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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 20, 2014Brett AustinElliott AventTrea TurnerGREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA North Carolina: 4 THE MODERATOR: It's my pleasure to introduce head Coach Elliott Avent as well as student athletes, Brett Austin and Trea Turner. Coach? COACH AVENT: Proud of our players. Disappointing way to end the regular season. We still think ‑‑ I wont say good possibility, but a possibility and possibility doesn't sound strong enough, so I wont say good and I wont say possibility. We know what this team has done the last six weeks and probably eight weeks and what we have done in the last 15 games and, you know, meeting your arch rival at 11:00 in the morning and playing this hard. Both teams played well. We went through their entire pitching staff and I couldn't be more proud of our players and I'm sure our fan base is and, you know, this is a team that can be as good as it was last year and we're playing like that right now so I hope the Committee awards us. I know what Arizona won the national championship and UCLA, their records may not have been as good as ours. So we hope the season is not over but if it is, I couldn't be prouder of what our guys did, for what they brought to the University and what they did today. Q. Trea, what happened at home? TREA TURNER: I thought I was safe. I saw the catcher put his head down and lob the ball back to the pitcher and with 2 outs I thought I could take a chance and I thought I calculated in my head good enough that I thought I had a good shot at it. I read it good and did everything like I wanted to, call just didn't go my way. Q. (No microphone.) TREA TURNER: I wouldn't say so. We were up every inning. That was the best energy we have had all year as a team. We knew what was at stake and I don't think that took anything out of us. Q. (No microphone.) COACH AVENT: Obviously you have some questions about it the way you asked the question, so I'll ask you, do you have any question about his attendance? I don't know. I know Mark Chapman is a good umpire, one of the best in the league. He's a better person than he is umpire and he's a good umpire. Is he going to hate this film? Probably. Q. Trea, you said a couple of weeks ago that stealing home was something that was in your head. Can you go through the mind‑set of how you assess doing that? TREA TURNER: It's based off the pitcher, how athletic the pitcher is. He did a good job catching the ball and throwing it back home but the catcher I felt like wasn't paying enough attention to me so I felt I had a good shot at it. He was throwing it fairly hard back to the pitcher but once he turned his head and took his eyes off me I got going and I thought I had it but we'll see. Q. (No microphone.) BRETT AUSTIN: That's not my call but we'll see. Definitely a tough game to lose to your arch rival. We're going to keep a positive mind‑set, be as optimistic as we can and see if we can get a bid. Q. (No microphone.) COACH AVENT: That guy has done so much for this University and these guys are his roommates, they can tell you. Here is the same guy that found me in Rosenblatt last year and demanded the ball on three‑days rest there in that third game in Omaha. He's done so much for us, I talked to Coach Holiday who has been around forever, we just decided we be couldn't do it. He wanted the ball, I think he and Coach Holiday may have talked when he was on second base there, but I got the feeling if we took the lead he may have demanded the ball again and if he demanded it. I don't know if I would have given it to him, we just weren't going to pitch him on three day's rest with all he's done for this University. The fact that he goes out there and logs that bat ‑‑ I don't know if anybody who loves their university enough, with the possibility for what he may sign for in a few weeks. I dont know of another human being that would love their university that much, so he's done so much we weren't going to ask more than we should have asked for, so that was an easy decision for us. Q. (No microphone.) COACH AVENT: You're talking about good pitching, man. Read an article in "U.S.A. Today" baseball hitters, just aren't hitting in the Big Leagues either, power pitchers everywhere, average velocity is way up. It's difficult to hit against good pitching and pitching always beats good hitting. Our guys battle‑‑ Logan Ratledge he squared that ball up as good as you can square one up in the 8th. If that's 20 feet over it's 5 for N.C. State. So Shepard just missed before the check swing call, he was just out in front of it, or that's a 3‑run homer. There's so many things, I'm not infinite Im just saying, I thought we had good at‑bats but good pitching is good pitching and that's what we saw today from North Carolina. Q. Can you guys put into words your feelings, if it's a tough game? TREA TURNER: I think it's what you said, a hard game. But not everything goes your way all the time. You can't expect to get every play and every call and get a hit in every situation. I felt that today Carolina was better at doing those things and executing than we were. We just couldn't get over that hump, like you mentioned. We had good situations and opportunities to score runs and we just couldn't‑‑ what's the word? Execute, I guess. And the plays that me and Knizner had in the one inning where they scored 3 runs we were just inches away from making both those plays. It's frustrating but you got to keep your head up and hope for the best. BRETT AUSTIN: For me personally it's mixed feelings. Frustrating that we obviously lost today but like I said we're going to be optimistic about it and hopefully we can get a regional bid and make a run in the playoffs. Q. Talk about how well you think you've been playing lately, and what it took to get to this point? COACH AVENT: Many factors. The schedule we play is a very tough schedule and everybody is good. We were on the road a lot early, a lot of weather situations that‑‑ I'm not saying we didn't handle it well, it was just like at one point, what else can happen? So we didn't get off to a good start for whatever reason. That's the great thing about this ball club and these men, the two of them sitting here and the rest of 'em that are heading back on the bus. With the schedule we had in front of us and what we had to overcome, it's just amazing that they could do enough against good teams to get here and to play this well. That's what I'll always remember and like Brett said, I hope it's not over. I hope the Committee understands this is a great baseball team and a team that shouldn't be left out of the NCAA Tournament in a league that's as powerful as the ACC, so I think when we go to the playoffs, I think you'll see good things happen.. this team is playing very, very well. Why we got off to a bad start, I know those things existed. I don't know if they're the reason, I just know that's what I remember about it. Q. (No microphone.) COACH AVENT: Well, I'm going to talk to Sherard, my boss, and we're going to have a conversation right now. But I talked to the team, and told them I was going to talk to Sherard. I told 'em we're going to head home tonight. Go back, eat a good meal, take a shower, check out, head back to Raleigh about 6:00, and we'll take a few days off. I thinkI remember I was telling the story of my good friend, Ray Tanner, when he won the National Championship at South Carolina I think they lost the first two games in the SEC Tournament, took a few days off, came back to practice and won the National Championship. I'm not saying that's in store here, I just hope we get an opportunity for that. We're going to take a few days off and hopefully regroup and hopefully we'll watch TV on Monday, and it will be good TV, and then we can get back to work and get ready to go somewhere. Q. (No microphone.) COACH AVENT: I've always believed that the more pitches you see, the more information you get, the more rhythm you get in with a pitcher. But we have had some guys really battling. Brett has had some long at‑bats lately. He had a long home run Tuesday, after a long at‑bat, fouling pitches off and he's done a lot of that lately. A couple of guys had long at‑bats, and I think they both walked, but it's not necessarily a strategy of his game, but it's something we try to work on, seeing pitches and gaining information. Q. What were your thoughts when Trent Thornton came out to the mound? COACH AVENT: I expected it. He's a great pitcher, he's their ace, and they wanted to win this game, just like we did, and they put their guy out there in the 8th and 9th and I think we had great at‑bats out there. Reilly Hovis is so good, I don't know if anybody understands how good that guy is. He gave them quality effort. I think we got 75 or 80 pitches, but our at‑bats were so good all day. I was really‑‑ couldn't have played any better, could have happened differently but we probably couldn't have played any better. THE MODERATOR: Any further questions? Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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