March 13, 2007
Recap |
Final Stats
TULANE HEAD COACH Rick Jones
Overall thoughts on the game
"The keys today were we pitched and played well defensively. I know we had the two errors, but I thought we played well defensively and turned a couple of double plays which got us out of some jams early. I though Matt Goebel pitched really well. Preston Claiborne had great stuff and great composure and I thought Daniel had as good of stuff as he's had in a while."
On the team's offensive production
"Offensively, it was certainly a frustrating night for us because we could have stretched the lead in a lot of innings. We just need a big hit so our guys can relax a little bit. But right now, it's just hard to come by."
On moving Aja Barto into the leadoff spot
"I thought it gave us a spark. We'll see how that goes, but its still an evolution when it comes to our lineup."
On Matt Goebel's performance
"He's showing us whey he was the ace as a freshman five years ago during the first half of the season. His breaking ball tonight was really good, but the thing I really liked about it was in the fifth and sixth, he really started running his fastball in there. We got him out after six because we do have a deep bullpen and that's as far as he's gone in four years. He sure gave us a great effort and it was fun watching him. "
TULANE STARTING PITCHER Matt Goebel
On his performance Tuesday against UNO
"I wasn't as sharp early on as I had been, but my defense picked me up and I was kind of able to get into a rhythm. Today was more about pounding the strikezone and getting ground balls and letting the defense work for me."
On only tallying one strikeout in 6.0 innings of work
"When you have a defense playing so well behind you, it takes the pressure off of you and you don't feel like you have to do it all yourself."
On getting a 1-0 lead in the first
"Any time you can jump out early on a team that hits the ball as well as New Orleans does, it gives you good momentum going through the rest of the game. We knew going in that it was going to be a dogfight and it turned out to be a good one. They can really swing it. With the way the wind was blowing out today, I knew my sinker was going to be key. I was going to need to keep the ball down and get a lot of ground balls. It worked out for us and the infield did a good job behind me."
UNO HEAD COACH TOM WALTER
Overall thoughts on the game
"We had runners on base pretty much all night. We just didn't get the big hit. That's why Tulane has won so many games. They make pitches when they need to. I thought we pitched pretty well. Stephen Whalen didn't have his best stuff, but he competed and gave us a chance to win. We particularly did a good job out of the bullpen. Those guys came out and made good pitches with guys on base."
On Tulane starter Matt Goebel
"I thought we had a bad approach at the plate. We beat a lot of balls into the ground. But he made the pitches when he needed to. He flashed a good curve ball and located his fastball really well."
