Rick Jones Quotes On Tuesday's Game vs. LSU
Apr 18, 2005 | Baseball
April 18, 2005
NEW ORLEANS, La. - On the weekend series victory over C-USA foe Houston
Well, I thought Friday night was certainly a winnable ball game. It was a little uncharacteristic for us in that we had some missed cues and had some miscommunication, but you have to give Houston some credit because they took advantage of that. They have a real good club. If you look at their schedule, it's just been so challenging, their record is not indicative of the kind of club that they have. They're just a little young, and they have a murderous schedule. We had to really play well on both Saturday and Sunday to be able to win that series. We played well defensively, we pitched well, and we started getting some timely hits.
On what Tuesday's game with LSU means to both programs
The thing that is going to be the most special about this is that the nation gets an opportunity to see the uniqueness of college baseball in this part of the country - in Southeast Louisiana - as far as fan interest is concerned. Now there's fan interest all across the nation, and it's starting to grow, but this is where it started. This is the mecca in my mind, as far as not only the caliber of play in college baseball, because there are so many good teams, but just the support and the interest of the fans.
On the opportunity to claim his 500th win at Tulane Tuesday vs. LSU
I hadn't really thought of that to be honest with you, and I know that sounds real cliché and coach speak, but it means that we've had some good players here, and some good coaches. I've had the fortune of having good players, a good staff, I've been here a while, and I'm pretty old! That's what it means. I've been doing this a while now, but we've been fortunate, I've had some real good players, and I've had some real good coaches.
On Tuesday starter J.R. Crowel
He's pitched really well his last three or four outings. I thought at UNO two weeks ago, he was as good as I'd seen him. But it does pose a little bit of a challenge for him. They've got a lot of right-handed hitters in the line up that are swinging the bat pretty well. It's a pretty big ball park, but not as cavernous as it once was. Maybe we'll keep the ball down. And we need to continue to do what we've done. You have to play defense to have a chance to win ball games.
On this atmosphere of tomorrow's game
Tomorrow night is going to be packed. I don't know how many times we've played LSU exactly now since Zephyr Field opened, but we've never not sold a game out. Tomorrow night, I think will be one of those crowds where, they'll be tailgating out there tomorrow morning. It's just a unique situation, and one I know our kids are excited to be a part of, and as a coach you say, `okay, we're on national TV, we're in a AAA ballpark, and there are no seats to be had.' And there will probably be another 5,000-6,000 people sitting out in the parking lot, watching it on television.I mean really it's just a rare situation, and one as a coach, you say, well, this is special.
On the importance of Tuesday's game
I knew that question was going to come up. Every time we play LSU, I always get that question, and I never really know how to answer it. It's another game of 56. I know we've got some fans, where if we go 2-54, but the two we win are against LSU, they're going to be pretty excited. And if we go 54-2, and the two we lose are to LSU, well, we need to make a move here. But as far as our club and myself, it's the one game that we have in the middle of the week. It's a game that gets a lot of attention not just locally, but nationally now. So we'll be excited to play, and I know they will be too. But it doesn't count as a conference game, and I think we need to do really well in our conference, in order to have a chance to host. There's no way to downplay tomorrow night, but at the same time, it is a non-conference ballgame, but we certainly want to win.
On this weekend's series at Southern Miss
Well, Southern Miss is playing very well. Once again, I think the thing that we continue to come back to is how strong our conference is becoming in baseball. And next year it's going to become even more of a challenging conference to play in and win in. But Southern Miss has been an NCAA tournament club for a while now, and they've been playing really well now, they have some great wins. East Carolina is a Super Regional team from last year, as we were. That's a couple of times in the last four years for East Carolina. In Houston, Rice and Central Florida - they've got 37 wins I believe, already - it's going to be a heck of a league. Right now it's hard to find a weekend where you can say okay, we can catch our breath here. And we certainly can't this week, and we couldn't last week.
