2014 NCAA Baseball Championship - GatorZone.com
NCAA Gainesville
Regional
Friday, May 30, 2014
Alfred A. McKethan
Stadium
Game 1 ? No. 2 Long Beach State 6, No. 3 North Carolina 1
North Carolina Post-Game Quotes
Head Coach Mike Fox
Opening Statement
?Well,
first of all, for them I thought Rohrbach was sensational. It?s pretty obvious;
we knew he was really good and he just doesn?t give you much of a chance to
breath, it doesn?t look like, in the batter?s box. He doesn?t miss very much.
He?s around the plate with just about every pitch that he throws and just under
control. I thought we hit some balls really hard and they [Long Beach State]
made plays around him. It was one of those innings. Congratulations to them,
they outplayed us. They have a great club.?
On the Dirtbags? breakout fourth inning:
?If you?re going to get five hits in a game you would like to get all five of them in one inning and believe it or not four of those were a one-two count which says a couple of things. One, we?re not quite making the pitches we need to and two, they?re doing what they need to do and move the ball. We didn?t make a play to start the inning and you know the game is going to be close with two good pitchers throwing. We just had one of those innings? it?s one of those innings where you wake up in the middle of the night and you just hope that you were dreaming it. But, you have to give them credit and then you hope it doesn?t deflate your team because it?s only the fourth inning. There?s a kid out there that?s just not going to give you whole lot. To climb back out of a 6-0 hole you need a little bit of help. You need some errrors, you need some walks. It?s hard to string together a lot of hits but we battled to the end.?
#12 Landon Lassiter
On Rohrbach?s pitching:
?I think
he [Andrew Rohrbach] did a good job of getting ahead of hitters. He mixed his
pitches pretty well. I thought we took some good swings and hit some balls
hard. The ball Michael Russell hit was hit real hard he just hit it right at
the guy, but he threw a great game and he was real good today.?
On the Dirtbags? breakout fourth inning:
?We knew they ran the bases aggressively and they had some good at bats that inning. They were able to string some hits together and get some base runners. I think that they just had a good approach that inning from almost every hitter in their lineup.?
On looking towards tomorrow:
?I think we?re going to come out tomorrow and play our best game of the year.?
#19 Tom Zengel
On Rohrbach?s pitching:
?Just coming off what he said, he didn?t walk a lot of guys, he just pounded the strike zone. He went right at us and unfortunately we just came up a bit short.?
On looking towards tomorrow:
?We get another day to play baseball, what we love to do, and we?re looking forward to it.?
Long Beach State Post Game Quotes
Head Coach Troy Buckley
Opening statement:
?These guys are the story of the day, there?s no question; Rohrbach pitched remarkable. Not knowing, really who we?re playing ? it?s not like we play North Carolina every single year so we have scouting reports on them. To be able to do what was asked of them to do, it was phenomenal. These guys ? the players are the stories.?
On getting a win in the first game:
?It?s a long road, as I told the guys, to come out of the loser?s bracket here ? really, anywhere in a Regional. So, to go 1-0 is crucial. It really is crucial. Kind of the mantra for the whole year, our ?cocktail recipe,? or however you want to put it, has been quality starting pitching and good defense. Our park is, even though this park played big today, our park is extremely large. So, the ability to score runs has been something that we have improved on, but yet, it?s something that has been challenging, especially against the quality of arms we?ve been playing against. So, we won?t change anything ? [Josh] Frye will go tomorrow, regardless of if it?s Florida or the College of Charleston, and we?re just going to try to attack this as much as we can as a three-game series, even though we are preparing if in fact we do lose. To go 0-1 and try to fight your way out is a long road. We?ve been there before in the past.?
On the team?s reaction when they found out they were in the NCAA Gainesville Regional:
?We?re pumped, to be honest with you. It?s been a long time since we?ve been here [Florida]. To get back to this stage and be nationally relevant ? You could have sent us to Tonga if you wanted to, it really didn?t matter, we were going to play and we?re going to find a way to get there. I think this team has dealt with a ton of adversity over the year and they have faced it, they haven?t stepped around it, they?ve dealt with it and they just want to play.?
#27 Andrew Rohrbach
On what his philosophy was today:
?That?s what we try to do here, is execute pitches. My fastball was working, my change-up was working and when I needed it, my slider was working. I was just trying to stay down in the zone and whatever the coaches were calling, I was going to throw and try to execute as much as I can, really.?
On being able to relax after going up 6-0 in the fourth inning:
?Definitely. When you?ve got a lead behind you, you can relax a little bit more and kind of refocus yourself on executing pitches as much as possible.?
On building off the team?s energy when he?s on the mound:
?It?s great, honestly. Like I?m trying to do every single time, I try to execute each pitch. Our guys are behind every single pitch; they?re present for every pitch, whether its offense or defense, and you know that. So you know? you can go out there and give your best stuff and everybody?s going to be behind you. Today was a great team effort and it was a great win.?
#3 Eric Hutting
On what clicked in the fourth inning:
?I just thought we were putting quality at-bats together. Bellinger got an opportunity today and his at-bat in that inning was huge. He kept it going and we put really good swing on the ball.?
On being talkative in the dugout:
?We like to stay behind each other. We like to keep the energy up. I think everybody generally feels good when people do good on our team. We?re a strong team and we just hope for the best for everybody.?
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