Last night I brought you Kevin Rhoderick's post-game interview from after Game 3, and now I'm going back in the archives a bit to bring you quotes regarding Game 2. This interview was part of Sunday's pre-game show on KPAM 860, so that's why you'll see references to the game as "last night", "yesterday", etc.
We'll start with Koa Kahalehoe's interview. Koa was 1-for-4 in the game, his only hit being the game-winner in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Mike Parker: Have you ever had a bigger hit in your Oregon State career than that one?
Kahalehoe: Personally, no. Last night that was a huge hit for our team. It gives us an opportunity to come out and win the series today.
Parker: Tell us what was in your mind when you came to the plate, and were down in the count.
Kahalehoe: Yeah, I was down in the count early. He made a great pitch to get ahead of me, and all I could do was battle and put the ball in play. It ended up as a base hit, and we won the game.
Parker: You hit four straight foul balls. Were you waiting for something?
Kahalehoe: He made some great pitches. The one I hit he got over the plate. I just thought that I'd see pitches. I thought that he'd set me up with a high fastball and then throw a breaking ball away or something like that, but it was a fastball and I was able to battle until I got a hit.
Parker: When it left the bat did you think the game was over? Or did you have concerns.
Kahalehoe: When it left my bat I thought it was placed well, but the left-fielder was standing there, halfway down the line. I looked at him, and it looked like a catchable ball, but it nicked off his glove and we ended up winning.
Parker: Ortiz came into score, and the next thing I saw was your team out behind second.
Kahalehoe: They just huddled around me, all with big smiles. That's what a team game is it's team effort-we stuck through if for nine innings, and ended up with a victory.
Parker: What do you need to do in Game 3?
Kahalehoe: Basically, competing at the plate, as well as pitching and defending. I don't think we should be pressured, we're as talented as anyone in the country. We just need to work hard, play hard, and exedcute.
Parker: The conditions look better today. Was it an adventure with the win was blowing, yesterday?
Kahalehoe: The rain and the win was tough. Today should be a lot better for the outfielders, it's not supposed to rain and the skies should be better for the outfielders.
Parker: This is your senior year. I don't know how fast it's gone for you, what it's all been like. Tell me how this season has gone and what it means to you.
Kahalehoe: It's my last year... the games are getting closer and closer to the end of my career at Oregon State. I'm just trying to have fun with it. Lately I've just been playing pitch to pitch and enjoying my time, and enjoying my teammates and coaches.
Pat Casey quotes after the break.
Pat Casey, Prior to Game 3:
Mike Parker: The Beavers pulled out a great win against what you believe to be the number one team in the country. A great win for you guys last night.
It really is. Obviously, we don't get a chance to play head to head with some of those clubs like North Carolina, LSU, and teams that have also been ranked No. 1. In my opinion, and being a Pac-10 guy, I feel like ASU is the number one team in the country, and if someone is as good as them, they're at least equal to that club. So it's a great win for out guys. Offensively, we've been struggling. Everyone knows we've been leaving runners on base, so to see these guys come through in the clutch maybe takes some pressure off of them. We're a very inexperienced club offensively, so hopefully those things come to life. If you want to be better defensively, you have to give something up offensively, especially on this club this year, and we really don't have a lot of options. We'd love to pinch hit for some people in certain situations, we'd love to make some changes, but to be honest with you: with 14 position players on a 25 man roster, there isn't a lot of options.
Mike Parker: : There are so many things in yesterday's game. You talked about Jared Norris' at-bat in the ninth and getting the ball in the air. You called that the biggest at-bat, Jared did a great job in that situation.
Yeah, I think that's the biggest at-bat, because we don't get to Koa without Jared's at-bat, we don't get the tie, and we don't take the pressure off the next hitter. Certainly Gorton coming in and getting us out of a jam with the bases loaded on the pitching side was big. Some guys responded, I think, to the fact that we weren't afraid to take Waldron out of the rotation and go straight to somebody else. Those things are good for the guys to recognize that they've got to do the things they're capable of doing because they can't take weekends, at-bats, or innings off. Sometimes those tings come down to a guy going through a stretch where they're not doing as well and to have someone come in to pick you up is good too. We're just trying to put the best players on the field in our opinion to help us win.
Mike Parker: : You chose not to pinch-hit for Koa against Lambson, and he had a great at-bat.
We were better left-on-left than right on right, so we chose to stay with Koa. We didn't want to make a change early because we wanted to stay better defensively. Even guys on our staff had different opinions, but I thought there was too much game left, and with the wind, I thought we better catch fly balls. We got fortunate. Sometimes those things work, and sometimes they don't. If Koa doesn't get a hit to win, someone could have easily asked why we didn't pinch hit there. I understand that, it's part of the job. We have to make those decisions-sometimes those things work out, sometimes they don't. As a staff, we just have to put ourselves in the best position we can to win. Whether it's choosing to play somebody different, in to bunt, hit-and-run, defend differently. It's not as easy at is appears.
Next up for the Beavers is the Portland Pilots, who they'll play Tuesday at 3:00 in Portland. After that, it's to Seattle, where the Beavers will play Washington on Friday at Safeco Field to kick-off the weekend series.
--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)