May 2, 2008

Recap |  Final Stats

TULANE HEAD COACH Rick Jones

On the pitching tonight
"Shooter threw 109 pitches and seven innings. He was ahead of the hitters most of the night, which is good. He got us deep in the game. I think this would have been a good chance for him to throw eight, or maybe even get a complete game, if it hadn't been for all the rain delays. But it was tough for him, he had to keep going out on the football field and stretching his arm out. I really thought he threw well. We played well defensively. We didn't run the bases as well as we have in the past, but we had some good quality at-bats. I thought Mac's two-run homer was a huge blow."

On the bullpen performance
"I thought Mason Griffin in the eighth inning was outstanding. He had really good stuff tonight, and it showed in the eighth. Then of course getting the two outs in the ninth, one pitch away. Then to an outstanding hitter, I thought Rob Segedin threw as good a 3-2 slider as you can throw. That's why we had him in to pitch to him. We knew if we got to the tying run, it was going to be him, and Segedin was going to throw to him. We had already decided that before it even got there."

On the offensive performance
"Well, we didn't bunch as many tonight as e have been. But Sam and Anthony and Mac came through with the home runs. Then Mac gave us a crooked number. I thought we had good quality at-bats tonight."

TULANE PITCHER Shooter Hunt

On his pitching performance
"I went out there and felt good. I had command of my fastball on both sides of the plate, which really helped out tonight, and we got out of there with a big win."

On getting the win despite the weather conditions
"All I kept thinking during each delay was, `Nobody is going to feel bad for us if we come out and lose.' There's going to be no excuses. The NCAA (Selection) Committee is not going to go in there and say it was raining Friday night against UCF.' I just didn't want to have an excuse going out (for each inning), so I was trying to stay focused during every one of them.

On the importance of starting the series on a winning note
"It's one game at a time, that's all we can ask for. It got close at the end, but we want to go into tomorrow feeling really good."

On if he got tired in the eighth inning after such a long period of time during the game
"Actually, I went out there for the eighth - I really didn't have my curveball tonight, which hurt me - but when I went out for the eighth, that's when I had my best curveball was in warm-ups for the eighth, so I was feeling pretty good. I tried to go in on the first guy and hit him. The next guy got a single, then a double. I guess it wore me down. I didn't feel tired, but I guess it wore me down. For the most part it was fastball on each side of the plate."

FIRST BASEMAN Sam Honeck

On his home run on the first pitch after a rain delay with a full count
"I just went up there and was going to see the ball and hit the ball. He threw a fastball inside and I did what I could with it. I just put a good swing on it."

On the three home runs and 13 hits
"We had the wind in our favor, but most of our hits came when there was nobody on or there was a man on second. We didn't have many guys in scoring position, but when we did we scored them."

UCF INTERIM HEAD COACH CRAIG COZART

On the game tonight
"I'll tell you what - this is what's been fun about the last four conference games, even though we've only come out with one win, is it's been good baseball. You know, close games, every inning there's something on the line, quality pitching, quality defense, and guys getting hits when the need them. Obviously you've got to tip your hat to Shooter Hunt, he was outstanding. It really took us getting to the third time through the lineup before we got any decent pass on him offensively. He controlled the game. Offensively, it was a very, very good approach from Tulane. They swing the bat great, hit the ball backside for13 hits. We were fortunate to keep it to a close game where we had a chance at the end."

On the two-run sixth
"Obviously we looked at the situation, how we thought our guys matched up. Carmine (Giardina) came in and got his left-hander, and then we thought Caleb Graham would be a good matchup for (Warren) Mc Fadden, and he hits his first homerun of the year, a two run shot. That was huge. That was a big point in the game. Then (Austin Hudson) comes in and shuts the down. Then we were finally able to get something going offensively once Shooter got to 100 pitches. Again, Griffin and Segedin made their pitches at the end when they had to."