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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 22, 2018Joe JordanoMatt PidichDurham, North Carolina Pitt - 2, Georgia Tech - 1 JOE JORDANO: Well, first off, I thought we played a really good baseball game today. Georgia Tech is, in my opinion, top of that lineup, maybe one of the most dangerous in the league, and we knew going in that Matt had to throw one of his great games in order to give us an opportunity. The difference today, as Coach Hall mentioned, is we got the timely hit, a couple of timely hits. That was the difference in the game. Played well defensively, we pitched well. Their guy, he's tough. He's coming right at us, threw very well today. Again, offensively, tremendous respect for them, and it's a testament to the incredible job that Matt did on the bump today. Really great day for our program. Q. What was working so well for you today, and what was your approach to the top of that lineup? That's a scary top three. MATT PIDICH: Well, we played Georgia Tech earlier this season, so going into it, kind of knew what I was getting into. You know, they're a big-swinging offense. You have to throw good pitches. If you don't, they're going to make you pay. I just knew if my off speed, just mixing up my slider and my changeup, that was going to be the way to beat them, and that worked out pretty well for me today. Q. Matt, did you feel like you were able to spot that fastball pretty well? Seemed like it had a lot to life to it and you were hitting your spots, and I thought the changeup in particular you got a lot of swings and misses with. MATT PIDICH: Yeah, I mean, in the ACC, you've got to make pitches. If you leave the ball over the plate, especially these guys, I mean, everyone sees, you look at their stats, you've got multiple guys 10 plus home runs. It's pretty amazing. You just know you're mixing up speeds and hitting spots, get a couple strikeouts looking, that's the way you're going to beat them. Q. Matt, what was the excitement level like with your teammates? This is the first time you've qualified for the ACC Tournament, and now you're one win away from the semifinals. It's kind of -- coming in as a 12 seed, rags to riches type situation? MATT PIDICH: I mean, we came -- this was one of our goals that we set earlier in the season, just getting to the tournament. I'm a red shirt senior, this is my last go-around, a couple of us. So it's one of those things where we knew going into it that anything can happen. I mean, everyone knows in baseball anything can happen. Anyone can win the postseason. But we have this approach going into this tournament that we don't care what seed you are, we don't care if you're the 8 seed, the 1 seed. We're the 12 seed, and we've been the underdogs ever since we came into the ACC. You can pick us last, but we're going to come at you with everything we have. Q. Coach, you look at Matt's season that he's had, it seems like maybe flown under the radar a little bit compared to some of the guys in the league, but the numbers are really good, and this was a big-time performance today. Can you kind of put his season and his performance today into perspective? JOE JORDANO: Well, as I've said many times before, the one thing that is so impressive with Matt is when you look at his career and the time he has at the University of Pittsburgh, he's been through a couple of injuries, and his perseverance, his work ethic, his meticulous preparation both on and off the field, the time he takes and the detail that he puts in between starts, and you see the result of it. It's refreshing for a coach to be able to see a person that puts that much time and effort into what he does. He's also a great student, as well. And when you see that and then you see the success that follows, it sets an incredible example for not only his teammates but certainly raises the bar for the expectation of the entire pitching staff, and not only the pitching staff but the entire team. So this is a result of five years of incredible work and a person that never took the shortcut, always did things the right way, and that's a culmination today of that effort. Q. How about RJ at the end there? Pretty electric stuff. I assume that's what you've seen from him all season long, but what did you think about him today? JOE JORDANO: RJ was great. You know, RJ is going to -- he's going to elevate your blood pressure a little bit. You know, there are times where he gets a little bit erratic, but sometimes that's a positive for him. And when he throws that breaking pitch for a strike, his stuff is electric. He's been a guy for us all year. We certainly have Yaya ready to go on the back end, as well, who's been great for us. So this was not only a performance by Matt but also by RJ that kind of protected our bullpen going into tomorrow. Again, RJ, he's a guy, too, that it's pretty neat to see how he evolved from last year to this year, and every time out seems to get better and better. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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