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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 22, 2017Chris PollardLouisville, Kentucky CHRIS POLLARD: We're excited to be a part of the ACC Tournament. It's a great event. We're looking forward to being in Louisville. It's a beautiful ballpark, and there is going to be a lot of good baseball played this week. We're excited about the way our team's playing here, especially coming out of the exam break. I feel like over the last nine games we've played the best baseball we've played this year. So I feel like we're going into the event with some momentum. Q. Coach, want to ask about the series you had with Virginia in Charlottesville, where on Friday you guys obviously had a huge night and did something to them that hasn't happened to them in that ballpark. What were your impressions of UVA, I guess, coming out of that series? Obviously the next two games they played a little more like normal, but you guys took advantage on Friday. What were your impressions of them since that series? Because since then is when they started to play a little better? CHRIS POLLARD: Sure. Well, we left Charlottesville really impressed with their club, particularly offensively. The combination of Clement and Paisley and Smith at the top of their lineup is as tough of a group of guys to pitch to through the top of the lineup as any in our league. Obviously, the thing that jumps out to you about them offensively is how rare they strike out. Their numbers, as I described to our staff, they're almost like video game numbers. You just don't see a college baseball team that walks that many more times than they strike out over the course of a season. .410 on base percentage as a team, and they're shrugging .486. So it's not as if they're not still looking to drive the baseball. You know, when we played them, it was the third weekend of ACC play. They were still juggling their pitching rotation to kind of find the right formula. Since that point, they've pitched well. You know, as you knew they would, they played very good defense and become a veteran better staff. So they're a different team, but we certainly left Charlottesville plenty impressed by what they could do, particularly offensively. Q. What are your goals this week? I know everybody wants to win the championship, but what are your goals for this team for this trip to Louisville for you guys? CHRIS POLLARD: Sure. Well, I mean, our goal is to put ourselves in a position to be playing this weekend. If we've done that, we've gone 2-0. At that point we're in a position to run our way through this and be playing next week in a regional somewhere. We understand going into this we're not under any sort of disillusion that we're going to have to win the ACC Tournament to make a regional, unlike last year, where we felt pretty confident about our ability to get an at-large bid going in. So that starts with winning on Tuesday. Like Coach Lee said, we'll do everything we can to position ourselves to win Tuesdays ballgame. Then we need to come back ask do the same thing Thursday morning. Q. Is the Clemson team the same team from last year? I know they played Florida State from last year. It was a title game, it was raining all day, and they played until 8:00 at night. Are they the same team from last year to this year? CHRIS POLLARD: Well, I think they're a more complete team. I think they're better on the mound. They've got a lot of the same pieces back offensively. But the emergence of Chris Williams, the emergence of Grayson Byrd. Obviously the gigantic step that Reed Rohlman took as an offensive player, I think they're a better, more complete team this time this year than they were at this same point last year. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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