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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

May 25, 2017

Louisville, Kentucky

Wake Forest - 5, Georgia Tech - 4

DANNY HALL: Yeah, I thought we got off to a great start in the game and had command of the game until the ninth inning. You know, Sheets obviously put them right back in the game with one swing. He's an outstanding player, and then they had a big two-out hit off the wall into right, and then we made an error to give them the go-ahead run. Disappointing loss and a disappointing season, and you know, felt like Xzavion certainly pitched great and certainly deserved to win, and Coleman Poje has been a great player for us all year, so disappointing to walk out of here with a loss.

Q. Xzavion, the first five innings you were unhittable. What was working for you? Was there any particular pitch or was there a number of things that were working for you?
XZAVION CURRY: I think the thing that was working for me was just keeping the ball low and not leaving it up in the zone because that's usually where I find a problem is when I leave the ball in the zone and the guys can elevate it.

Q. Xzavion, just talk a little bit about what was your mindset coming into it?
XZAVION CURRY: My mindset coming into today was try and end the season on a good note, go out with a bang, and I just tried to do the best to get my team in position to do that.

Q. Xzavion, just following up, Wake Forest averages eight runs a game, one of the best hitting clubs in the ACC. When you walked out of the game did you really feel like you accomplished something?
XZAVION CURRY: Yeah, when I walked out of the game, I felt like I accomplished keeping them under a certain amount of runs, and I just felt like it was a great outing. I felt good today.

Q. Coleman, talk about this is your last game and just maybe your mindset coming into it. Obviously everybody knows the guys that aren't playing, but you're banged up, as well. Talk about your mindset.
COLEMAN POJE: Yeah, I mean, I know it's the last one, so no reason to go out there and play tender, just kind of leave it all out there and play the best I could. That's about it.

Q. Talk about how you've kind of the last couple weeks of the season for you because you were kind of forced to step up a little bit more in terms of your offense and even switching positions coming back up to first base, how you made that transition and tried to lead this team because you were kind of forced into that with the injuries.
COLEMAN POJE: Yeah, I definitely had a different role as the season moved on, just kind of had more and more of the responsibility on my shoulders to lead the team offensively especially with two of our biggest hitters going down. Kind of just changed the roles a little bit, but for the most part, the approach was the same, just get a good pitch to drive it, and fortunately we just had a few of those tonight.

Q. That ninth inning after Wake comes back and takes the lead, what was the mindset like in the dugout as you guys were going up for your last at-bats?
COLEMAN POJE: Obviously we were upset that we had just allowed that to happen. Obviously had it in the bag and then a few unfortunate pitches and a few unfortunate results later, they had the lead. Definitely we were down, but then once the inning started we started hitting, when he got that knock, there was confidence for sure. We had been scoring. We felt good as an offense for the last couple of weeks. Definitely thought we had a good chance to push one across there, and unfortunately I got one to hit and I just missed it twice. That's how it goes sometimes.

Q. In a game like this where your fortune had basically been decided from the game against Miami, what was the mindset for you guys tonight, basically just try to come out and end it on a high note?
COLEMAN POJE: Yeah, I mean, it kind of doesn't change anything, whether or not it was an elimination game or if we needed to win it to go on. The mindset should always be the same, we're going to go out there and do what we can to win a ballgame. Doesn't matter if it's in the backyard or in Omaha. We're going to go out there and give it everything we've got and try and get a W.

Q. About the format, knowing that you guys weren't going to be able to make the semifinals, is there anything you told the kids about today, any advice or any words that you gave?
DANNY HALL: Like they said, we just wanted to finish the year on a good note, finish the year with a win, and like I said earlier, felt like we did just about everything we could. We just didn't have a good ninth inning and didn't get those last three outs which are hard to get sometimes. Quite honestly, we've done that quite a bit this year, and you know, our two best bullpen guys, we had to use the other day trying to beat Miami just to give ourselves a chance to make this game meaningful, so we couldn't use them today, and I know Wake didn't use any of their pitchers, either. But we just didn't get it done. Ninth inning had plenty of chances to do it, just didn't get it done. So that was our mindset. We wanted to win this game.

Q. With Xzavion and the way that he pitched, how have you talked -- what do you plan on doing with him in the offseason to get him ready, and do you expect him to be one of the top pitchers in the conference next season?
DANNY HALL: Yeah, we started five freshmen today, and Xzavion, like we stated earlier, had pretty much pitched on Friday nights for us all year. He's also an outstanding shortstop, so I think this summer, I don't think we're going to have him pitch at all this summer. We might send him out to play a little bit in the infield and hit a little, but then coming back next year, we'll -- a lot depends on the draft and who's in and who's out, but he's either going to be a key guy for us in the weekend or we also could possibly see him being a closer and playing a position. He's a great athlete. He's a good kid, and I wish he would have walked out of there with a win today.

Q. Talk about the format; for you and your team, two really close games. What's the sentiment and feeling about being so close against two teams?
DANNY HALL: I mean, this is kind of how I say it. The good teams find a way to win, and our record indicates that we haven't done a very good job of finding ways to win late in games, and that's probably what we need to address the most and will be addressed the most. Some of that is youth, some of it could be some of the guys that are back home that are injured, not playing here. Some of it's our pitching, maybe not quite good enough to get the good teams out, and so, you know, that's just the way it is. It's baseball. It's a tough game sometimes, and for us this year, we had many games like this today as opposed to walking away winning those games by one run.

Q. You mentioned coming in you didn't know you were going to have nine guys, ten guys injured and playing freshmen; how do you feel about this season and can take some positive out of it into next year?
DANNY HALL: Well, I think the positive is we had a lot of young guys that got playing experience, so they're going to be a year older. But we've just got to get better in all phases of the game. We've got to pitch better, play better defense, and we've got to just make more contact and hit better. I mean, I think we had 13 hits and scored four runs today. I don't know how many we left on base. If you just cash in on some of those opportunities you have, you're not sweating it out like we had to in the ninth inning.

I'll say it again; I think Sheets is one of the best players in the league, so we knew that once Fairchild got the hit that he's capable particularly when we got behind him of hitting a home run and putting them right back in the game, and he did.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

May 25, 2017

Danny Hall

Xzavion Curry

Coleman Poje