University of North Carolina Athletics
NCAA Chapel Hill Regional Game One Quotes
May 31, 2013 | Baseball
Florida Atlantic Head Coach John McCormack
Opening Statement
"First, Towson and Mike Volpe pitched and played a fantastic
ball game. We were told before we got here that they were an emotional team and
they kind of feed off each other and they did a fantastic job doing that. And
Mike, we're on a first name basis now, he did a fantastic job pitching.
Congratulations to them."
On the knowledge of Towson's
offense coming into the game:
"They swing the bat. Some people had told us that they're
difficult to pitch to because they just get up there and swing. They're very,
very aggressive. It's not like they have a pattern to what they do, they just
kind of get up there and swing and hack the ball around the field, which is
exactly what they did. It's exactly what they did. So, they saw good pitches
and hit them. It's a simple approach, and nine times out of 10 it works very
well."
Junior C Levi Meyer
On pitcher Mike Volpe:
"Seemed like all of his stuff was working, he was getting
ahead of us. We made the comment in the beginning of the game that he was
getting a lot of those 0-2 counts and I think we were out of our comfort zone a
little bit because he was getting ahead of us so early and so often. He threw a
great game."
Towson Head Coach Mike Gottlieb
Opening Statement
"For most of the game it was a pitcher's duel. Fortunately for us we were able to break through and give [Mike Volpe] a little chance to relax and I think every pitch could have been life or death. We had a couple of long balls and [Andrew] Parker's home run gave us a level of comfort at that point. When the ball went up I was thrilled to death he just got it into the air to even get a sac fly because he fell behind two strikes pretty quick. I think everyone on the bench thought it was going out. I thought we were just going to get a fly ball and a run, then I realized it landed in the next county."
On Towson's reprieve to sponsor baseball in 2013-14:
"I'm thrilled our kids have a future. I'm not looking for a job. I'm thrilled after 22 year personally that we are able to be back in this environment. It was a long time without getting here. To be able to do that again after such a drought at my age, it's very rewarding. Even the kids, throughout the month of March after we were told there would be no baseball in the future, the kids played hard. Maybe the players discussed about the future or the lack of it, but I never heard it. They never played like they didn't care. They played hard and now we're here and we're glad we got a victory today."
Senior Pitcher Mike Volpe
On his performance on the mound:
"Just trying to get strikes early. In the past I've had a hard time being able to do that early and I've made an adjustment. Luckily today I was able to start off and actually finish for a strike most of the time. It was effective."
On settling down after the first few innings:
"Basically I just took a little bit off my fastball and concentrated on trying to keep the ball down and finishing my pitches. I just tried to take this game as another game and not make the stage any bigger than it had to be."
