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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

May 24, 2016

Durham, North Carolina

Wake Forest - 4, Duke - 3

TOM WALTER: Yeah, that's just a great win for our program right there, and it was our pitching that got it done for us today. Parker Dunshee was awesome. He struck out ten through six innings, had both his pitches working really well. Was aggressive, and coming on two times in a row with short rest to pitch like that in this game was huge.

Then Will came in and got the last seven outs for us. Had some timely hitting. Big two-out single by Gavin Sheets, the two-run home run to get us on the board. And then two huge baserunning plays, tagged up twice on balls that led to runs that were big plays in the game. We talked before this tournament that baserunning was going to be a big difference for us and it paid off today.

Then defensively, the two plays, Joey Rodriguez is playing the first and Johnny Aiello is playing the ninth, very underrated play to get the lead runner there in the ninth inning.

Just really proud of this group. They have fought all year. They have responded every time they have needed to and this was a great team win.

Q. Coach Pollard said he thought the 3-2 breaking ball you threw to get Labosky there in the ninth showed a lot of guts because it didn't seem like you were throwing your breaking balls for strikes before that. Were you having trouble with your feel for that pitch and did you have confidence you could throw it for a strike in that spot?
WILL CRAIG: Yeah, I definitely had trouble with earlier, the previous few batters, I kept leaving it up. But I knew that was the pitch. I knew he was going to be sitting on a fastball more than likely. I knew that was the pitch if I was going to get him out, a strikeout which is what we needed. Just wanted it to be a breaking ball. It was kind of a -- if I got it over, I looked like a genius, and if I didn't, look like somebody who should never play baseball again.

Q. I don't know if I would go that far?
WILL CRAIG: Went our way, glad I did, and now we're moving on.

Q. What was working for you and how much confidence did you have after that first inning two-run home run to go out and already have that two-run gap there?
PARKER DUNSHEE: Yeah, I felt good. I know our offense is one of the best in the country, definitely the ACC, so I know we're going to score. That's my job, just to give us a chance to win and keep us in a close ballgame and that's what I was able to do today with pretty good fastballs, and fastball had some good action on it and was keeping them off-balance with the off-speed stuff, so I felt good.

Q. Ten strikeouts, but by my count, nine of them came with at least one runner on. Does your mind-set change that drastically when you've got runners on and you bear down like that?
PARKER DUNSHEE: Yeah, I've had a lot of experience with that here at Wake Forest, definitely pitching with guys on base, being an out-of-the-bullpen guy the first couple of years. So I'm pretty comfortable out there when guys get on base. What I have to do is not let guys get on base so easily I guess. Be sharp from when the inning starts. But I definitely feel confident when guys are on base for sure.

Q. For both Parker and Will, both juniors and you came in two years ago, one game in the ACC Tournament and you didn't make it last year. Does the satisfaction of being able to advance and be a part of the ACC Tournament more than just a cameo for both of you?
PARKER DUNSHEE: For sure, and the goal is post-season baseball every year. And we had a taste of it our freshman year but definitely not enough and last year was kind of a wash. Definitely our class has taken it upon ourselves to step up and lead this team, and we were able to do that. It definitely feels good to experience the whole week.

We feel like our chances are pretty good. We feel like we have a pretty explosive offense and our pitching is deep and we're going to have guys go out there and throw strikes. Looking forward to it.

WILL CRAIG: Kind of like what he said. It's one thing, two years ago, ended really quickly. A lot of guys on the team have never experienced it or if they did, it was short-lived and that's kind of like how we went into the season. It was like we wouldn't be able to have a lasting memory of playing in the ACC Tournament.

I think today was a good example, one of those memories you're going to have, you're playing a really good team in Duke and you're able to put together some runs and fight, and you never know when the game is going to turn the other way.

That's kind of how we want to remember our college clears is in games like this where we fight and claw. You don't remember games you win 20-0. You don't remember those games. You remember games that you actually earned the win and that's kind of how the whole ACC Tournament going to be.

Q. Taking that a little further, how good is it to not only have the opportunity to take the guesswork out of the NCAA Tournament situation, but also now to have something to keep you occupied in thinking about it otherwise than having to sit around and wait the next four days to find out what happens?
PARKER DUNSHEE: Yeah, we'd definitely rather be here playing, that's for sure. We kind of had a taste of that our freshman year I guess, or if we would have won or won a couple games in the tournament, we might have had a chance to get in.

This is a huge win for us in that regard, but we weren't even thinking about that today honestly. It was just go out there, and a Duke team that's playing really well the second half of the season. They were kind of on fire and shutting it down.

WILL CRAIG: Same way. This is one of those teams you don't want to end early with, so we are trying to take this team as much as possible as far as we can. We knew at the beginning today a win would really help us for the NCAA regional. The next three days we are going to play and have fun. We are going to play like it's our last game. We want to keep playing. We don't want to stop. It's going to come eventually to an end, but hopefully it's in a regional or super regional or maybe even Omaha.

Q. Feeding off of both of those last two questions, how important have these two guys next to you been to getting you to the point where you do have confidence in this team against ACC opponents?
TOM WALTER: Yeah, we certainly wouldn't be sitting here without these two guys. We went up to Parker probably six starts ago and basically said: If we are going to turn this season around and get where we need to be, you need to win out. And he went out and beat Florida State and Carolina in back-to-back weeks; to win against Boston College; certainly pitched well enough to beat Louisville, didn't get the win there; but certainly pitched and then got the win here today. So Parker did his part.

Then for Will, what can you say. He's got seven saves. I guess all you have to say is in the four games he wasn't available to hit, we went 0-4 in the League, and the one game he wasn't available to pitch at Notre Dame, we lost the lead late.

So I just can't speak to how valuable these two guys are, not only on the field but from a leadership standpoint, too. Parker is a little more vocal of a leader. Will is a guy in the clubhouse that people go to. But both of these guys are that guys the younger guys can lean on in big situations to help them get pointed in the right direction. So not on the field, but from a leadership standpoint, too. Just can't say enough about both these guys.

Q. Your reaction to the ACC Player of the Year vote, and was there any special satisfaction given what you did on the mound today?
WILL CRAIG: Obviously I was upset I didn't get the Award. I felt like I did everything I deserved (ph) to get the award.

But Seth Beer is a great player. I can't say anything else. He pretty much handily beat us in two out of three games when we played them. He's a great player and has a great future. If it was down between me and him and the other guys, it's well deserving between all of us.

Obviously no hard feelings to him. I'm going to congratulate him whenever I see him, if I do see him, he's a great player. I have no hard feelings. I don't regret anything. I'm going to keep moving forward and hopefully keep playing.

Q. How does pitching line up tomorrow night against Louisville, and what do you need to do to turn the fortune after losing a three-game series to them last week?
TOM WALTER: We are going to start John McCarren. They didn't see McCarren last week. Johnny had a great start against Marshall mid-week against a good Marshall club that just finished a half a game out of the C-USA Championship for the regular season.

So John is going to get the ball. They haven't seen him. He's a guy that throws three pitches for strikes, changes speeds. I think he's a good matchup for Louisville.

Obviously we won't have Will available tomorrow, but that's one of the reasons we extended Will today, because we'll have Donnie Sellers and we'll be able to extend Donnie tomorrow.

We'll have some guys, Chris Farish, Ryan Morse, Garrett Kelly, try to bridge the gap and get the ball into Donnie's hands with six outs to go, and I like our chances.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

May 24, 2016

Tom Walter

Parker Dunshee

Will Craig