University of North Carolina Athletics
Quotes From Winthrop vs. North Carolina NCAA Baseball Game
June 3, 2006 | Baseball
June 3, 2006
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North Carolina Quotes
UNC: Opening quotes from Head Coach Mike Fox
RE: I don't know if we could have played any better than that. Over the stretch of five innings we swung the bat as well as we've done all season. It's a big win but these regionals are not over. You have to put the win behind you and get ready for tomorrow. This game was a big one between the two winners, and I don't think Andrew (Miller) had quite his best stuff, but he doesn't have to, to be pretty good. All year long a goal of ours was to prevent the big inning, and I think we did a good job of that. Andrew (Miller) made some good pitches when we needed him to, and we're happy with the win.
UNC: OF Jay Cox
Overall Performance
RE: I hadn't been myself the past couple of weeks. It's a great feeling when you are out there and you are healthy and you feel hungry. When I step into the batter's box, I feel like I have something to prove all over again.
The team's offensive performance
RE: We usually start slow, then gradually build up and catch fire. Hitting is contagious, and all it takes is one or two balls hit on the screws to get things rolling. We had to get the momentum in our favor, and I think we did that all night long. Especially with (Andrew) Miller on the mound, I felt like we had the entire game in our favor.
UNC: Pitcher Andrew Miller
Overall Performance
RE: I hadn't pitched in about 10 days, and I don't know if that was too much time off. Sometimes when I don't have my best stuff is when I get the most movement on my ball so I may not have been throwing as hard. It certainly helped me locate the ball. I could put my slider pretty much wherever I wanted to. It's exciting to see your teammates put so many runs on the board. You can relax and know that you can let the other team put the ball in play, and outs are going to come. We're pretty comfortable that we can hold a lead like that.
On this possibly being his last start at UNC
RE: It might not be my last start at Boshamer Stadium. I think if we go on and continue to win there's a chance that if we continue to win, we may be able to play here again. I'm not really sure how that works though. To do that, especially in front of a large crowd was fun.
Throwing Sliders
RE: I threw a lot of them because I had good command of it and they had a lot of left-handed hitters. (Jacob) Dempsey and (Heath) Rollins hit the ball well and they are both left-handed. That's a hard pitch for them to hit because they are left-handed, so I threw it over and over. It worked.
Winthrop Quotes
Head Coach Joe Hudak
Opening Statement
I sat here last night and told you that the game we played last night wasn't a 14-2 game and tonight's game wasn't a 14-4 game. It was a lot closer than that. We scored two to get back in the game, 6-4, and then we give up a six spot and that put the game away. Baseball's a great game. You can have a great at bat and get a hit or you can have a great at bat and get an out. Today, I thought we hit the ball hard a couple of times. With men in scoring position, we didn't get hits. North Carolina played a great game. They are a great club, very good offensive club that keeps coming at you. They had one guy tonight that hit four hits tonight and I think he hit one ball hard. That's the way it goes sometimes. I think sometimes you can hit the ball hard and you're out. And sometimes you don't hit balls hard and you're on base. That's the way it goes. It's a great game of inches. Give credit to North Carolina. They're a great club. Miller threw a good ball game. I thought we had some good at bats against him. We knew going in that this wasn't going to be a high scoring game. A couple of plays in the field hurt us. All in all, we played hard and I'm proud of my guys. We just didn't play quite well enough against a great club.
On who will pitch tomorrow (Sunday):
We'll probably through Jason Franzblau or Jonathan Settle. I haven't decided that yet. We used Settle in the sixth, we were just hoping to get out of that inning with him. We didn't, but he didn't throw enough that it would affect him for tomorrow. We'll throw one of those two in game one and we'll see who we throw in game two.
On UNCW pitching
They still have some good arms left. They didn't throw Booker and they have another guy who has thrown quite a bit for them. I think our guys will throw OK. I think tomorrow's going to be another high scoring game, but you never know with the game of baseball. We're just going to have to keep coming out and playing hard.
On UNC's Jay Cox hitting
We made some bad pitches to him....got behind. When you get behind him and have to come in with something that's across the middle of the plate, he's going to do to it what he's supposed to do to it. Later in the ballgame we were behind in the count and lot and he made us pay.
On similarities to last year
Last year was a totally different year. There's not even a thought about last year. We've been resilient all year and we knew for us to have a good chance to win the regional, we needed to win the first two. We didn't so now we're going to have a tougher road to hoe. That's not impossible. We're certainly not going to pack up and go home tonight. We're going to show up tomorrow and try to beat Wilmington and try to beat North Carolina twice. Obviously, they are in the driver's seat.
On Winthrop's hitting
We swung the bats well against someone who's probably going to be the No. 1 pick in the draft. He's a great pitcher, but we swung the bats well against him. Going into the ball game, if you had said we are going to get four runs against him, I'd have said that's pretty good because he hasn't given up four runs or five runs to many clubs.
Pitcher Alex Wilson On his effort: I had all my velocity. I had everything working, I just had trouble controlling it today. I didn't hit my spots like I needed to and they took care of it like they should.
