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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 28, 2016Monte LeePat KrallMike TrillerChase PinderDurham, North Carolina Clemson - 5, Wake Forest - 4 MONTE LEE: Got to give a lot of credit to Wake Forest. I thought their starting pitcher, Drew Loepprich, thought he did an unbelievable job. Had a sinking fastball going today. I thought from an approach standpoint today out of the three ballgames that we've played in, he made it the toughest on us to have a sound approach because his fastball was moving so much. We would look middle-in, because it's sinking in on our righties and then he would throw the fastball away and it's sinking. Kept his breaking ball off the plate to right-handed hitters. He didn't give us a lot of off-speed pitches to hit. I just thought he did a really good job of throwing the fastball below the belt and letting it sink out of the zone, and we swung at it, a lot. So got to give him a lot of credit. Pitching-wise, Pat Andrews did an outstanding job for us today. We're down by three runs. Eubanks threw strikes but you've got to give Wake Forest a lot of credit. They are a very good offensive ballclub, and they hit him. They hit him. They scored their runs because they earned them based on how they swung the bat, because we only walked two, I believe, and hit one. So they earned their opportunities early. They had a big inning in the fourth. But then we get into the seventh inning and Mike Triller, who we've got to give a lot of credit to Mike, is getting an opportunity, stayed on a fastball away. Got it up in the air and hit it out. And then Jordan Greene, it's kind of a testament to what our players do in terms of doing their job, and we talk a lot about doing your job and whatever the case may be, when it comes to situational hitting, defensive replacement, pitching out of the pen, whatever the case may be, do your job. And Jordan Greene did that. That was a huge walk for us today. That brought up the tying run. And then Chase Pinder hit a fastball up and in, pretty good to tie it. Then we were fortunate. We were just fortunate in the ninth inning. We had the bases loaded. Chris Okey had a big double. Seth got hit by a pitch, big double to make it second and third, and they walk Rohlman. We were fortunate. Dunshee executed pitches to Weston, got him to pop up, and then we got just a passed ball. It just worked out for us. I think one of the things that was critical for us was our bullpen. Pat Andrews and Pat Krall did a really, really good job, and we played really good defensively from the seventh inning on. Weston Wilson made a couple really nice plays. Chris Williams at first base took away a bunt, made a play to his right where he laid out. I thought infield defense, we were really, really good there in the last nine outs. We take a lot of pride in winning the last nine outs of a ballgame, and I don't know how many one-run games we've won this year, but a lot of it comes from our toughness and just our mentality. It's part of our mentality. We talk about it from the beginning of the fall, we're going to win the last nine outs. You want to define a successful club in college baseball, it's a team that can win with a one-run lead with nine outs to go. If you can win a ballgame with a one-run lead with nine outs to go, you can win a lot of games in college baseball, and that's one thing we've done a really good job of today. Just very proud of my ballclub. It was a gutsy win for us, come-from-behind win, which we've done time and time again, so our guys didn't panic. Our guys didn't press. We just stayed the course, which is what we've done all year long, and we found a way to get it done. Q. Talk to us about coming in there late and trying to shut them down and keep them from having any edge late in the game. PAT KRALL: You have to give Wake Forest a lot of credit. We played them in the season and the past few days in the tournament, they are a really good offensive team. They can hit good swings. They are taking good swings all day. One thing Eu-B and Pat did was when they execute pitches, especially down the zone, they got themselves out. So working ahead early and getting them into your count is something really important. So just executing pitches down and getting in pitchers's counts. Q. Are they going to have to drag you kicking and screaming out of this ballpark once it's all over? And does this ballpark really suit your swing? MIKE TRILLER: Yes, I would say so. It's going to be sad when we leave this ballpark (Laughter.). there's got to be a magnet or something out there that's just drawing the ball over there. Yeah, it's going to be a little sad when we leave. Q. Can you wake us through the home run at-bat? CHASE PINDER: Well, I think he started me with the fastball, and went to the breaking ball after that. I was in the advantage count there. I was looking for something elevated, and I got that. Came up big I guess. Q. Earlier in the season, with the power y'all have in the lineup this year, with the seven home runs you've had in the ACC Tournament, you've passed Georgia Tech for the most among power five conferences. Did you have any premonition going into the season that you would have this kind of power in the lineup? CHASE PINDER: I thought with Seth and Okey, we would have that, but not necessarily with myself or people later in the lineup. I always thought we take great swings when we get the right strikes, and we just drive them, yeah. Q. This is for Chase and Mike. With the trouble you guys were having timing Loepprich's 84-mile-per-hour fastball, was it a relief seeing a guy throw a more conventional fastball, like 90 miles per hour? MIKE TRILLER: Yes, I would definitely say so. First guy had a two two-seam working. It would start, looking like a strike, and then it would kind of just drop out of the zone and it's a little hard to lay off of. But to have somebody come in throwing a little flatter, it was nice to see that. CHASE PINDER: Yeah, I would agree. It's real tough, especially as a righty. He would start a two-seam down the middle and it would run in on your hands. And he would also have a two-seam that would sink a little bit. It's always easier facing a flatter pitcher. But he was effective and I give him credit for that. Q. That's 14 one-run game wins for you guys. How much of the other 13 kind of keep you guys calm and know that you still have a chance to win that game? CHASE PINDER: I thank Coach for that. I know when we're struggling or out of whack during the game and Coach meets in front of the dugout, he's going to get us straight, and he always does that, so I give him credit. Q. After Seth got on first base, were you hitting yourself there with that double, like man, maybe I should have put Brian in earlier? But it worked out in the end obviously. MONTE LEE: I thought about it, but actually I didn't want to do it because I wanted us to take the lead first. I kind of have some rules when it comes to managing, especially with the middle of the order. If I ever take a middle-of-the-order guy out, I want us to have the lead. So I wanted to wait until we had him at third base with less than two outs, and at the time, they had second and third with infield in. I didn't know if they were going to walk Roman or not, and we were going to run a contact play. So we were going to do no matter what on the ground and have them throw us out at the plate; and K.J.'s just faster. Once he got to third with one out right there, we were kind of anticipating, okay, if they pull the infield in, we have got to run a contact play here; we have to put a faster runner at third base. I don't like taking Seth out, that's for sure, but it just worked out. But it's tough to take your best players out of the ballgame, especially if you're down or it's tied. Once you have a lead, it's a little bit different scenario. But no, I have full confidence. I have full confidence. The ball was hit and it didn't get to the wall, so I thought it would be second and third, regardless. They cut the ball off before it got to the wall; I think. I'm just watching Seth at that point; is he going to be able to score or not. But we have full confidence with second and third with one out, we're going to get it done. But they did the right thing. They walked Rohlman to set up a double play, and Weston just popped the ball up. You've got to give Dunshee credit. He threw a good fastball. Just got by him a little bit and we popped it up, and that's baseball. Yeah, I don't like taking our better players out, no. Q. After beating Louisville yesterday, No. 1 in the RPI, I think you moved up to No. 7 in the RPI; do you feel you're a national seed regardless of the outcome tomorrow? MONTE LEE: Well, I this I we've done a really good job of controlling what we can control. And that's, when we went into this tournament, we drew a really tough pool with Virginia, the defending National Championship; and Louisville, who I believe is one of the best team I've seen, I think they are one of the best teams in the country. And Wake Forest has been swinging the bat exceptionally well, and has played really, really well here. I think we have done a really good job of doing everything that we possibly can to put a resumé together that deserves some recognition. You know, are we a national seed? We can't determine that. But I know this: If you look at our Top-50 wins, Top-100 wins, it's hard I think for anybody to say that Clemson doesn't deserve to be one of the top eight national seeds. We have one of the top eight resumes, I believe, and again, I don't study it to the point of the people on the committee. I'm just trying to win the next game. But I do believe we're in the conversation and you know, we'll see. Q. The short outings from Pat yesterday and today, how comfortable are you tomorrow, should you need him? MONTE LEE: It's always going to be a day by day feel thing with Pat. We're going to talk to him and see how he feels. We're going to look at the pitch counts, see how many pitches he threw. I don't know how many pitches he threw. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. If he feels good and we feel like he can go out there and give us an inning, then we'll do it. We'll analyze that day by day based on feel and based on pitch count. Q. Who do you prefer tomorrow, Florida State or Miami? MONTE LEE: Personally -- I personally don't care. They are both really good clubs. If you're playing Florida State, you know you're going to play one of the best-coached teams in the country, a great offensive approach-oriented team where you're going to have to throw strikes. Very well coached. Miami is a very dynamic lineup, very good defensive ballclub. I think one of the better defensive ballclubs in the country, another team with really good offensive approaches. To beat Florida State or to beat Miami, you have to throw strikes and make every single play because they are not going to give you anything, and they are going to run strike-throwers on the mound. Basically it's going to come down to catch-and-throw and who makes the fewest amount of mistakes. That's what happens this time of year, you're playing really good clubs. We are in a great position. We're in the championship. Whoever it is is who it is. I think we're going to be excited, obviously, about the opportunity to be in the championship. Q. You have seen Wake Forest now four times this season. Is that a team you believe deserves to see their name called Monday for the NCAA Tournament? MONTE LEE: Absolutely, I believe so, yes. That's a dangerous lineup. Their starting pitching is very good. So, yeah, I absolutely believe they should be -- have their name called on Monday. Q. What's Chris Williams meant to the ballclub, being able to move him back and forth from third to first? MONTE LEE: Again, Chris just does his job, and whatever that is. We've put our guys sometimes in some tough situations as coaches. It's not like I've just stuck somebody over there and played him the whole year. We've moved guy after guy after guy in at third base, and Chris Williams came in here as a catcher and had never played first base and had never played third base. Heck, I put him at first, tried to get him in the lineup. I put him over at third. He's a team guy, and I think that's what we exemplify. If you look at these guys and what they do for us, they are team guys. They are going to do whatever it takes to help us win a ballgame, and that's the kind of kids we want. The question I want our players to ask every single day is: What can I do to help our team win, and that's all that matters to me. And I hope that's what matters to them. You know, we don't care about stats. We don't care about our own personal success. It all boils down to: What can I do to help this team win today; can I impact the game on defense; can I impact the game on the bases, on the mound, at the plate, get a bunt down, move a runner, batter with two strikes, wear a pitch, whatever it takes, and that's what kind of players we've got. We're a blue-collar oriented club. We're a tough club. It just boils down to whatever is it going to take for me to win a ballgame. That's what our guys do. Q. Have you settled on a starting pitcher for tomorrow, and forgive me if you said it and I missed it. MONTE LEE: No, I haven't. I'm trying to enjoy the win over Wake Forest right now. You know, we'll definitely talk about it on the bus. I'll talk to Coach C, Coach LeCroy, Starbuck, Kopp. We all talk as a staff and go over every scenario and then try to make a decision. But no, I haven't decided yet who we are going to start. But we'll talk about it as a staff and then try to make a decision. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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