Coach Rick Heller being interviewed by Brian Fritz:
Heller says this past weekend raised our level of play from where we were. We beat a good team with good pitchers. Taking two of three built confiendence for two tough opponents--The Citadel and Wichita State. The players stuck to the game plan all weekend with the exception of the middle of the third game. We had quality at-bats... looked for walks...find ways to get on base...let the opposing pitcher find a way to hang himself. Van Skike looked really good for the first five innings of game three. Pitched well and gave us a chance to win. Being a junior college transfer, he is finding that the game speeds up when you move to D1. Ben Ferrell has 18 RBI's on season. he started hot...went into a slump...and is now hot again after working with Coach Smiley on making adjustments in his batting. Petricka was outstanding of friday night. He stepped up a notch during each of the last two starts...pounding the strike zone with three pitches. Every pitch was working. he showed good body language and got ahead in the count consistently. Getting the first pitch in for a strike changes the whole at-bat for a hitter. The team showed an outstanding intensity level. Petricka and Mann were both hit by line drives in the series. Heller says the current "minus 3" aluminum bats are not to blame as they are not much different than wooden ones. previously had used "minus 5" bats, which were more dangerous. A lot of getting hit has to do with reaction time and luck. What a show Strausborger put on Friday and Saturday nights. Half of the big league outfielders don't make plays like that. His speed plays. When he gets to the ball, he catches it. He gets a good angle on the ball and has good instincts, even in the winds we had over the weekend. In the pre-seson, the team set a goal of winning 25 games this season overall. To do that, they have to play with the same intensity level (like the Creighton series) for all opponents. The have to eliminate mistakes and walks. Looking at the league, there is a lot of parity. Wichita State seems to be the leader right now, but there are a group of teams that on any given day can beat each other. Looking at The Citadel, they are an improved team from last year. it is a long trip Heller wishes they didn't have to make. Because of a landslide blocking an interstate, the trip will be 17 hours instead of 15!! The Citadel has already won 20 games and ha high RPI ranking. He would rather have a home series this weekend, but we don't have the $6000 to $7000 it takes to "buy" teams to come to play in Terre Haute. Talked about the success of Ort and Lucas this past weekend. Heller sees Ort as being a power hitter in future years and we need more home runs to go with our doubles and triples. With Ort, we haven't even seen the tip of the iceburg. Lucas is improving behind the plate every week and did a good job on Sunday. Regarding tomorrow's game at Butler, he said we will see several pitchers, most of whom didn't get playing time this past weekend, like Drake, Flora and Dorsett. We need to show the same energy level as we did at Creighton Tuesday and next weekend at The Citadel. The Butler game might be a chance to break out offensively. We only hit .239 against Creighton.
