May 3, 2008

Recap |  Final Stats

TULANE HEAD COACH Rick Jones

On Matt Petiton's performance
"Matt Petiton was just outstanding. We don't have many complete games here, because we don't let pitch counts get up. But his pitch count was down because he had such good stuff, he kept them off balance all night, you saw very few good swings, and because of that, it just made it easier for our hitters to get comfortable and relax. We also played really well defensively. We didn't have a whole lot of tough plays defensively, but the ones we did have, we made and we made all the routines.

"I thought that certainly Anthony (Scelfo) giving us a lift with the home run in the first inning. Then with Sam (Honeck) doing the same thing. Rob Segedin's two-out, two-run double was huge. That really stretched the lead. Then I though Josh (Prince) and Sam (Honeck) did a really good job with the base running to stretch it one more run in, and that's a cushion run we needed to have."

On the offense reaching double-digit hits for the seventh straight game
"We've been bunching hits together pretty good lately for a lot, because we've been scoring a lot of runs. Tonight, we got great pitching and we stretched the lead, we played well defensively. I think that's what you call a complete game."

TULANE PITCHER Matt Petiton

On his pitching performance
"I was just trying to get out as quickly as I could. I was just trying to get first-pitch strikes, and trying to mix up my speeds and my fastball and my changeup, try to make that curveball hang in there, get out ahead. It helped me out that I could get some quick outs, some first-pitch outs. But, I was just trying to stay in the game and keep us in the game because for a while we were (tied at) 1-1. So, I was just trying to keep us in the game and keep it tied until we got a couple of runs, and then hopefully we would just hold it. That was my goal."

On keeping the opposing batters off balance
"That's basically what I've been trying to do this year. My fastball really isn't that hard, so I've got to find other ways to get them off balance and try to get outs and my changeup is pretty much saving my season right now. I'm getting so many first-pitch outs - just pop-ups and lazy ground balls, so that's kind of the story. That's pretty much what's been working, so I'm going to keep on doing that and hopefully it keep on working out for the rest of the year."

UCF INTERIM HEAD COACH CRAIG COZART

On the game tonight
"All you've got to say is one thing - the lefty that was on the mound tonight. He's special. He threw strikes and we didn't square a ball up, except for the home run. They always say solo home runs aren't going to beat you - it sure didn't beat them tonight. (We got) four hits. We've got eight hits in the series so far. Tulane's come up with the big hits when they need to. You look at the fifth and sixth innings of the last two games, they put up runs when we needed to, and we haven't put up the outs when we needed to. That's it in a nutshell. They're outpitching us, and they're out-hitting us when they need to."