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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 24, 2014Skye BoltMike FoxJordan ParksGREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA North Caolina: 13 THE MODERATOR: I'd like to introduce North Carolina, Coach Mike Fox and student athletes Parks Jordan and Skye Bolt. Comments, Coach? COACH FOX: Ecstatic to have won that ballgame. Maryland is playing so well. We needed a game. It wasn't over, gotta give them credit for coming back. Due to the resiliency of our team, it's deflating to lose that kind of lead but I'm proud of our guys for coming back and winning. It was a big win for us. A lot of guys contributed throughout the lineup which was good to see. I will go ahead and answer the question. I have no idea what this means for Monday. I'm not a politician. We've done what we've done and we'll just wait and see, you know, what our fate is on Monday. Q. Skye and Parks, you guys, as a team you were 0‑11, in front of the division. Today you batted .500 as a team. What did you do to set yourself up for today? SKYE BOLT: I think it was situational hitting. You said it, obviously the glaring point of yesterday was runners in scoring position. I think from inning 1 you get two doubles with 2 outs and you set the tone for the rest of the guys. It's just confidence. It's contagious. You get one, you get another one and I guess the lineup is easier, middle of the lineup hits the ball around a little bit, gets confidence to continue to build on. JORDAN PARKS: I agree with Skye, and at the same time coming back to the ballpark the next day and telling yourself it's not going to happen again. We get runners in scoring position we're going to get the job done today. I think it's the resilience of our team and just coming back today and, you know, getting the job done with runners in scoring position. Q. Coach, every coach that's been here so far has talked about how tough this league is and how tough this tournament is, do you have any comment on that? COACH FOX: I would agree! I would agree! There are so many good teams, you know, in this league every weekend is just a battle and a war. Every team has really, really good players and there are some great arms in this league, some great pitching, some really, really good players, players you're going to see at the next level here pretty quickly. I think everybody continues to get better, and it's a great challenge. It's fun, but it's exhausting, at the same time! Q. How much do you think the Committee will take into consideration, the fact that you guys play in the ACC Conference and night in and night out you go up against these kinds of teams? COACH FOX: I think that's the challenge of the Committee. I think there is great baseball played throughout the country in a lot of leagues, and I think they have a great challenge. I think it's getting harder and harder, because there are so many good leagues and good teams. And it helps when our league really, really does well, and a number of teams do really well, it helps. It prepares your team but it also creates some challenges, I think, for the Committee. I think this is going to be an interesting year. Q. Coach, there in that fifth inning you guys had the lead, looking by the grounder that you might not get runners on and you had the error and ended up with 4 runs. How important was that? COACH FOX: That was huge. We obviously took advantage of that error. Doesn't happen very often but it is the way it is in this league. You make mistakes and other teams really can punish you. We were on the good side of that today. I was telling these guys out there that everybody is going to look at the box score and see the number of hits, but we didn't walk a number of guys today, didn't make any errors, got a couple of bunts down, took a few walks on their end that we needed. So some little things that helped to continue to line up over that. You know, our big guys come up there, 2 through 6 or 7 and get hits there in the bottom of the 8th. That was a big inning there, as was the scoring the 4 in the bottom of the 5th. Q. Coach, talk about the bounce‑back ability of your team, the tough game yesterday, and the way Maryland fought back today. COACH FOX: We talk about that a lot and it's the way it is and has to be. You're playing Friday, Saturday Sunday turn around, you can't get deflated. We talk about not letting anything break our spirit, and we coaches talk about having kids that are tough, mentally tough and resilient and confident. We continue with that, and it's easy to say but it's harder to do. You just gotta keep playin' and you got a core group of guys that want to win and keep playing and that's part of it. Q. Coach, great performance by Michael Russell. He looked like he was in a bit of pain. Is that kind of a day‑to‑day thing? COACH FOX: I think it will be. There wasn't any situation where he was going to hurt it anymore. He would have never been out there. I know it probably looked bad, but I would certainly not‑‑ our trainers and doctors would never do that. He wanted to play, he wanted to give it a shot but we knew he was obviously very limited but he did some good things there for us those first couple of at‑bats. Pretty gutsy on his part. Q. Questions for the players, what are the next 48 hours going to be like for you guys as far as waiting to see if you're in, if your season continues, how you make that adjustment? JORDAN PARKS: Like Coach said, it is what it is. We've done what we've done so far. I don't necessarily see it as a very stressful moment or anything. I'm not really stressed about it, but you are right in saying that I'm not necessarily used to it. We're normally used to seeing whether or not we're a national seed, but it is what it is. We're going to take what we get and hopefully we get placed somewhere and try and play the best ball we can and continue on. SKYE BOLT: Unlike Parks, this is my first time on a questionable NCAA appearance so for me coming off last year, I was spoiled to come off last year, come in as a freshman and contribute like we did, so for me it's a regular 9‑inning game of baseball. You take your wins, you take your losses, and we're coming off a great ballgame, bouncing back from yesterday's game. We can't do anything. I'm going fishing tomorrow, I'm going to sit around and watch the show, I'm sure, on Monday and it is what it is. I don't have anything more to say about it. Q. Why do you think so many things have turned into so much an adventure for you guys this year? SKYE BOLT: I don't have a clear answer for that. COACH FOX: Define adventure! (Laughter.) Q. (No microphone.) SKYE BOLT: Yeah, it's been‑‑ whether the offense is there, the pitching is there one game and vice versa. I don't have an answer for that. You kinda‑‑ when you're working together you gotta bring your team mates together and bring your P's‑‑ your pitchers, excuse me and your position players and you gotta work together as a unit and you gotta have that connection and that trust in one another. That's not to say that we don't have that, because this is one of the closest groups that I've ever played with. It's easy to say that coming off last year because you look at the record of last year and you would say that was probably the closest group, but everybody gets along here and it's one of those things where we got to continue to play and trust one another. And as far as the disconnectedness and up and down, I guess I have trust enough in the hitters at the plate to come back and make some swings just as we have trust in them to go up there and make some pitches in some tight spots. Q. What did you see in your freshmen today? From Zach, they really got started in the 8th playing well. COACH FOX: Zach was really good for us. The hindsight is always 20/20 but after those two base hits, not many balls were squared up on him, today the home run obviously but he had a low pitch count, and obviously if we hadn't had Trent and Reilly down there we would have probably let him go another couple of batters. He's been really good for us lately, he's grown up and pitched well. Q. In the 8th, they started that rally‑‑ COACH FOX: Yeah, Joe Dudek, he hasn't had a lot of success lately and it was nice to see those guys stay in there, and obviously it was a big hit and we get a bunt down and Adam Pate hadn't been in there much lately and some guys that haven't been in there and played a lot, that's great to see. It's great going forward because kids who don't play, it's easy for them to kinda check out and boy they were out there trying hard and did some good things, helped us win. Q. Coach, obviously that play at the plate was huge. Can you talk about that a little bit and how important it was to not just be satisfied with one run and kick off that huge inning? COACH FOX: Yeah, we do an awful lot of base running and we talk about reads at 1st and 2nd. 1‑out reads and no‑out reads, but you never practice that, you know the center fielder diving after the ball and nobody can see the ball, so nobody knows whether he caught it, is it in his glove or on the ground, and that was almost an impossible read to make, and only reason you know is as a base runner when he starts reaching for the ball. And Michael didn't quite know what to do and he's hanging out there and you have to send 'em, obviously and I knew it was close, I turned my eyes to Adam because I wanted him to be at third base, and we got a bit of a break, he's a good player and I thought he came up with a sensational catch but following up with some base hits was important to extend the lead. THE MODERATOR: Thank you all very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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