March 22, 2008

Recap |  Final Stats

TULANE HEAD COACH Rick Jones

Overall thoughts on the game
"Aaron Loup got on track and pitched his best baseball in his last two or three innings, which was good to see. We were really good defensively, but we didn't have the same quality of at-bats that we had last night. I didn't think our focus was good and their right-hander did a nice job of keeping us off balanced. I didn't think we were as competitively mentally as we were last night."

On the 3-for-4 performance by Warren McFadden
"That's why he was the conference freshman of the year a couple of years ago. When he gets going, he is an RBI producer. He knocked in four of our five runs - both with two outs and two strikes. Those kinds of days are what you have to have when you don't have a whole lot else going."

On what Tulane takes from the win
"We need to play well tomorrow and we have one more midweek game to get ready for conference. We're still not settled on a lineup because we don't have enough guys going. We've got about 11 or 12 guys right now in that mix. When they tell me I can write 11 or 12 guys in the lineup, I'll do that. Until then, you're still going to see some changes. Tomorrow, we'll do that again. We've got to see as much as we can of this group. It's such a new team, it's probably good that we had the open weekend this first weekend."

JUNIOR DESIGNATED HITTER Warren McFadden

On his performance at the plate today
"Mainly, I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit. We were struggling for runs a bit today. We've been swinging the bat pretty well, but it was just one of those days where you have to scrap for every run you can get. With two strikes, you just try to shorten up and do what you can to get those runs in."

On Sacred Heart starting pitcher Jack Wagoner
"He was pitching well. He had a good arm on him, moving the ball in and out and he was around the zone for the most part. He just had good stuff today."

SACRED HEART HEAD COACH NICK GIAQUINTO

On his team's improved performance from Friday night
"Yesterday, we were probably a little bit shell-shocked early in the game and we were still getting our feet wet. Like I've said before, we're a young team. After yesterday's game, we felt like we belong and that we can play, and we played with a little more confidence. I think that's what we're going to be dealing with for a little bit longer as a young team is just the confidence level. I think we've found a little confidence and we built it. Now the challenge is going to be maintaining that tomorrow. We don't want to be a yo-yo team emotionally where we play hard for a game and then slack off for the next, which is typical of a young team. Tomorrow, we have to come out just as hard if not harder, not make a couple of the mental errors we made today and be in it until the last inning."

On the freshman pitching settling down after a three-run first
"We had a bone-headed play out there in left field. They just didn't communicate and they weren't aggressive. And it cost us a few runs. But you have to tip your hat to their hitters for coming up with the money hit. But my freshman guy, Wagoner, bounced back from that and threw pretty well. He ran out of gas late a little bit. And then the other freshman (Fitton) came in and did a decent job too."

On the job Tulane starter Aaron Loup did after the third inning
"He had a little bit better command as he went on. He kind of kept us off balance and did a nice job."