June 6, 2009
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Box Score |
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Photo Gallery 2
North Carolina Head Coach Mike Fox
Opening Statement
"Certainly a good way for us to start. I thought the story of the game certainly was Alex [White], of course keeping East Carolina at bay a little bit before we had the big inning. He started off a little shaky I think. Not a lot of first-pitch strikes, but we've seen that from Alex before. He can just weather the first couple of innings and he gets stronger as he goes. I think he did that today. It was a good win for us."
Putting White's Performance in Perspective
"When I went out to take Alex [White] out, he said, 'Thanks, I really needed this.' And that kind of surprised me a little bit because I knew it was never an option for me not to pitch him if he was healthy. Our guys feed off of him. He's tough, a competitor, he doesn't back down and he wants the ball. Whether or not he feels good, he wants to be out there. That's part of the quality of a good leader."
Alex White, Jr., RHP
On His Mindset for the Day
"Just from the start, I was thinking 'Just get through one inning at a time.' I didn't really know what was going to happen. I had to face one hitter at a time and just collect outs. That's what I tried to do from the start and when I started feeling good, I just started going after guys."
On Coming Back Out in the Ninth Inning
"Obviously, I wanted to go back out on the mound no matter the pitch count. [The coaches] are looking out for me at all times and I think Coach Fox did a great thing by letting me go back out. It's possibly my last start right here. Who knows? It was just great with the crowd. It was an emotional moment and I enjoyed it."
Kyle Seager, Jr., 3B
On Feeding Off White's Performance
"When he's throwing the ball like he was today, you got to give him a little room and support. One inning [ECU] scored and we came back and scored - they scored in the second, we scored in the third. After that, we just got a little confidence. We didn't put too much pressure on ourselves because we knew the way Alex [White] was throwing that we just needed to get a few more runs."
On the Tar Heel Offense
"Hopefully we're clicking. We've been doing some small ball too. We've been executing a bit better down the stretch. Hopefully we're just starting to click a little bit and come together."
Levi Michael, Fr., 2B
On Hitting Late in the Game
"It wasn't just me and Kyle [Seager], it was a team effort from the beginning. We had double digit hits today. I think ECU just left a couple balls out over the plate and we weren't taking bad swings at them."
East Carolina Head Coach Billy Godwin
Opening Statement
"Needless to say, this is disappointing. We build up to come out, and we get beat 10-1. I just reminded my players a week ago this time we were in the same situation. We have some experience playing in elimination games, and that's where we"re at, an elimination game.
We
have to come out and play well tomorrow, and I've got a lot of faith in these guys and their character, and they'll come out and play as hard as they possibly can."
On recent success in elimination games
"I keep our guys grounded. I think it's important to realize that we're facing a team that's playing very well right now. We're in their backyard, and we've got to come out and the score is going to be 0-0.
Any past accomplishments we're certainly not resting on, but Kevin [Brandt's] pitched very well for us, and we have a lot of confidence in sending him to the mound.
On Alex White
"I thought he was pretty good. You guys have to understand; we're talking about one of the best pitchers in the country, that's what we're up against. When he goes out there and he's commanding his fastball and he's down in the zone and he's throwing it on the black, he's going to beat anybody. Once he settled in he may have beaten the Yankees today. You've got to give him a lot of credit. It's very tough.
Seth Maness, Sophomore, Starting Pitcher
On Carolina's hitting
"It's part of the game. You make good pitches; sometimes they just get hit. They strung together well, and they paid off. They scored, had that big inning in the sixth. I don't know how many they had in a row.
I was making good pitches, they just put them in play."
Brandon Henderson, Senior, 1B
On missed opportunities and momentum
"We had plenty of opportunities today. Whether it's with one out or two outs, we've got to come up big. They had their opportunities, and they got some big hits. A few balls fell in for them, and we couldn't get many to fall in. The beauty is we're not done yet, and we've got another game to play. I think that they definitely fed off when [Alex White] would end the inning a couple times with a big strikeout, I think they fed off that, yeah."
