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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 25, 2018Elliott AventJosh McLainJoe O'DonnellDurham, North Carolina Florida State - 5, NC State - 2 ELLIOTT AVENT: Just thought we played well tonight, played very well. As a matter of fact, Brian Brown was very, very good for two innings. The third inning was where they did most of the damage, and he made some big pitches the first two innings, and the third inning he just couldn't seem to make the pitch. But part of that is Florida State. We just got through playing them three times in Tallahassee, and obviously we see the teams that we see, but for the teams that we played this year, and we played a great schedule, that's as good a team and as hot a team as we've seen all year. They're playing their best baseball of the season, and Parrish was just -- that's twice we've seen him in a week, and there's not enough good things I can say about him. Three pitches wherever he wants to throw them for strike, and Mike Bell, their pitching coach, does a great job of utilizing a guy who has that kind of command and ability, and had a great game plan and pitched us as tough as we've been pitched all year. Just tip your hat to Parrish. He was unbelievable. But I thought our guys hung in there. Had to go to the bullpen in the fourth, and they just battled like they did all year, and anything could have happened. Anyway, tip your hat to Parrish and Florida State. They're playing very well. Q. Josh, do you feel like with these two games with the hitting for you guys, it's just been a matter of running into some hot pitching, or do you feel like there's something that needs to change in the approaches going forward and into the rest of the season? JOSH McLAIN: No, we faced two good pitchers yesterday and today, and Parrish threw lights-out tonight. The guy they threw at Virginia threw last night, threw great. We just ran into tough pitching, but we're just going to stay with what we do. We hit well all year, just going to keep pushing. Q. When you have a tournament like this, do you just flush it and start over fresh going to the next tournament, or how do you not let this linger? JOSH McLAIN: No, we've got to look ahead. We've got regionals coming up. That's what we're focused on now. We've got to put this behind us and get ready to go this weekend. Q. You've seen a lot of Cal Raleigh over the last three years. Is this the best you've ever seen him play, and how good is that guy in your opinion? ELLIOTT AVENT: Cal Raleigh, when he came in the league we knew how good he was. I watched him his freshman year and he was a good player, and then sophomore year -- right now I'd say he's as locked in as a hitter as you can be. Whatever we threw him, he was on it, and I think Joe got him with a high fastball, but Joe forgot who always comes in to protect a lead. Joe is not usually in that situation. I thought Joe O'Donnell was as locked in and as focused and as good as I've ever seen him. But other than that, Cal Raleigh is as locked in as any hitter we've seen all year, and from both sides of the plate, and you talk about how sturdy he is, he catches like probably 97 percent of their innings. He's been amazing. He's one of the true great players in this league and one of the top players in this country who's playing very, very well right now. Q. Coach, you guys get almost four innings out of Kent Klyman tonight. What did you see from him and what has he meant to this team all year? ELLIOTT AVENT: That's what he's done all year. Kent Klyman, Joe O'Donnell and some other guys who pitched in, Clenney has been very, very good at times, came in, got a couple big outs tonight. But we've got a thin bullpen due to some things all year, and what Kent Klyman and Joe O'Donnell have done for us in a bullpen that we've lived by for several years, they've been unbelievable, and Kent and Joe were good again tonight. Q. At this point obviously the hope is to host a regional this coming up week. Where do you feel like this team stands as far as that's concerned, and where is this team confidence-wise heading into that? ELLIOTT AVENT: I think our confidence is good. We got down 5-0 and Florida State had just knocked our ace out, the pitcher of the year in the ACC. And they were playing with a lot of confidence. Like I said, they're playing very, very well right now. We just left Tallahassee. They played us as good a three games as anybody has played us all year in Tallahassee. So that's a very good team, and our guys battled back from 5-0, made it 5-2, and had some opportunities there against a guy that's as good as there is in the country. So I think our confidence is very, very high. I think we're hosting a regional. I think there's no question about that. I'm sure people will write different things and speculate and tweet and all things, but when you look at a team that finished third in the ACC, won eight out of ten conference series and won 10 out of 12 series, I would say if you check the schedule, it might have been the toughest schedule in the ACC because our division is extremely tough, and then when your partner is Carolina in the other half and they win the league, so I'd say our conference schedule was as tough as anybody's if not the toughest. I think we're hosting a regional, and we're playing well. You just run into guys like Parrish and like Max said last night, Casey, they make it tough on any hitters, but we battled, and that's all we can do. Q. Josh, you guys have an extremely difficult schedule. Are there some lessons you can perhaps take from these past two days because this is obviously a higher pressure situation as you move forward into the NCAA tournament? JOSH McLAIN: The two guys that threw against us the past few days, that's the pitching we're going to see next week, and then if we make it past regionals and super regionals and all from here on out. You've got to learn from what we did and learn what they're doing to us and just build on that, build on what we've done and just keep getting better. Q. Joe, you got extended a little bit today. How important was it to get that kind of work in knowing that you're not going to be playing another game here for probably another week? JOE O'DONNELL: Yeah, I mean, it was good, but the only thing I was thinking about today was just keeping it where it was at. I mean, I got a lot of confidence in Josh and the rest of our hitters. At no point in those last three innings did I think we weren't going to come back and win that game. I wasn't worried about extended or anything. I was just trying to keep it where it was at so I gave our team the best shot to come back and win. ELLIOTT AVENT: If I could say one more thing. I said it last night in here. The media that turned out for this tournament is obviously what makes this tournament one of the best in the country, and obviously a great ballpark, and I think everything has been first-class with the tournament, the way it's been run. But I want to thank our fans. Our fans were unbelievable tonight. I mean, they -- I haven't been to a lot of games here. I've been watching them on TV. But seeing the crowds the way our fans turned out tonight, just a great tribute, not only to our fan base, but I think it's a great tribute to our team because they love watching these guys play, and I love watching them play, too, so I just want to say great job by everybody involved, but a great job by our fans. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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