March 11, 2007
Recap |
Final Stats
TULANE HEAD COACH Rick Jones
Overall thoughts on the game
"It was a very frustrating day. Our offensive has just been struggling. We left too many runners on again today. It was the second day in a row where we left the bases loaded in the ninth inning. I thought we had a tremendous pitching performance from Shooter and Daniel gave us some really good relief. It's just frustrating right now offensively for us. To be the type of club we expect to be, we're going to offensively have a lot better production, especially in RBI situations."
On how to correct the Green Wave's offensive slump
"It's either personnel or have guys success in that role a few times and get used to it and like to be in that role. Right now, we've got some real tentativeness in those situations and some trepidation there when we go in. We're not having as good of an at-bat. Sometimes, you hit the ball hard that are right at people, but that's part of the game. Over a period of time, that'll even out. You are pretty much what your stats say you are. We just haven't been as good offensively as we need to be, especially in RBI situations. Over the last two days, we just didn't do the things we needed to do to win. Today, especially, was frustrating to have that many opportunities and not cash in. The same thing happened out on the West Coast. The reason we've lost two in a row is we haven't swung it well enough."
Looking ahead to the UNO game on Tuesday
"They're playing so well. They're going to be probably one of the best teams we've played. If they're going to play really, really well, it's going to be difficult for us."
On if it will be easy for the team to get up to play an in-city rivalry
"Right now, we just need to find a way to get a `W'. I'm sure there will be a heightened sense of awareness because it's the first game between the two teams, but probably moreso on our part will be solidifying a way to be a better offensive club and still maintain the pitching and defense we've had on most days."
Closing thought
"It's frustrating because if we feel like if we performing at the level that our ability level speaks to as we've had guys in the past do, then we've got two or three winnable ballgames that we didn't win. Because of that, it's limited us as far as really go on a streak. We've got eight wins (in a row) but if you look at the records of the teams we've beat, we've got to be better against good teams. To do that, we've got to be better offensively. We know we can pitch. We know that defensively we are very sound. The numbers show that. They bear that our. But offensively, they don't lie. Until we get better offensively, we're going to always be susceptible."
LOYOLA MARYMOUNT HEAD COACH FRANK CRUZ
On the performance of his pitchers in the series finale vs. the Green Wave
"I think we did make some big pitches. I give Brian Wilson a lot of credit. He got himself into some jams with some base on balls and he gave up a couple of hits, but he did make the big pitch. In that last inning, Beal came in with a change-up against Morgan on first pitch. Keadle came in in a big situation against a lefthander and got him to ground out. He did his job for just one hitter. Esquivel came in and then Beal, and obviously Wilson got us into the seventh. We were fortunate with our pitching and I thought they did a good job."
