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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

May 21, 2018

Joe Jordano

Durham, North Carolina

JOE JORDANO: Certainly a pleasure to be a part of this great event. It's our first opportunity since joining the ACC, and my staff and my team are very much looking forward to the competition.

I feel we're a fairly balanced team. We've had some ups and downs throughout the course of the year. Had some really quality wins and some struggles at times, as well. Our depth is a little bit of a factor, but certainly Matt Pidich leading away on our pitching staff and some of our middle guys, RJ Freure and Yaya Chentouf did a really good job for us. Had some quality starts from Dan Hammer, as well, and Derek West has been pitching well as of late.

Defensively, we've done a very good job all year. We've had some challenges offensively, but certainly, going into the tournament, up until this past weekend, we've been kind of finding our way a little bit offensively. We are a very blue collar-type baseball team. We have to pitch well and we have to field it well and we have to take advantage of what the game gives offensively in order for us to be -- to have a chance to win.

So we understand the margin of error is rather thin, but we also embrace that challenge and work on it every day.

Q. I was curious how the team is different today than it was after the Miami series when you guys seemed to be at a peak. Have things changed a whole lot since then?
JOE JORDANO: Well, I think since then, we lost Alex Amos in our lineup, who is kind of our spark plug. He started the year as our lead-off hitter, and then we decided to move him down a little bit to generate some offense in the back end of our lineup, and he was injured prior to the Miami series and it really kind of shifted our lineup around a little bit, both offensively and defensively.

And then since that point, we also lost Nico Popa, who broke his index finger on his throwing hand in the LIU series. So two guys that played quite a bit for us Nico Popa up until that point, we have not been -- have not been available to us since those injuries, and it doesn't look like they will be back this year.

And I also think that, you know, we've had some really good outings from Dan Hammer. I think that Matt Pidich just continued to pitch well, and I think that, you know, we are, again, up until the past weekend, we've been swinging the bats pretty well.

Again, as I mentioned, the formula, which I think for any good baseball team, is going to be pitching and defense, which we've been pretty consistent with that. It's just we have to improve our, I would say timely hitting, situational hitting. If we can do that, we have a chance.

Q. Who would you turn to after Matt in your first game, or is that something you'd rather not discuss?
JOE JORDANO: Well, you know, it would depend on some of the matchups, but definitely we have RJ, even Derek West coming out of the pen, is somebody that has done a really good job out of the pen for us.

Then you also have, of course, TJ Pagan who gives a different look, more of a submarine style, and of course on the back end Yaya.

So we are playing quite frankly, all-in, Game 1. So we're not even thinking about Wednesday. We're thinking about the nine innings in front of us tomorrow against Georgia Tech.

MIKE FINN: You mentioned him a couple times in the call, but can you talk about what Matt Pidich has given you this year in your starting rotation?

JOE JORDANO: So Matt has done a great job for us. He's a bulldog on the mound. He's a pitcher. He's not going to overpower you with a power arm, but he can run it up there a little bit but he pitches. Throws all three of his pitches for strikes. Does a really good job controlling the running game and pounds the zone. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes.

He has impeccable work ethic. His pregame preparation is phenomenal. The work that he does between starts is really an example of how to do things properly. So it's really a situation where you look at him and how he does it, such a great example for our younger players.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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