University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes
May 11, 2014 | Baseball
May 11, 2014
Head Coach Mike Fox
On the importance of this win:
"If you get swept this time of the year, you place yourself in a position where it will be hard to get to .500 in the league. Deals with where we are, and the situation we're in, and trying to get to 30 wins; also trying to get a few more ACC wins in. I didn't tell the team this, but there are 8 teams going into today who have more ACC losses than we did. It's out of our control, but it means we weren't in as dire a situation as it seemed the past two days. But when you look at what's a head, we really needed this win."
On Carolina's pitching:
"(Zac Gallen) was the key to the game. I told our players that Zac getting out of that first inning was crazy. I thought I was dreaming in that first inning, it was the exact scenario as yesterday; walk, walk, line drive. But it was a freshman out there in a really important game, perhaps the most important game of our season to date. I think that once he got out of (the first inning), that was huge. If we would have gone to (Reilly Hovis) any earlier, then he probably wouldn't have been in during the 9th inning, he wouldn't have had enough gas in the tank to finish like he did."
DH Tom Zengel
On establishing a lead early:
"Getting runs early on really relaxed everyone in the dugout, we weren't really pressing as a team so that made it easier for us the rest of the game."
On morale:
"I think it helps us feel good about ourselves. We know how good of a team we can be if we're playing to the best of our abilities. The last two days we didn't play too well, but today we came out and played a lot better."
On first at-bat:
"I was trying to make sure I got a good pitch to hit. I've been very aggressive the last two days and swung at a couple of pitches that weren't good ones to hit. I finally got one to hit after I worked the count a bit. I was able to put a good swing on it and hit it in a good spot."
On keeping morale up with the game tied:
"The biggest thing was that we know we only needed to score one more because (Reilly Hovis) has been unbelievable all year. We knew if we could scratch a run away he was probably going to hold them, and we would win the game."
On Tyler Ramirez's RBI:
"That was huge. I had a good feeling he was going to get a hit right there. He's been swinging the bat well all day and hitting the ball hard. He almost hit a home run, and he has seen (Gage Smith) yesterday and looked like he was right on him. Today, he looked like he was on him even though he struck out the at bat before. He fouled off a couple pitches and looked like he was really seeing the ball well and put a good swing on it."
On senior leadership for the rest of the season:
"The key is to come out and play like every game is a championship game. Too many times we come out and don't get into the game until the 5th or 6th inning so making sure we come out ready to play everyday is big. If we come out ready to play we can play with anybody."
On Carolina's pitching:
"The pitchers threw very well today. (Zac Gallen) has unbelievable command. He's probably one of the best with command on the whole staff, and he came out and did a great job today putting up zeroes. (Reilly Hovis) has been unbelievable all year. He has been our go-to guy in the bullpen, and he hasn't pitched in two weeks. He came in and was lights out. He threw very well. Our bullpen has been unbelievable all year and so have our starters. We just have to make sure we get them runs and then we're in the game."
OF/1B Parks Jordan
On beating out the infield single in the seventh:
"Well, I got jammed on a pitch, blooped it to short and ended up beating it out. Again, just trying to put the ball in play and hustle for the team, get on base, do whatever we need to do to try to bring some more runs across the plate."
On the significance of avoiding the sweep:
"It's a big deal. That Sunday game, you want to bounce back after two losses and prove yourself a little bit and have the right answer to failure. It's only one game, but at the same time, it still means a lot for our team going forward."
On his good hitting performance on senior day:
"To a certain extent, it means a lot to me. It is my last home game and I did want to do really well in front of the fans to be a memorable senior day, but at the same time it's just another game. I'm a team player. It's about the team, it's not about me. I'm just in there trying to do my job every day."
On establishing a lead early:
"It's very important. It doesn't matter what team you're on, if you get off to an early lead, then it's going to help you through the whole game. It does a lot for our confidence, especially our younger guys when we jump out to an early lead. It helps us stay in the game, and I feel like we continue to score runs when we score early in the game as well."
On the differences between today's game and the past two against FSU:
"I thought we played better defense. We got a really good start out of Gallen. That's a big deal. Yesterday, Benton got off to a rough start, but that's going to happen. Today, Gallen went out there and he did a great job for four or five innings, and we hit the ball better today. So, totally all-around, it was a better day for us."
On his responsibility as a senior in rallying the team at the end of the season:
"Just to continue to tell the team to stay with the process. We have proven that we can play with the top teams in the country. I think it does a great deal for our confidence to get these two wins under our belt against UVA and Florida State. It's just my responsibility to let the team know that and tell them to relax and just play our game, and good things will come."
