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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 23, 2017Elliott AventBrett KinnemanJohnny PiedmonteLouisville, Kentucky NC State - 6, Boston College - 1 ELLIOTT AVENT: Ten out of 18 ACC games -- and obviously swept us in Boston about a month ago, so came in with a lot of confidence and playing well. Stevens I think is as good as any pitcher in the league, and fortunate already for us I think we got him on four days' rest, and I think that probably affected him a little bit. And I thought we got some very -- you know, in the first hinge inning, I don't want to use the term, not-hit-the-ball-that-hard, but we had a couple soft hits fall in which got us to a three-run lead. Well, he let it stay at that for the rest of the game. And I thought this guy right here, I thought the hit he got 0-2 in the seventh was outstanding. And Johnny Piedmonte does what he does. He's 7-0 for a reason. He's pitching on short rest, as well. But he's such a competitor, and I thought he pitched out of two big-time jams early in the game, and that kind of, along with the hits we got in the first, that kind of set the tone. Q. Do you feel like you were more relaxed in this appearance versus the Fenway appearance where you ended upcoming in the first inning in a big jam? JOHNNY PIEDMONTE: Pretty similar. I had to work out of a couple jams this game as I did last game at Fenway. Just kind of tried to let my defense work. They made a couple big-time double plays for me. And I made a couple good pitches, in 1-1 counts and 2-2 counts, and just kind of worked out of it and grinded a little bit. Q. Brett, when you guys get an early lead, what does that do for your confidence at the plate knowing that there's a little bit less pressure with the 3-0 start? BRETT KINNEMAN: Yeah, that's definitely big for us. It allows us to free up in the box. Just try and tackle, and it also helps pitchers, like I'm sure with Johnny going out there with a 3-0 lead, makes. It easier for him to control the game. Make the defense work, like you said. Both ways it works well for us. Q. Coach talked about Boston being hot but you're pretty hot yourselves. Talk about what it's been the last 16 games. Has it been one thing or a bunch of different things? JOHNNY PIEDMONTE: I think before that we were playing pretty well and kind of everything sort of came together a little bit. Got some quality starts with some guys. Our hitters are all putting up good ABs, and I think it's more a comfortable thing, comfortable and confidence. Some things are going our way, so it's just been really fun these last couple games. BRETT KINNEMAN: Yeah, like he said, I'd say the last three to four weeks our starting pitching has been outstanding. Hitters have started to come around. We had some guys went through a little lull there in the middle of the season. But you know, I think it also had to do with just us taking one game, taking everything one game at a time instead of trying to win X amount of games down the stretch. Just trying to win one game at a time I think paid off for us. Q. Can you answer that, too? Has there been a difference or is it just a matter of riding a little bit of a hot streak here? ELLIOTT AVENT: You know, obviously when you, confidence is a big factor in that. Losing doesn't breed confidence; winning does. And early in the year we had some losses, a lot of one-run losses. But we just -- I've said all year, I made too tough a schedule and I made too tough a road schedule. Played a lot of games on the road, and we were very, very injured pitching-wise in the beginning of the year. And as Kinneman says, the hitters were not getting off -- pressing a little bit and didn't get off to a good start, and there were losses, and you lose confidence. And we just started winning a little more and having fun, and had a big sweep against Virginia Tech and then we went to Pittsburgh. I think Pittsburgh really is kind of where it just kicked in and we got really, really confident. Ate at a big-time restaurant there that, I don't know, the players still talk about. And they got more loose and more loose, and I think with winning comes confidence and with winning comes looseness and a belief that you're not going to lose. That's where this club's at right now. Q. Your most recent hot streak came right after that Boston College series lost. Do you feel like there's a sense of poetic Justice that you were able to ride this streak into the ACC Tournament against Boston College, and not only that, have the next team be the team whose series you lost immediately before then? ELLIOTT AVENT: No, I don't believe in stuff like that. Like I said, Boston College, not only they are so well coached, their kids are so tough and hard-nosed. We've always had a lot of respect for playing them and the job they do up there. And so we knew it was going to be a tough game. And like I say, Stevens is very, very on everybody in this league, including us. We don't get any poetic justice out of that. Feel very fortunate to beat Boston College. Q. Sunday afternoon, you recognized your seniors and had two shine today, Johnny and Sean. Talk about their overcoming adversity as of late. ELLIOTT AVENT: All our seniors have just been so phenomenal. Seniors lead your ballclub, and without leadership you're probably going to go nowhere. I've always respected and admired the seniors, not only of this club, but the last few years we've had tremendous leadership. It keeps getting handed down, and it's an amazing thing to watch. You talk about overcoming adversity, Johnny Piedmont, he's overcome so much. He kind of epitomizes I think everything NC State stands for and everybody watches the way he goes about his business, he's very professional, and so I'm just very happy for both those guys. Q. How different now to have a couple days off before your next game? ELLIOTT AVENT: I think it's three days off. Talking about going on vacation. We talked about maybe going to London or taking some sightseeing tour of Cooperstown, New York. See the City of Louisville a little bit. We're staying at a big-time hotel, went to a big-time restaurant last night, and Mark (ph) told me about another big-time restaurant we might go Thursday night. Tomorrow we're going to see Muhammad Ali's museum. If he's not the greatest athlete of all time, I'm sure in the top five; we're looking forward to that. We're going to have a few days off and come back and play Friday night. Q. Can you talk about the relief outing out of Sean, coming in with the bases loaded and only giving up one run? ELLIOTT AVENT: You know, that's what stemmed the tide. Sean pitched against -- he started in Fenway Park, that game in Boston, and I thought his stuff -- they got that great of swings against him in that game but he was behind everybody. And since that Boston series, he has been filling up the strike zone and until that ninth inning, he went whack to -- reverted back to where he was but he really fiddled with the strike zone, and when you can pitch ahead with his kind of stuff, you have a chance with our defense to get some ground balls and get some outs. Q. Didn't get to talk to you on Monday before y'all left but can you talk about Joe getting named all-ACC and Brad getting third team and Brad and Will and Michael -- ELLIOTT AVENT: Just very proud of them. The all-ACC thing is such a hard thing to get voted on. And you see some things and sometimes you wonder, hey, how about, we thought maybe Wilson with his kind of year should have been on there. There's always things that do -- matter of fact, I always said maybe the voting should go somewhere else for that. Figure out maybe a better way to do it. But just real proud of the fact that those guys got named all conference, and it's such an honor. Means so much to these players. They take a great respect when you look at the past players in the ACC; they were all ACC. They take great pride in that, and just really happy for those players that got selected and disappointed for the ones I thought maybe should have been selected. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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