University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina Postgame Quotes
May 24, 2006 | Baseball
May 24, 2006
North Carolina head coach Mike Fox
Opening statement
First of all, congratulations to NC State. They certainly outplayed us; they deserved to win. The way we started off, I thought we were ready to play. But the game turned quickly and they went on and outscored us 9-0 the last eight innings, so we weren't even in the game much after that, I don't think. They just took it to us.
On losing the first game and facing Florida State in an elimination game Thursday morning
You're not thinking about the rest of the way, you're thinking about trying to survive. Just survive tomorrow. Somebody's going two-and-out. Somebody's going out tomorrow. We certainly don't want it to be us, but we're playing a great team, and they've got their backs against the wall a little bit, too. I think we'll get one of their best shots, because they've got a tough stretch of things, and I just think they're going to be ready. We'd better be ready too, or we'll be back home tomorrow night. We have to play a lot better than we did today, that's for sure.
On whether Miller's control or NC State's patience led more to NC State's win
Well, let me say this. If we play defense like we're capable, you can get by with a little bit of control problems on behalf of your pitcher. We don't field a bunt, and that just opened the door for them. The other team's trying to give you an out and we don't get it and the bases are loaded with no outs. Then you've got their best guy up there. That's a tough spot for any pitcher. We've ridden Andrew all year long. We've got to do some things to help him sometimes. Offensively, we hit way too many balls in the air. I'm not going to focus on Andrew as much as we have to make plays defensively. We talked about in this ballpark, it doesn't matter if you hit the ball right on the nose, if you hit it up in air, you're going to be out here. We just didn't give ourselves a chance after that to get back in the game. It was 4-3, we've got to be able to respond. I thought (NC State starter Gib) Hobson was terrific. If someone had told me after the first inning that he'd throw a complete game, nobody would have believed that. But you've got to give him a lot of credit. And then they got a few runs and he started smelling it and he started spinning that breaking ball in there, he went to his changeup middle of the game to late, and he just gutted it out. It was a terrific performance by him, but we didn't give ourselves a chance. All three phases of the game - you're not going to have them all every game. Pitching and defense are the name of the game, and if we don't have it, we're going to struggle because we haven't been a team that's scored a tremendous amount of runs the last half of the season. And you're not going to do it a whole lot in this ballpark.
On whether NC State was more motivated after North Carolina swept the Wolfpack during the regular season
I don't think so. Once the game starts I think it's just a matter of execution. They executed and we didn't. That's the bottom line. They moved the ball on the ground when they had people in scoring position. They made plays. (Jonathan) Diaz' backhand on Benji's (Johnson) ball - he makes that play look easy. But that's a tough play with two outs. He doesn't make that play, we get a couple of runs. He just comes in and makes plays. You have to make plays. At this level you have to make plays, and we didn't do that. Nor did we get any two-out hits. You've got to get those, too.
North Carolina junior LHP Andrew Miller
Summarizing his performance today
I was given a three-run lead in the first inning, I walked too many guys, I hit a batter with the bases loaded and they just kind of caught fire there when they needed it. I got a lot of ground balls in tough situations and it just didn't seem to work out. But you've got to give them all the credit for taking pitches and getting on base.
On his control
I felt like I had really good control in the first few innings and the last couple, but there's a little middle ground where I didn't really seem to be able to know where it was going and that's what hurt us.
On whether it's more frustrating to give up runs because of control problems
A run is a run. I think it's more frustrating because I'm walking guys. It's not that they're hitting a double in the gap or hitting the ball out of the park, it's that I gave it to them. Putting them on base with four balls is just stupid. Those were my mistakes today.
