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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 25, 2017Dan McDonnellJosh StowersBrendan McKayLouisville, Kentucky Louisville - 10, Notre Dame - 3. DAN MCDONNELL: We took advantage. The offense did a good job of competing and McKay gave us another quality start, which we've gotten so many times in three years. I just want to congratulate Notre Dame, man. They fought hard. That game yesterday, man, I'm sure took a lot out of them, but you knew the pride they had, and they were going to come in and play hard, and even down 5-0, man, they battled and put their two-out rally together and they forced us to work, just two teams that played really hard tonight, and fortunately we took advantage of a few mistakes and had some nice two-out rallies. Q. Brendan, just talk about I think it was the first pitch on the grand slam; what did you see and what did you kind of think of that? BRENDAN McKAY: Previously I think I asked somebody, hey, is this going to slow a slider yet, and I think he had thrown one or two to a couple of the lefties. Really not knowing what he was going to throw in that situation, if he wants to get ahead and then start working stuff, but he threw a first-pitch curveball that kind of hung up there. I got fooled a little bit out front but stayed back long enough to get the barrel through the zone. Q. Did you think you had it? BRENDAN McKAY: I thought I had a good shot at it, yeah. Q. How good does it feel to get back into the win column? BRENDAN McKAY: Feels great after three tough games before that, just really battling and not getting the results you want. It feels great to come in and have a good game overall. Q. What did you feel like on the mound? It seemed like a couple innings, a couple control issues, but other than that, you seemed pretty -- like you were? BRENDAN McKAY: Yeah, started off the game pretty well, feeling good, and then hit a little bump third or fourth inning and then got back on track after that, so really just that one inning got out of whack and just needed to fight through it. Q. Josh, obviously coming into the game you must have been feeling pretty good. JOSH STOWERS: Yeah, I felt pretty good. It wasn't the most conventional four for five, definitely one of the best swings, but a hit is a hit, so I'll take it. Q. You really cut off that rally. It looked like they were about to do some damage. JOSH STOWERS: Yeah, I forgot who the hitter was, but he put a good swing on the ball and he hit it pretty hard, so I had some momentum coming into it, and previously a couple days before, Coach Mac got on all the outfielders about taking ground balls like game speed, and just from doing that, there was no panic, and I was able to put a good throw to our catcher. Q. Brandon, did you think that that kind of got the momentum back in y'all's favor? BRENDAN McKAY: Yeah, we were a little down, giving up some runs, and the energy being taken away from us, that throw put some energy back in us. You always get excited after a good throw or a good play or just anything good in general, so that always brings your energy back up and the emotion back to you. Q. Josh, what did it feel like, three losses in a row? It's got to feel good to get one back. JOSH STOWERS: Yeah, it's always good to win. Nobody on our team likes to lose, especially with all the work that we've put in throughout the season. I just felt in those three games that we lost, we were never out of it, but there were certain innings to where we were just down for no reason, there was just no confidence, and I feel like after these couple days off, everybody got their focus back, and we were just able to regroup and come out with a bunch of energy today. Q. What did you think of the environment out there? BRENDAN McKAY: It's awesome, really. I love when we have 6,000 fans in Jim Patterson Stadium and it's rocking, and you still love it here, just the atmosphere, everybody was excited, and just to play in a new atmosphere with a little bit different surroundings, a little bit bigger ballpark, it has a different feeling than just the traditional college stadium with 6,000 fans, but they're packed in there. You've got a little more room here. Q. The stakes are high tomorrow, the rematch against a Florida State team that had your number last week twice. How much are you looking forward to this opportunity? BRENDAN McKAY: This is what you look forward to all year. You know throughout the season you're going to play pretty much everybody on your side of the conference, and then a few teams that are crossed over, so you always look forward to the conference tournament when you see who you get matched up with, some teams you didn't have as much success against or teams you did have success against. Just you want to get back in and play some quality competition and maybe get some revenge if you say so on some certain teams or have a different attitude. Q. What did you take away from those last two Florida State games that will help you outcome? JOSH STOWERS: I would just say hitting-wise, there's just some adjustments that we all needed to make, especially facing Tyler Holton, and I just feel like just with the work that we put in over the last couple days, I feel like we were coming out a lot stronger and with a lot more energy, and I'm confident we'll get the W tomorrow. Q. How much does it help you guys that everybody else had to travel and you guys got to stay home? BRENDAN McKAY: I think it's awesome that the past two years we've ended on the road, both in North Carolina schools playing at NC State my freshman year and Wake Forest last year, so you come home for a day, two days, and you have one practice and then you're back on the road again, so it's nice to be here, have a regular practice, get all your treatment that you want, extra swings that you can get here, and also you don't have to go anywhere, you can get regular meals, sleep in your own bed, just relax, and almost feel like you're at home. Q. Josh, what does batting in the No. 2 spot do for your confidence? JOSH STOWERS: There's really no difference between batting 2 and 8. I just filled in for Colby who was a great hitter and I'm expecting him to be back pretty soon. Going 4 for 5 is always awesome, but I feel like I've taken the same approach day in and day out, and today I just happened to get four hits. Q. What do you think your team's mindset is going into tomorrow? DAN MCDONNELL: Just a lot of respect for Florida State, and you know, had a chance in both the games we played against them, but realize we didn't play well enough, and they're really good. They're playing well at this time of the year, and you know, like Brendan said, this is fun. This is exciting. This is the joy of playing in the ACC, and the thing about this tournament, it's a super packed tournament. The one positive is you won't see these teams in a regional. You could cross them maybe in a super regional or Omaha, but they won't send them to your regional. But just so much respect for Coach Martin and their program, and they're really good players. They're obviously playing well. They know they're in a good spot for the NCAAs and the regionals, so I'm sure that's taking some of the pressure off of them, and just good players playing good baseball. Q. What is the availability of Colby Fitch? DAN MCDONNELL: Just day-to-day. Just got to be smart with him and make sure. He's around. He's smiling. He's in the dugout. He's talking to players. He's focused in the game. So just make sure he feels okay, and guys have stepped up all year, so Zeke did a nice job, and we wanted to get Rumoro out there to make sure we had two catchers with confidence and experience going into tomorrow. Q. Is he just banged up? DAN MCDONNELL: Yeah, yeah, just he had a little collision in our controlled scrimmage the other day, and just wasn't feeling 100 percent. You know, so we've just got to be smart, especially this time of the year. I mean, we want to win and we'll do our best. We're going to go out there and compete. But there's another tournament next weekend, so we've just got to make sure everybody is available. Q. Do you expect to continue with your normal pitching rotation? DAN MCDONNELL: Yeah, yeah. We want Kade to get a quality start tomorrow. He threw well against them last week, and you know, both he and Brendan, that will give them enough rest going into the regionals next weekend. Q. How about Brendan, just comes up with one big thing after another, grand slam tonight. DAN MCDONNELL: Yeah, I just keep saying I'm glad I've been in the dugout to witness this. I mean, this is a pretty remarkable -- what he does for a team, when you look at our run in the ACC, the three years we've been in the league, we were fortunate that we had this group of McKay and Hairston and all these juniors, and obviously they played with a lot of good players ahead of them. But everybody knows McKay has been front and center in this three-year run, so he's done so much for our program. It's nice to see the recognition he's getting in college baseball, and not just for this year but for his career. To me that's always going to stand out more than anything is the consistency in the three years. You just don't see that often in college baseball or with amateurs. Q. How big was a clean game tonight for you defensively after the last couple? DAN MCDONNELL: Yeah, it's something we talk about. You've got to dominate the routine play. I mean, as you watch these games, if you give teams that fourth out in an inning, you're going to pay, and we made some nice plays, real solid. It starts on the mound. Brendan set the tone. He just had that one hiccup, but it's going to come down to making great plays. I know Duke is 2-0 and they've already advanced, and just hearing a little bit about their games and seeing a little bit, defense, you know, you've got to play great defense, and the saying goes in all sports that defense wins championships. It's so crucial in postseason baseball. Q. Talk about the defensive plays, Josh's play and the rally there. What did you think about that? DAN MCDONNELL: Yeah, Coach Snider does a great job with our catchers, so we hit them fungo balls, plays at the plate every week where they've got to be able to handle -- I thought Zeke made a nice play. It was kind of a short hop or an in-between hop. Like Josh said, we really get on the outfielders, Coach Vrable does a nice job with them about cutting down the distance on balls, getting the ball out of the glove quickly, and you know, I think Logan, Taylor and -- Colin Lyman is the best I've ever coached at it, and everyone is better because of seeing how quickly Colin Lyman gets to the ball, takes one less step and gets it out, and he and Logan have gotten better every year, and so for Josh to play a couple years with those guys, it's only helped him. We always say you become a product of your society, and hopefully Josh is taking advantage of playing with Corey Ray, Summers, Lyman and Taylor, guys who take so much pride in their outfield play. As a coach, it's good to see you have success on things you work on. We just take a lot of pride in the little things, and that's an area, like Josh said, it's something we take pride in. Q. Coach Jordan retiring, just a quick statement about that. DAN MCDONNELL: Yeah, I wouldn't be sitting here today if it weren't for Coach Jordan. He gave me my first coaching job. He allowed me to hit the road and recruit and make mistakes at a young age he taught me a lot about life, about the game, about being a great husband, a great father, and he took the baseball program to another level, so when I played there, we played at a high level, but when he took over, he took it to another level, so it gave me the foundation that, man, I could go anywhere and compete and use the system that I learned there and win, and so, you know, that's why I'm sitting here today. Q. A lot of talk about being at home for this tournament. Do you feel like you guys -- because you were the last one, the rain delays, do you get a little antsy? DAN MCDONNELL: Yeah, coming off the losses, practicing, these guys are just chomping at the bit. We're just glad the sun is out. You know, I joked with Duke that, hey, you're in Louisville and you're in The Finals, you know, you're in the semifinals. You went 2-0, so maybe we don't have to play in Durham every year. It just comes down to playing good baseball. You've just got to play good baseball. I've said any one of these 12 teams can win this tournament. You've got to play clean, good baseball, and that's what makes it so much fun. Just the teams are so good. The players are so good, and they're used to handling pressure. So no one is going to -- I love our crowd, I love the atmosphere, I love showing off the fan base, but I don't think anyone is going to be intimidated. These guys play in beautiful ballparks, great crowds all year, so that's the advantage of playing in the ACC is you're used to atmospheres like this. Q. Does getting back in the winning column give them an extra boost of confidence heading into tomorrow? DAN MCDONNELL: Yeah, this game is all about confidence and feeling good about yourself and having a tough week, the toughest week of the year. They're human, you know, so -- but they work hard, like Josh said, they put in the time. They prepare. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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