NC State head coach Elliott Avent met with the media following the Wolfpack's 9-3 loss to UCF Saturday morning.
Opening Statement…
“Oh gosh, it’s kind of hard to, I haven’t seen the box score, but I think we left about 13 men on base, so lots of opportunities. We cashed those three in in the first inning and I actually thought [Andrew] Wiggins' ball was off the wall, but it just didn’t get there. We could have gotten a five-spot there in the first inning and we got three. I just thought early on, [Anderson] Nance, with all the stuff he has, I just thought he had the ball up, and they were just on his fastball. That is a good hitting team. They got a lot of older guys, and I think their goal was to attack the fastball and they knew Nance had a good one and he challenged them with it. They got it a few times and [Andrew] Williamson is a great player. I can’t tell you what a great player he is. He hits the two-run homer there in the first, and then they got one out to center later to tie it up. Then he had an inning or so where he kind of commanded the breaking ball, the change-up, and kept him all balanced. He just didn’t have as good a cutter today. His cutter was in the middle of the plate. You have to give a lot of credit to UCF. I thought we did a great job offensively of getting their starter out early. We just had so many opportunities, and I thought today eve, Mikey [Ryan] gets the leadoff single in the ninth. I know it doesn’t look like it to a lot of people, but I felt like we could have come back in this game. Offense will be pretty good right now. We are a little banged up. Ty [Head] is playing with a bad, bad groin, but he is sucking it up. Sherman [Johnson] y’all see the way he’s walking around and he’s sucking it up. So, we got some guys that are giving us everything they got and now we are meeting Auburn, which we thought might be likely for the championship, like it was last year, but we are meeting them in an unusual game. This is a big game coming up. We got [Cooper Consiglio]. Man, we feel good about that.”
On how to turn around to play again…
“It is tough. Right now, the biggest problem is you just sit here right. Sit here and wait like the NCAA started this game at 11 a.m. We thought they were going to start it at 12 p.m.There were seven outs to get, and why they rushed the start at 11 o’clock, I have no idea. It was over in 22 minutes and now we sit here for like two hours. We are taking BP in like 25 minutes, and we got to figure it out. That is the way sports are. You got to figure things out, and those that can figure things out can have an edge on trying to win and that’s what we got to do.”
On the challenge of playing Auburn in Plainsman Park…
“I think it is just a challenge to play Auburn anyway. They got a great ball club. They are very good, very earning of their No. 4 national seed. So, playing Auburn anywhere is a challenge, but they will have their crowd here at 2 o’clock, probably 12,000 people.”
