University of North Carolina Athletics
NCAA Chapel Hill Regional Game Four Quotes
June 2, 2013 | Baseball
Game 4: North Carolina 8, Towson 5
North Carolina Head Coach Mike Fox
Opening Statement
"I'm sure we are all are excited to win. Nothing's easy obviously at this stage of this season. A great pitching performance by Kent and we just kept hanging in there."
On Kent's performance
"Well he's experienced, he's very confident and he's very calm. He pitches the same way every time, really repeats his delivery. Just all the little things where I think he is just very consistent. The way he thinks, the way he pitches. Really, he's kind have pitched that way almost his entire career. You hope guys will continue that in the post season. There is pressure on all of us that have these numbers behind these seedings to win and you have to embrace it. That's where we want to be. So, I don't think our kids were playing like it, I think Kent just made a couple of bad pitches there at the end. But you got to give Towson some credit, man, those kids stepped up there and when we made a mistake they put the ball in play."
Junior Kent Emanuel
On what Coach Forbes told him during the 8th inning
"I don't even remember what he said to be honest with you. I think he just came over and he just said basically 'we need your best stuff right here, and we're going to get this guy' and basically kind of just went over what pitch to throw on the next pitch."
Senior Cody Stubbs
On surviving the past couple of games
"I wouldn't say that we survived. I mean, I think say we played good baseball. It's the post season. Everybody's trying to win and everybody's a threat. There's no bad teams at this point anymore. So I don't feel like we're playing bad baseball at all. I think we're playing good and hopefully we stay consistent."
Sophomore Michael Russell
On his confidence
"Well, it really hasn't changed throughout the year. I always think I'm going to get a hit and so I guess today when I actually get some hits it looks like I have great confidence up there."
Towson Head Coach Mike Gottlieb
Opening Statement
"Offensively we put a rally together in the sixth, seventh
and eighth innings. We were probably one hit away in the sixth or seventh from
making it a bigger inning, which might've had an impact on the ballgame.
Obviously we did nothing the first five innings offensively to [Kent] Emanuel's
credit. The first half of the game he had great command of three pitches. He
never gave you a fastball when you might think a fastball is coming. He struck
out [Kurt] Wertz in a key situation. [Emanuel threw a] changeup away and I'm
sure Kurt was looking fastball, [he's a] good fastball hitter. Late in the game
Emanuel lost a little bit of his command and showed he was half-human. We
started to put a dent in their lead but obviously too little, too late."
On facing Florida
Atlantic tomorrow for a second time:
"I have no problem playing them again. What the hell, you're
supposed to play somebody. I know it's not going to be Canisius and it's not
going to be Carolina. Florida Atlantic today was very impressive. They had a
lefty on the mound and I was impressed with the way they played. We're starting
Paul Beers, who if he's on brings three good pitches to the table. I'm very
comfortable with Paul pitching tomorrow."
Junior P Brandon Gonnella
On the importance him
pitching late into the game:
"Yeah, it was real important. I was just trying to keep my
team in the game basically the whole game. They have a bunch of great hitters,
and there's a reason they are the number one team in the country. They can hit
it top to bottom. I was just trying to go out there and trying to keep my team
close."
On his approach
against the North Carolina lineup:
"Yeah, that's exactly what I did, I just trusted my stuff. I
tried to get ahead of batters as much as possible because it's tough pitching
to these guys if you're behind in the count. If you're in a fastball count,
they are looking fastball and they can hit fastballs."
