May 31, 2008
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TULANE QUOTES
HEAD COACH Rick Jones
Overall thoughts on the game
"I'm real excited about the win because I thought we had to play very, very well. Bucknell played so well defensively. You know they're going to score unless you make good pitchers. They showed that last night. When they brought in their best guy (Buursma), and he was outstanding, that was a concern. He held us at bay and it was a situation where can we protect the lead. Anthony's triple was huge for us to stretch the lead, and Preston was just outstanding - getting out of the jam in the eighth when we turned the double play, we didn't panic, and going to work in the ninth with two outs on two pitches. It was just a good win for us."
On advancing to the Regional Finals
"This is our fourth Regional final in the last five years. This is not uncharted territory for us to be where we are, but it is for a lot of these players. So it was good to see us play the way we did today knowing what was riding on it. But we still realize that we have a very, very tough challenge ahead of us tomorrow night."
On the performances of Tulane pitchers Matt Petiton and Preston Claiborne
"Matt Petiton really set the tone early. He got a lot of quick outs, and that was big. He started to tire a little bit and lost a little bit of his command. In this heat and this humidity, this is not unique to him or anyone on our staff or anyone on our team. That's just the nature of where we are this time of year. In the sixth, when he had the two free passes, Preston came in and just did such a good job. It took a combination of that. It reminded me of Saturday at East Carolina. It was almost the exact same situation where Pres came in - actually came in in the fourth there - and shut down East Carolina in a tough situation to pitch in. He did the same thing tonight. In this ballpark, especially the way the ball can go to right and they have enough left-handed hitters, you have to make pitches and he certainly did."
On if he went with Claiborne based on his performance against East Carolina
"No, we went with Preston because he was the best available guy. That was our game plan going in because he was the best available guy to go with. This is not something he hasn't gone into before."
On fighting the heat and humidity in Tallahassee, Fla.
"I've been in these before, two or three times where we're playing Regionals in Louisiana with teams from other parts of the country where teams would be packed in ice by day two in the middle of the day games. It's just something you have to guard against. We have to put good fluids in us tonight, eat well and try and protect our guys as much as possible. When you get to this stage, there are a lot of elements that you deal with that are not just the other team. You're playing in a different ballpark, you're on the road, and we're dealing with heat and humidity right now that we haven't seen this year. But, at the end of the night, there are only 32 left and it gets more challenging. We cut the field in half at the end of the day and we're in the final 32. By the end of Monday, you cut in in half again. When you have games where everything is riding on it like that, guys can get so into and so emotionally involved in it, sometimes that can have an impact on their bodies as much as the weather itself and a combination of the two. You just have to keep reminding them , keep doing the right thing, and your training staff stays on top of it."
On having to face Bucknell reliever Jason Buursma
"When you see Buursma's numbers coming in, he had to have great stuff to put the numbers he did with nine wins. That was really, really good stuff. Fortunately, we did our part in pitching and playing `D' and held the lead."
On getting out of the bases-loaded jam in the top of the fifth
"That's a momentum turner because you don't want them to have the rebound inning. To get the infield fly was big and then the ball was hit deep. When it came off the bat, I was a little concerned. Anthony got to the ball, but that ball was hit well. That really solidified our momentum at that point. You still have four innings to play, but that could have turned it right back. It was just like yesterday in the Florida game where they go up 4-1and we come back and get a six spot. If that ball falls, you don't know what's going to happen after that."
More on Buursma
"I keep going back that right-hander. When you throw it that stiff from that angle, you do it consistently and paint up both sides, it's hard for guys to get good swings. It's hard. When do you work on that? We've got a submariner and they see him in intrasquad every once in a while, but you don't see submariners throwing batting practice. I don't know what he was throwing, but it looked like 87 or 88 and maybe a little stiffer at times. It comes from a different angle and those things get on you. I just knew he was going to be a challenge for us and it didn't look like he was tiring a whole lot late. He still had really good stuff. Thank goodness we made that play, we turned a double play in the eighth, got out of a jam in the fifth, got the big hit there, and this guy (Claiborne) came in and shut the door for us."
On tomorrow's Regional Championship Game
"It's double elimination for a reason and that applies to all teams. Certainly, if you can get it done in three, you don't have to sit around for another day and wonder and try and decide if the momentum maybe turned a little bit. Right now, I know what's sitting over there waiting and what's still alive in this tournament. It's going to be a major challenge for us, but I like the way our club is playing right now. It's almost like our team took a deep breath when our name popped up (on Monday) and we came over with a little bit different sense of ourselves. I've seen this situation happen before. We still understand where we are and who is still alive."
SOPHOMORE RELIEVER Preston Claiborne
On his performance today against Bucknell
"Today, I knew I was coming into a big situation. I'm a reliever. That's what we have to do. In the bullpen, I was struggling a little bit finding my rhythm, my tempo and finding the zone. When I got out there and started throwing my warm-up pitches, I had a little bit more adrenalin pumping and that's when I got really focused in. After I got out of that inning in the sixth, there was nothing that could have distracted me. It was just Jared and the mitt. I just tried to hit that mitt as much as I could. I had more great plays made behind me tonight than I've had in any outing previously. I had two or three line drives straight at Tony that were screamers, and he made good reads on both. Seggy keeping that ball in the infield on that dive kept the runners at first and second, and then we got the ground ball to turn the double play. And like Coach said, Josh didn't panic."
JUNIOR CENTERFIELDER Anthony Scelfo
On Tulane advancing to the Regional finals
"We're just one win away. We just have to win one game. We don't have to win three or four. We don't have to worry about the Super Regionals or Omaha. We just have to win one game. That one game is tomorrow and it doesn't matter who we're playing. It's a great situation to be in."
On Tulane winning in a different way today than the one the Wave won yesterday
"Yesterday, we hit the ball well. Tonight, we didn't have our best at-bats, but we pitched great start to finish and we played great defense. We had to win two very different type of ballgames the past two days and it's good to see. We have confidence no matter what kind of game we're in. If we have to pitch, we can pitch. If we have to hit, we can hit. We've got good defense. It's good to be in this situation. We just have to win one game. That's it."
On his two-run triple in the fourth
"He (Eric Jarrett) was getting me out front with his slider in the first at-bat and he got me 0-1 to start that at-bat off with a slider. Then I fouled off a fastball to get 0-2, and I just thought he was going to come with that pitch (the slider). That was the pitch he was going to get me with. He kept me off balance with it. I happened to stay back on that one, hit it where it was pitched and drove it to the gap. We got a little cushion there, and that was about it."
On scoring those two runs with two outs
"It was with two outs, too. Josh got the rally going with the single and Scotty had a big walk. They did a great job with two outs. Two-out rallies like that just put so much pressure on the other team. There was nobody on base, they didn't have any pressure on them, and those two guys did a good job to get on base for me."
BUCKNELL QUOTES
HEAD COACH GENE DEPEW
Overall thoughts on the game
"First of all, I'd like to congratulate Tulane on a very well-played ball game. They had quality pitching from both their pitchers and their aggressive base running was a very good thing for them. You know, we obviously needed more than three hits to win a ball game. I think that we had a lot of opportunities earlier in the game. We had some bases on balls and just couldn't get the hit that we needed at the right time. We had a lot of hard hit balls that were outs but just didn't get it done when we needed to."
On the difference between winning and losing
"I think every game has a defining moment kind of thing and, for Tulane, I think it was the bottom of the fourth with two out and the centerfielder tripled and drove in two runs. That was a very big blow for us. Then we came out in the top of the fifth and left the bases loaded with one out and didn't score. The combination of those two things were probably the story of the ball game."
On the performance of the Bison pitchers
"I'm very pleased with how our guys played defensively and how Eric Jarrett, our freshman pitcher, battled early and certainly how Jason Buursma came in and went the last four and two-thirds innings."
