University of North Carolina Athletics
Quotes From Maine vs. North Carolina Baseball Game
June 2, 2006 | Baseball
June 2, 2006
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NCAA Chapel Hill Regional
June 2, 2006
Chapel Hill, N.C.
Game #1: #1 North Carolina vs. #4 Maine
North Carolina Quotes
North Carolina: Opening quotes from Head Coach Mike Fox
We are thrilled to have won. Maine is one of the most balanced hitting clubs we've seen, and we are very fortunate to win. I was very impressed in our club coming back from two deficits and swinging the bat well. We had a rough start but we kept plugging. We had a couple of good innings that took the air out. I don't think we were tight at the start. It's our first time hosting the Regionals and we were amped up about playing. I thought our swings were long, but it's like that until you get in there for the second or third time and get relaxed. When we loosened up in the end you saw what happened. Some times you have to let the air out of your dugout and good things can happen. Hopefully we can start that way tomorrow.
North Carolina: OF Jay Cox
Overall performance
RE: I hadn't been able to play for a while with my sore back, so I was hungry tonight. I got some key pitches tonight, in some key situations, and I was able to pull them out. I feel like my old self.
Pressure in hosting Regional
RE: I wouldn't say we put pressure on ourselves. We haven't played a game in over a week and that had something to do with it. We had to get a little bit of rust off of us. We play very relaxed at home.
Momentum
RE: We've always been a slow starting team. It's always good to go out there in the first game of the tournament and put up some runs. It helps to build your confidence.
Playing Winthrop
RE: I think it's a big learning experience. You never want to take a team for granted. Maybe during our first meeting we got ahead of ourselves and looked past them. I guarantee that won't happen tomorrow.
North Carolina: Pitcher Jonathan Hovis
Maine's fast start
RE: We've been very good at responding all year since we've typically been a slow starting team. This team has been resilient all year. Each time a team scores we usually come right back and score in the next inning. That's typical of how we've played all year.
Maine's early offense
RE: Coach (Fox) told us that they swing the bat very well. I had also heard from some other people that they swing the bat very well. They were aggressive and they showed from the start that they were here to play just like we are.
Maine Quotes
Head Coach Steve Trimper
Opening Statement
"We didn't play a complete game today and that kind of hurt us. Our kids fought hard at the plate and weren't intimidated by any means by any of the great UNC pitchers that they were going to throw at us. I thought we were going to take a good approach at the plate and see fastballs. The kid [Woodard] did a pretty good job coming out and pitching a little backward from what we heard he did. We thought he'd get ahead with his fastball so we had to make an in-game adjustment at the plate to try to lay off his breaking ball and hit his fastball. Down the stretch once we went threw [Mike] Powers we just didn't get good pitching, and that's what happens when you're not going to play a complete ballgame. We didn't step up for those last couple of ballgames, and obviously it's tough to win ballgames when you're giving up a big inning like that. It's unfortunate because I thought we had a really good ballgame between two clubs going and we just didn't finish it down the stretch."
When you got the back-to-back home runs, did you feel like you were taking control of the game?
"Yeah, we certainly had a momentum swing right there. It's so important to go out there and put up a zero when you get a momentum swing. We got that leadoff bunt, first pitch after that we got an out and then we just didn't keep that momentum. Their hitters did a pretty good job at that point hitting our fastballs at that point when we got behind in the count. We just didn't make quality pitches toward the later part of the innings."
Pitcher Mike Powers
On how he felt tonight
"I felt great going out there. I was pumped up all day. The rain delay pushed it back, but I was definitely geared up to go today and I felt like I did pretty well. I definitely went right after them to put the pressure on them."
Third baseman Kevin McAvoy
On whether Maine was intimidated by UNC
"You can't look at the pitching staff as overwhelming or anything like that. You just have to go out there and face them like you face every day-to-day pitcher. They're great pitchers, you've got to give it to them, but we went out there and hit the ball the way we could."
On bouncing back to play tomorrow
"I think we're going to have the same momentum tomorrow. We're going to have our confidence back and we're going to go out and play like we did today - don't have mental lapses and focus on the game of baseball."
How disappointing was it to be ahead and lose the lead?
"When you give a team like that extra chances, you can't really overcome that in a game like this. We just can't give teams extra chances like that."
