April 18, 2008

Recap |  Final Stats

TULANE HEAD COACH Rick Jones

On the team's overall performance tonight
"The reason we won the ballgame tonight is because we pitched so well. It was a sloppy ballgame and I don't think either club played nearly as well as they can. Certainly, we didn't. We were bad in the short game, we were bad defensively, we didn't run the bases very well, and we didn't have quality at-bats in RBI situations. I'm relieved that we won, but quite honestly, we're fortunate to have. With the exception of our pitching, I thought it was a sub-par performance for us."

On the hitting and pitching performance of Rob Segedin
"It's always a concern when you're playing a great team, and Southern Miss certainly is. Over the next couple of days, we're going to run guys out there in different roles than they've been in, but their ERA says that they need to have that opportunity. Southern Miss swings the bat so well, and you know you're going to have to make your pitches."

On his team's performance against Southern Miss
"I haven't seen us play as lethargic as we did tonight in a long time. We go to Houston and our short game is outstanding, but we only won one ballgame. There are no guarantees what's going to happen in those situations. But I know we had opportunities to stretch the lead and we just couldn't get it done for whatever reason. We just didn't have good at-bats and didn't move the runners the way we should have. They did a good job of defensing the running game."

On the performances of Shooter Hunt and Mason Griffin
"Shooter should have been able to throw us a complete game tonight. (He threw) 32 pitches after errors that should have ended the inning. He was at 117, and we didn't want to get him past 125. We thought we could get a quick one out there (in the seventh). Rob Segedin didn't feel good tonight. His arm felt a little tired, so we knew Mason was going to have to be the guy and we were trying to extend Shooter a hitter or two so Mason wouldn't get extended. And you see what happens when you have to extend somebody more than you want to. But I would say that Shooter had the best command he's shown in a month and we certainly needed. We won because of the pitching tonight and he set that tone."

JUNIOR RIGHT-HANDER Shooter Hunt

On his performance tonight against Southern Miss
"The last few times out, the pitch count got run up. It really seemed like they had a game plan to try and get me to do deep, so I was trying to go 0-1 every time and try to get ahead of them as much as possible so that I could put them away early."

On what was working for him on the mound tonight
"The fastball was going today. I was able to spot in on both sides of the plate. Even the balls that seemed to miss their spots, (Southern Miss) didn't react very well to them. I think they had a little extra juice on them. It was big for me to go out there tonight and do that."

On his approach to tonight's game
"The biggest thing as pitchers - like Coach (Billy) Mohl was telling us - in past years, guys are trying to outperform other pitchers, which drives you to do more. So after Taylor (Rogers) threw great on Tuesday, I felt like, `Oh man, I want to go out there and throw great.' And then tomorrow Matt (Petiton) is going to throw great."

On getting all six outs in the sixth and seventh via strikeout
"They say you kind of get into the zone and everything blocks out and you get tunnel vision. That's what I felt like in the sixth and seventh."

SOUTHERN MISS HEAD COACH CORKY PALMER

On dropping the series opener to the Green Wave
"Yeah it is (tough losing the first game). We got behind and couldn't get it going Shooter Hunt is very good. He's not only one of better pitchers in this league but one of the better in the country. He'll be a high draft choice."

On his team battling back late in the ballgame
"We knew it was going to be tough when we gave up the 3-spot in first. I thought our kids showed some toughness by coming back there. Tulane let us back in. They didn't play very good defense. But we gave it a go and we were one hit away from getting (Tyler) Conn in the game come back."