing five games, five days like that in college ball. You look at it and it’s kind of like a major league-type schedule because they play lots of days in a row.”
- Jung said if Tadlock wants the team to play every day, he said the team has to be ready to play every day. “It would suck playing that many days in a row but if that’s what he wants to do.”
- On the switch in the beginning order, “I think it might have been because Gabe was swinging at the first pitch and getting out a lot, honestly. Try and get him to see more pitches. I think we were just trying to go right, left, right, left.”
- Jung said his quad is getting better. “I lugged out a triple, that was interesting. We’ve gotten to where in pre-game I don’t have to wrap it up, I can just go out there and have fun.”
- Jung said he has never had leg problems before and said it was a weird injury.
Bryce Bonnin
- Bonnin said the change from his first start to now has been putting things in perspective such as knowing he is not going to strike everyone out and players will get on base.
- Bonnin said he can reach up to a 98-99 on his fastball but settles around 94-96 for most of his outings.
- His takeaway from the game is he needs to be more efficient, Bonnin said.
- Bonnin was a shortstop before and this year is just his third year pitching. “I didn’t ever step on a mound until my senior year of high school. Pitching is so boring, not pitching in the game, but being a pitcher is so boring. You don’t play most of the time, and if you have a bad outing, you have to wait so long to get back into the game, you have to wait a week or you have to wait three games and it’s really frustrating.”
- Bonnin said he always tells Tadlock he wants to hit. “How much do I have to pay for a pinch hit?”