May 23, 2007

Ohio State Head Coach Bob Todd

Opening Statement ... "We did exactly what we needed to do. We came out and scored runs, got a lot of hits, put some runs on the board early and Corey Luebke threw ... I think he was the Big Ten pitcher of the year."

On the offensive onslaught in the game being greater than last week's entire series against Penn State ... "That's baseball. A new day."

On the rest of the tournament ... "We knew coming in - we don't have any margin for error. We're doing everything we can to stay in the winners bracket and the players understand what's at stake. They've got to be able to relax and play baseball but there's got to be some intensity to it."

On the importance of staying in the winner's bracket ... "We're short pitching as it is. We understand that so the more innings we have to pitch, the more difficult this tournament becomes."

Ohio State Pitcher Corey Luebke

Opening Statement ... "The hitters kind of set the tone with five runs in the first two innings. I just went out there and tried to mix it up and let the defense work for us."

On the ease of pitching with a lead ... "You just kind of have to pitch different. You don't have to worry about guys getting ... hits off you, just go out there and throw strikes, keep my pitch count down so I could throw later in the week."

On the pitches he relied on ... "The change-up was working pretty good, just went out there and got a few groundouts. I didn't throw too many sliders but I was throwing strikes."

Penn State head coach Robbie Wine

On today's loss to Ohio State ... "For one, our team personality and character did not show up today. It wasn't us. There was a lot of tension. We weren't our happy-go-lucky selves in there enjoying the game. Giving up three runs in the first will do that to a team sometimes. Ohio State, you have to give them credit. They did a great job against us. They gave into them. They made adjustments, put the ball in play and did some things to help their cause. (Starting pitcher) Seth Whitehill didn't get away with some stuff today. You get down to a team in the first round against one of the top pitchers (Ohio State's Cory Luebke) in the conference and it's going to be tough. We didn't give up, but we felt like we were climbing a mountain at that point. We talked about it and I think this team will show up tomorrow no problem."

On tomorrow's game against Iowa ... "We'll throw Craig Clark tomorrow. It's all or nothing. We'll keep throwing all of our guns out there and see how long we can go, but that is one of our strengths -- pitching. Based on keeping together today's game, we're in good shape. We got (David) Lutz, (Michael) Lorentson, (Ryan) Stobart and (Gary) Amato out there to get a little taste of Big Ten action, which is going to help us in the long run. With Craig Clark going out there he's one of the top pitchers in the league too, so we'll be alright. Iowa is going to be coming. You know they had a similar game today against Illinois. It's tournament time and there's a lot of baseball left. The way I look at it is on Saturday there will be one team that is undefeated, so everybody will have a loss. We just need to get to Saturday."