University of North Carolina Athletics
Game 6 Postgame Quotes: Davidson 2, North Carolina 1
June 5, 2017 | Baseball
Opening Statement from Head Coach Dick Cooke:
“I'm going to start out, and you're going to understand the vain in which I'm saying this, but back in January when we said if we didn't go to the Super Regionals it was going to be a disappointing year… Well, it was extraordinary. Again, [we] tried to stay out of their way and watch them play. So many great key plays to this ball game. Well pitched by both clubs. Great defense, the throw by Will [Robertson], other solid plays… just a good baseball game. Josh [Hudson] gets us deep into the ball game. Durin [O'Linger] comes and does yet another magical performance. Will with a Roberto Clemente like play. I think we'll remember this for a long, long time.”
Cooke on if he thought the team would be here two weeks prior:
“I think everybody sits and daydreams about things, but these guys will tell you… I joked at the beginning. I hope you know I was joking about the Super Regional thing. We never talk about anything except the first pitch of the season. We're the home team. Our goal in January and September is to be strike one on February 16. That's all we talked about. I'm sure these guys sit around and say, if we could do this and do that and move here… That's not my nature. We never sit and talk about these goals. As I grew up I was a step by step goal person. From my perspective they pitch one inning at a time. I think these guys do a great job of going pitch by pitch.”
Cooke on how the game ended:
“The way the game ended with the play at the plate and the bang-bang play at first… That's going to be talked about forever. It's just very unusual. It's going to be a conversation piece down the road with people who have interest in Davidson and North Carolina and those who don't.”
Cooke on the program reaching the Super Regionals:
“It's a far reaching concept. You guys have read enough about our program. There aren't a lot of programs in the country who say, if we don't get to the Super, it's a disappointing year. There's some. There's some who say if we don't get deep into Omaha, it's a disappointing year. We're not in that boat. It will take a little bit of time. It took a little bit of time to regroup from Friday in the first one. When we get back home and start practicing, it's probably going to hit again when we take BP in the place where we're headed. That in itself is a strange comment for me to make on June 4.”
Cooke's final thoughts and address to the media:
“These guys [the players] have got a lot of attention, it's unbelievable. I've gotten a lot of attention because what has taken place to get to this point, and I'm truly along for the ride. The key to that game tonight [was] the first inning. Josh [Hudson] walked eight in five and a third here in [early May]. He's almost a walk an inning guy, so he struggled a little bit early in the first inning. If our assistant coaches don't have our guys positioned correctly in the first inning that line drive would have been a base hit, and they score, and we're not having this conversation. They are talking after us tonight. I had no interest in bringing Durin [O'Linger] into that ball game in the eighth tonight. Coach Taylor came to me and talked about starting him in the eighth. I was thinking maybe to get the last out of the ball game. We had a quick conversation and they convinced me to start him in the eighth. They said let's try and win it tonight and if we don't we won't start him tomorrow. That was against my nature. I think I'm smart enough to listen.”
#41 Will Robertson on his throw to home plate to get out Brandon Riley:
“I wasn't really thinking much. I knew there was a runner on second and I knew I had to come and throw it as hard as I could.”
Robertson on his emotions during the play at the plate:
“I didn't really know what to think. I got excited and then I was not excited, and then I got excited again. Hats off to [Jake] Sidwell for a heads up play. That's the kind of player he is, so I've got to give a big thank you to him.”
#33 Josh Hudson on how he was able to pitch effectively tonight:
“On that last time I was much more wild and this time, after the first inning, I was able to get in a groove and locate my fastball and off speed. That worked really well and keeping them off balance and not walking too many guys this time.”
Hudson on if pitching in front of a crowd this large gave him nerves:
“That was definitely nerves with the biggest crowd I'd ever thrown against. But after the first inning I was able to get into a groove again. I felt much better then.”
#34 Durin O'Linger on how he felt coming into the game after pitching on Friday:
“I had a lot of adrenaline going, so I didn't really feel anything. My arm still feels fine. I went out there in the eighth and said, get ahead, don't give them too many free bases. You've got a one-run lead. It's not much to work with, but it's a position you want to be in at all times. I kind of went in there with the same mindset in the ninth. I got behind a couple of guys. They hit the ball hard in that last inning. Hats off to them. They were really locked in for the entire game. Josh did a fantastic job. I just tried to piggyback off what he did.”
O'Linger on making the final out:
“Sometimes I get caught up being a spectator. I realized quickly that I needed to get over to first and Brian [Fortier] made a good toss and led me right to the bag. I finished the play, I guess.”
O'Linger on if he feels like the team is a Cinderella team and can make a deep run in Omaha:
“Everyone is a daydreamer, but if you daydream too much you get lost in the reality of what's going on. Like Coach Cooke said, you don't look too far ahead. It really is cliché, but you take one pitch at a time, one inning at a time. You build off that. Obviously this team has a lot of potential. I've been here for five years and this is by far the most potential we've had as a team. It's been a lot of fun watch these guys play.”
NORTH CAROLINA
Opening statement from Head Coach Mike Fox:
“Just unbelievably disappointed obviously for my kids, and congratulate Davidson. Certainly, they came in here and really played well. So congratulate Dick [Cooke] and his kids. Just sorry to see our season come to an end because this is one of the more enjoyable ones I've had in my career, and it's just because of kids like these two to my right (Adam Pate & Brian Miller), this class, strong Christian kids that I've been able to be around every day. It's what makes coaching a blast.”
Fox on the late play at the plate:
“I didn't have a really good look from where I am down there. The college rule is if the catcher doesn't have the ball and you're coming up the line you're supposed to avoid contact, and it looked to me like that's what Brandon [Riley] did, and it took him around the plate. I don't know if he got it on the way through or not but he certainly got there before the ball did. I guess in the eyes of the umpire he didn't touch it so he tried to reach back and get it.”
Fox on Davidson pitcher Josh Hudson:
“Coming in he had more walks than he did strikeouts. We were trying to be patient early. He walked us I think seven or eight times when he pitched here earlier [this year]. Of course we had some tough luck there in the first inning. We had him on the ropes. I think it would've obviously been a different story but that's just baseball. Then he just kind of settled in. He threw a lot of first pitch strikes that he didn't do against us earlier, so we had to change our approach a little bit. Then as the game went on and got late, kids are trying hard, probably pressing just a little bit. We were trying to keep them calm. Maybe we swung at some marginal pitches, but a lot of our guys had to hit with two strikes so that's to his credit.”
Fox on resiliency in the bottom of the ninth:
“That's what I expected. That's why it makes it that much harder to swallow than if they had a guy out there throwing 95 mph striking out three guys in the bottom of the ninth. Just to get that close, that's hard to take. At the end of the season it's miserable. The last day of the season is the worst part of coaching, especially when you got such a good group. We can really say we fought to the very last out. That didn't surprise me.”
Fox on the unexpected end to the season:
“I can't put it into perspective tonight. I just can't. I will say this. If we are going to lose a regional team at home, I am glad we lost it to a North Carolina team. Some joy over there for those kids. I've been on the other side of that so that is pretty special for Dick [Cooke] and those kids and that program. As much as it hurts I have to acknowledge that. They came in here and did something pretty special.”
Fox on Adam Pate's leadership to return to get this team to a national seed:
“They pretty much did that. They came close, not too many teams can say that. I was proud of him. He was a big part of why we got to this point and he didn't even play much. What a special kid that is. I won't coach too many like those two [Adam Pate and Brian Miller] right there. They're as good as they get right there. Character off the chart. That will be a friendship that will last a long, long time.”
Adam Pate on if Brandon Riley looked safe at home plate:
“Yeah, but what are you supposed to do? You hope he's safe. You feel like he's safe, but there's a lot of other things Davidson did well. It wasn't just that one play, but yeah it was just tough. It was a tough play.”
Pate on Durin O'Linger coming back after pitching Friday:
“Yeah, I mean we were I guess just excited that we've done well with coming back all year even in the late innings and tough situations like that. We weren't really worried who was on the mound, but we were just more so excited to give it our last run at it in the last few innings obviously. We had full confidence the whole time we were going to come back, but yeah he was a special player in this regional for sure.”
Pate on what it's like to go have the postseason he has had in the last four years:
“Yeah, it's been special. To go from not making a regional to a national seed real quick was really fun, really special. This has been the best time of my life. This is my best friend right here (Brian Miller) through and through, and I met him when I came to UNC, when he got here after me. And there's so many more friendships that are going to run deeper than baseball in that locker room right there that you can't begin to describe, begin to explain. And that, on top of getting our program back on the national radar like it belongs, it's been special. It's been disappointing. It sucks. It sucks. You run into a hot team, and you think you're going to make it. You think you're going to do it all, and it's tough to come to such a quick end. That's for sure. Four years flies by, and you don't expect it to end like this. You hope it's in Omaha, but there's so many things that you can't describe that go on in that locker room, that go on in this program that I'll take with me the rest of my life, and I'm thankful for that.”
Brian Miller on what Josh Hudson was able to do effectively:
“I think his fastball he was throwing had a lot of different movements. If it was up, it would cut. If it was down, it would two-seam. So, that was just from my perspective, but I don't think he did anything special. He just made some good pitches and that's how it goes, but he was mixing up a lot of his stuff. So I mean it was enough.”
Miller on if they felt like the seventh inning was their inning to change things around:
“Yeah, it just seemed like we were waiting for it all game, waiting for our big inning. So I definitely thought it was then. Josh [Hiatt] pitches hard and made some great pitches. Kyle [Datres] made an unbelievable play. Definitely thought that was it, but just couldn't get it going for whatever reason. Josh has just been so well all year, and I just hate that we couldn't put some runs on the board for him.”
Miller on not being able to get their offense going against Davidson:
“Yeah, absolutely. I'm asking myself the same thing. I mean, you can look at the radar gun and say we faced guys a lot harder than this all year, but for whatever reason they did a good job. None of our guys ever felt over-matched or uncomfortable in the box. I guess they just kept us off our timing, but for the offense that we had, I'm just surprised. It's disappointing for all the work we put in, for how much everyone on our offense cares. So disappointing for sure.”
Miller on the season ending with three singles and a run for the plate:
“Yeah, just the story of our team all year. We've been thorough a lot. Up a lot. Down a lot. Been come back on. Had to come back in the ninth and the eighth. It was just special. We were all confident, and we all expected it, but it's just the story of our season. Guys just fighting till the end. Doesn't matter where you're at in the lineup, how good your average is, this and that. The hard work everyone's put in, it just shows. Yeah I mean, the call at the plate, I saw it once. It is what it is. Brandon [Riley] gave it all he had. Zack [Gahagan] had a good swing. That's all you can ask for, just guys giving it all they got until the final out.”
“I'm going to start out, and you're going to understand the vain in which I'm saying this, but back in January when we said if we didn't go to the Super Regionals it was going to be a disappointing year… Well, it was extraordinary. Again, [we] tried to stay out of their way and watch them play. So many great key plays to this ball game. Well pitched by both clubs. Great defense, the throw by Will [Robertson], other solid plays… just a good baseball game. Josh [Hudson] gets us deep into the ball game. Durin [O'Linger] comes and does yet another magical performance. Will with a Roberto Clemente like play. I think we'll remember this for a long, long time.”
