May 23, 2007
Recap |
Final Stats
TULANE HEAD COACH Rick Jones
Thoughts on the game
"Shooter pitched tremendous, and we played well defensively. But the story again was our lack of offense. We did not stretch the lead when we had the opportunity, didn't have a couple of situations there from an execution standpoint offensively that we didn't do a good job with and once again, it got us."
On Tulane's lack of offensive execution
"These are things that I am bound and determined to make sure that I don't coach another day that we don't have a commitment to play in the game from an offensive standpoint, especially in the short game, in a consistent way. We're going to get better. We're going to get better this year and certainly next, but we are going to have an offensive club that does a better job of stretching the lead and protecting guys like Shooter who pitched so well."
On the performance of senior catcher Ty Wallace
"Ty Wallace has played so well for us down the stretch. Tonight, we finally get a bunt down and it works for us with Ty behind knocking in two runs. We didn't have that opportunity in the eighth, and you see the result is the opposite. It comes down to us executing and putting ourselves in a position where a guy like Ty Wallace can knock in runs and give a guy like Shooter the support he deserves."
Closing statement
"Taking nothing away from East Carolina because their guys did a great job and they are an outstanding club. Somewhere along the line, we got away from a real team offense and it cost us."
TULANE STARTING PITCHER Shooter Hunt
On home run in the seventh inning
"We had been going inside on them all night. I made a good pitch. I hit the spot. He just turned on it and got a good piece of it. Sometimes you win. I won the first two at-bats. He won the last one. It turned out that one mattered the most."
On frustration of coming up short
"It's not that frustrating. You go out there every time and you can only worry about what you can do. I go out there and focused on keeping our team in it. We got the runs early. I just didn't hold on to the lead for us."
On his overall performance
"In the first two innings, I struggled finding the zone. They got two hit batters and a walk in the second inning. I battled out of that, so I felt good about that. I thought we were going to win after getting us out of an early hole. We came back and scored, but it just didn't happen."
