Quotes From Tulane's 7-1 Loss To South Alabama
Jun 2, 2006 | Baseball
June 2, 2006
OXFORD, Miss. - South Alabama 7, Tulane 1
2006 NCAA Oxford Regional
Oxford-University Stadium
Swayze Field
TULANE QUOTES
HEAD COACH Rick Jones
Thoughts on the game
"It's an interesting game. First of all, you have to tip your hat to Walters because he did pitch very very well once again. That's twice in the same season. He had really good command down in the zone but I thought that Sean Morgan pitched equally as well. He had one bad pitch all day. South Alabama did what they normally do when they beat you. They manufacture runs - they had infield hits and they ran the bases aggressively. We couldn't get a ball to fall and when we do hit one well, we hit balls at `em.
On Tulane tallying only four hits
"There's two ways to look at it. It's bad luck we didn't get them hit at us, but they have to put it in play and they did do a good job of that even though it wasn't hit hard.
On Sean Morgan's performance on the mound
"It's a shame that Sean doesn't have more to show for it because I thought he really, really gave us a good effort that we needed to have to have a chance to win. We knew we were going to have to have a great effort on the mound with Walter pitching if he was on top of his game which he was.
On South Alabama's 12 hits
"Balls that they hit that needed to find eyes did and ours didn't. You have to give them credit."
LEFT FIELDER Matt Riser
On South Alabama starter P.J. Walters
"He pitched well. He had three pitches that he threw for strikes and he kept them down in the zone. Anytime you do that, you're going to be effective regardless of who you're playing."
FIRST BASEMAN Mark Hamilton
On South Alabama starter P.J. Walters
"Just like Matt said, he worked down in the zone. If you work down in the zone you're going to give yourself a chance to win a ballgame. You get a lot of ground balls, a lot of fly balls from people getting underneath. He threw three pitches for strikes to lefthanders and righthanders. He mixed it really well, you never really knew what was coming.
On how Walters pitched him on Friday
"He pitched me the same way he did last time. All pitches in any count and he didn't throw me much to hit. I got one pitch to hit and I didn't get the barrel on it. He lets you get yourself out."
STARTING PITCHER Sean Morgan
On David Freese's two-run homer in the seventh
"It was a hanging curveball and it just sprung up there. Right when I threw it I knew it was trouble. It was one of those pitches that got out of my hand early."
SOUTH ALABAMA QUOTES
HEAD COACH STEVE KITRELL
Thoughts on the game
"First of all, it was outstanding pitching job by P.J. Walters. He stepped up when he had to and pitched a great game against a very good Tulane ball club. (Sean) Morgan is an outstanding pitcher for them. We have had tough times against him. He's a great competitor. We were fortunate to get a couple of hits in the right places at the right time, scrap a couple of runs here and there, and P.J. held up for us."
On the team's 12 hits after struggling in the Sun Belt Tournament
"Coach Hastings and Coach Reinstetle did a great job of getting back their (team's) confidence. We went back to some basic drills we worked on early in the season. They worked hard in the cages. Morgan has a real tight slider. He's tough to beat. We knew we were going to have our hands full. We had a good week of practice. There was so much excitement in our locker room when we got this bid. I felt like we were going to come ready to play.
On facing Morgan
"We knew we had to hit the ball where it was pitched and the slider was away and the fastball was mostly away. We didn't necessarily kill a couple of them, but we had a couple of ground balls barely get through. We had some that weren't hit hard, but they were in the right spot. We did a good job of keeping the momentum. When P.J. gets the lead, he keeps the other team off balance and gets them frustrated."
INFIELDER DAVID FREESE
On facing Sean Morgan
"His slider was little tighter today than that Friday night game. The top of the order was able to get three or four hits, and in the last game against him, our whole team only had four hits. We came in a little more determined. They were determined, but we were able to get some clutch hits and score some runs."
