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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 21, 2018Tom WalterDurham, North Carolina TOM WALTER: We're excited about the opportunity and looking forward to getting back on the field. I think we're playing our best baseball right now that we've played all year. Our lineup is starting to come together. Our bullpen pieces are falling into place and our starting pitching has been solid all year. So we're just looking forward to getting out there and competing. MIKE FINN: Can you talk a little about the two teams that are in your pool? I know that you will open up first with Louisville but you also have Duke in your pool. TOM WALTER: Yeah, certainly I think it looks like the toughest pool to me on paper. That 4-5-9 pool is always a tough one I think because there's really no difference in our league between 1 and 5, typically. So first and foremost, Louisville is similar to us in a lot of ways; that they have a young team and that their lineup has kind of turned over the past two years with the draft and all the success they have had. So they have got some new faces and some new pieces that are maturing and kind of coming into their own right now. So very similar kind of offensive club to ours, I'd say. We're facing a freshman left-hander who has got a really good arm and we know they have got Bordner at the back of the game who is going to be really hard to score on. So that will certainly be a difficult game for us. And then clearly, Duke is a great club who has had a really outstanding year. They have got Griffin Conine, probably the hottest hitter in college baseball right now in the middle of that order and is going to be tough to tangle with. And I'm not sure yet who we'll face yet, but their pitching staff is super talented and super deep. We'll certainly have our hands full both games. Q. Not related to the tournament, but you just got done playing Virginia. What was it like to manage in that game on Saturday, goes five hours, playing nine innings. Have you ever managed a game like that and what kind of toll does it take on the players? TOM WALTER: It's a good day for your offense obviously because you get guys that kind of build some confidence heading into the tournament. Both teams were in a similar situation where the game, quite honestly, doesn't mean a great deal, other than maybe some seeding implications. But both us and Virginia, not knowing whether we were going to play Tuesday or Wednesday, certainly didn't want to burn a lot of pitching that day. So we kind of both staffed it together, and a hot day at our ballpark when the wind is blowing out a little bit and you're pitching two guys who don't normally pitch on the weekends, you're going to get that type of a game. Again, good for our offense to get some momentum headed into the tournament and again, we're just looking forward to getting back on the field. MIKE FINN: Several of the coaches have talked about the quality and depth of the league this year. Can you give your thoughts on that? TOM WALTER: Yeah, without question. There's no easy weekend in this league. As I tell our team all the time, if you don't know who the sucker is at the poker table, it's probably you. That's how I feel in this league going into every weekend: You've got your hands full. It's hard to win. You've got to play good baseball, and when you play a team, it's particularly critical if you've played Wake Forest a certain point in the year, it was probably an easier test than it would be right now and same thing with a lot of our clubs. These coaches are all veterans who have a great deal of experience and know their clubs really well, and they all do a great job kind of building towards this time of year. Everybody is headed into this tournament playing their best brand of baseball and expecting to come out here and win, and then in this format, anybody can win it, too. It's going to exciting baseball, for sure. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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