May 15, 2008

Recap |  Final Stats

TULANE HEAD COACH Rick Jones

Overall thoughts on the game
"Their guy just did a really good job. It's the first time we've been shutout all year and you've got to give credit to him to start with. Defensively, even though we only showed one error, we had a couple of breakdowns and you can't give Rice that kind of edge. We had a chance in the second with the bases loaded, couldn't get it done, and their guy settled in. So did Shooter. You talk about the middle innings there, not much happened. We couldn't get anything going and neither could they. For them to shut us out, they've got to have really good pitching. That's why they have the numbers they have because they really can pitch."

On Luna's home run in the first
"Drew just mistimed his jump a little bit in right field. Nobody feels worse for that than Drew. It wasn't for lack of effort, he just mistimed it a little bit. It's one of those things that you don't want to have happen, but it happened and it was 2-0 before we knew what was going on. That's baseball. Drew made so many great plays last weekend in right field and he's an outstanding outfielder. It was just one of those things that was a little bit mistimed."

On the Green Wave's ability to hold off Rice for most of the final seven innings
"Shooter came right back, settled in and got out of an inning there with runners at first and second in the third with nobody out. We got out of the inning, played well defensively, turned the double play there and Seth made a great play. He had a great night defensively for us. At the end of the day, though, Rice's guy was a Freshman All-American last year and a USA Team player for a reason, and tonight he showed you. After he got out of the second in, he really settled in."

JUNIOR RIGHT-HANDER Shooter Hunt

On his performance tonight against Rice
"I didn't feel that I had my best stuff, and they put some good at-bats on me. I just tried to keep it close until the end. It just wasn't our day."

On retiring 13 in a row during the middle innings
"As soon as we got down early, I just said to myself, `If I could keep it close, we're at home and we could have a chance at the end.'"

On Rice's Ryan Berry
"He had his good stuff tonight. We didn't have great at-bats, and that's what hurt us in the end."

On trying to finish second in the final C-USA standings
"We want to get as high up on the seeding as we can. Playing at home, we're going to want and be in our dugout the later along we get. Even for the NCAA Tournament, just getting wins this weekend is huge."

JUNIOR CENTERFIELDER Anthony Scelfo

On the performance of Rice right-hander Ryan Berry
"He threw a good game, and I've got to give him his credit. The guy pitched well. That's why he's a Friday-night guy for one of the best teams in the country. I still think we're a lot better than we showed tonight. We didn't play well enough to win. They just played better than us. That's it."

On what Berry was doing that was so effective
"He throws a lot of pitches and he throws them in a lot of different spots. Tonight, he had his stuff going, he threw all of his pitches and he didn't miss his spots very much. He didn't leave many balls up in the zone that we could really drive. He kept the ball down for the most part."

On trying to keep pace with Southern Miss to finish second in the C-USA standings
"I think everybody needs to keep pace with us. If we play well, I don't think anybody can beat us. I don't care if you're Rice. It doesn't matter. If we play our game and we play well, you can't beat us. I don't really care what everybody else does."

RICE HEAD COACH WAYNE GRAHAM

On the performance of Ryan Berry
"He had a good performance and we had a good defensive game with timely hits. It was one of those games where we had everything go for us."

On Berry getting off to a rocky start
"Berry started off slow and he was very fortunate early to get two double plays. He wasn't pitching that well early, but then he got real good late. That's what good pitchers do."

On how Berry has pitched so far in 2008
"He's a quality pitcher and we hope he's coming back into his own. He's been up and down this year, but obviously, he's a really good pitcher."

On the performance of the Rice offense
"I thought our approach was good. I thought we were ready to hit the fastball early. We got through a couple and that doesn't always happen that way. Hunt's got great stuff. He's going to be a first rounder, and to score some runs, that's a good deal."