QUOTES FOLLOWING TULANE'S 7-3 WIN OVER SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA
Mar 15, 2011 | Baseball
March 15, 2011
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Head Coach R. Jones
On the big first inning
"For us to score that many runs in an inning was good. I thought it was a good win for us. We pitched well. David Napoli and Andrew Garner haven't really had the opportunity. I thought they both did a really good job for us because Southeastern can obviously swing the bat. We played so well defensively, especially late and that double play was really special. Alex Facundus gave us a dominant eighth and then he got an out in the ninth. Then we were in a save situation with those runners on, and you got one of the premier senior closers in the country (Nick Pepitone). He comes in and makes two pitches and the game is over. He gets that ground ball and with that defense we have, you have to get him in there. The thing that concerns me still, though, is after the first inning I thought we were unaggressive at the plate. We took way too many fastballs early in the count and probably six or eight hanging breaking balls. We have got to be better. I am really proud of our first inning, but we have to continue to be aggressive. It was a 7-3 win, but we didn't put the hammer down, and we had the chance to do that a few times."
On continuing to win close games
"I think what happens is confidence comes from doing. The more you do something, the more you think you can, and the more you believe, and the more you are relaxed in those situations. I think one of the things that served us well, with the hitting issues we had, is that we won so many close ballgames. You start to believe that you are supposed to win those kinds of games. I just think our club tonight was really locked in early. Defensively and pitching wise.
On the pitching staff and tomorrow's starter
"We have some real banged up pitchers. There's no question about that. We think we may get (Robby) Broach back by the weekend, but we're not 100% sure of that. Byo we don't know. It might be a week; it might be two. We don't know. It's a day-to-day thing. All of a sudden you carved out three-fifths of a five-man rotation. Not many clubs overcome that. Because what you have to do is take that strong middle relief like we have with Drew Zizinia and David Napoli, and all of a sudden they are in starting roles. That attacks the back end of your bullpen. Tomorrow night it's `johnny wholestaff'. We are going to start D.J. Ponder. We've got Greg Miller, our knuckleballer, and (Wade)Konvicka, who has not pitched. We'll see what we can piece together. We would have liked to not use a couple of guys tonight, but to get this win we needed to do that. So tomorrow night we need to score, and some guys who haven't pitched for us are going to have to pitch well."
On David Napoli's performance
"With exception of managing the strike zone early. He had the three weeks and walked in a run. He pitched two innings on Sunday, so we were going to keep his pitch count down. His pitch count tonight was the outer limit for where we were going to go with him. I thought his command and rhythm in the fifth was the best of all night and that was an encouraging thing for me."
On Bowen Woodson's big night
"Bowen had a big night for us. Bowen catching that line drive in the first, that was a great catch. He ran the ball down in the eighth. He is a guy that has come on, no question about it. He gave us some really good at-bats."
On putting up 7 runs in the first inning
"You win differently every day, and every game is not going to be the same. You can't continue to think we're not going to score. I wish we could have pieced together some runs and been more aggressive late. That would have really started to give our guys even more confidence. That is something we are going to have to overcome."
Sophomore Pitcher D. Napoli
On his first college start
"It was my first start since high school. I was excited to get the win. I don't think I pitched as well as I could have pitched, command-wise. But it's nice to go out there and get the win."
On his performance
"I felt like my best inning was probably the fifth. Early on I just couldn't command it, but the defense (was great) behind me. In the first inning, Bowen made that diving catch, which was just a big-time play and momentum-builder. It was nice to have the defense behind me and the offense scoring seven in the first inning was nice."
On the run support in the first inning
"The offense has been struggling lately, but obviously it showed against a good team like Southeastern that they still have that fire in them, that they can still put up runs."
On his mentality knowing that he is starting the game
"It is definitely a different mindset because you come in and you know you're going to start. You have that adrenaline building. And when you're in relief, throughout the whole game, you don't know whether you're going to go in or not, so you get that adrenaline pumping, but you just sit down if you don't pitch. So it is definitely nice to know that you're going to pitch."
On what was going through his mind during the rough inning
"I was just telling myself `don't walk him, don't walk him.' With that mindset, obviously I just actually ended up walking him. I just wasn't aggressive enough. In that inning, I didn't pound the zone and give my defense a chance to play."
Sophomore Infielder B.Woodson
On his home run
"I wasn't really expecting to hit the home run. I was just trying to stay on top of the ball and hit the ball hard. We had some momentum going, and I put a good swing on the ball and it just jumped out."
On scoring 7 runs in the first inning
"It was very important. To go out and give David a lot of run support was really important since it was his first start. We have been struggling a little bit, but we came in there with Boullosa getting hit by a pitch and then momentum just kept building."
On the importance of getting that big inning
"It definitely was important to come out there. We have full confidence in our staff. Our staff is great. Our hitters are all great. We just have to keep grinding and keep doing what we can do to put up runs."
On whether this is feeling special
"This is very special. It's starting to feel really good, especially when the offense has a night like that. It feels great. After all these close games, we prove that we can win games without the hitting, then we come out and get a big win with the offense just pounding the ball, we know that once everything starts clicking, we're just going to roll."
On his great catch in the first inning
"Right off the bat I didn't pick up the ball well. I just kind of got a late reaction I guess from the sun and the shadow. And then I just jumped and reacted to it."
