June 10, 2007

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North Carolina

Head Coach Mike Fox
Opening Statement:
"First of all, I'd like to congratulate Ray and South Carolina, what a great team they have. It's a shame both of us couldn't go. It's a shame somebody had to lose. What a great series and obviously we're just ecstatic we're going back. Pretty good bunch of players and pretty good bunch of kids to fight back. I think last year really helped us down the stretch and we were just so determined to try to go back to the College World Series. Robert Woodard came back for that reason and everybody's talked about Chad Flack and the year he's had for us- probably not a bigger swing of the bat right there than that home run. He's kept his attitude up the whole time and I think mentally I'm sure it hurt him not to be doing the things he did last year, but he just hung in there. Our bullpen was terrific today. To come from behind, great way to send out Boshamer Stadium. It's kind of profound and prophetic that we play our last game at the old stadium and get one of the biggest wins in the program's history. I'm happy for my players. To see the look on their face when they win, for a coach, is priceless. You can¹t put it into words."

On Rob Wooten and Andrew Carignan:
"I thought the strikeout [by Wooten] to keep them at 4-1 was huge. Just something about staying within that three to four run deficit- you know you can climb your way back in. Andrew Carignan has been the guy for us really the last three years, and certainly the last two. He's our horse and we were going to ride him just as far as we could. We had a couple guys ready but Andrew Carignan was the guy we wanted out there."

On Flack overcoming the early season struggles:
"He's a good kid, he played for a great high school coach. He just didn't let the game beat him down and I know it was killing him on the inside, but he never showed it. He kept working hard. A lot of times a kid like that you have to talk to him and continually try to coach them up and tell them to keep hanging in there. I never did that with Chad Flack all year long. He was able to do that himself and that's just a credit to him."

On team not hitting a home run in awhile:
"When that ball hit the net out there, I think I said to myself, `Well, it's about time'. I think it was worrying our strength coach a little bit. We kept lifting all year long, but you can't count down in Jacksonville because nobody hit one out down there. Fortunately we haven't been a team that's relied on the home run and we talk about that. We want to have good at-bats and yesterday striking out as much as we did, we struck out only twice tonight. That's more like our game, more walks than strikeouts."

On thinking about taking Carignan out:
"We had Tim Federowicz ready. If I had gone out there to take him out, I would have sent somebody else because he's bigger and meaner than I am. Once we got that ninth run, I had to let him finish with what he and his family has been through this year. He deserved to be out there when we won it."

Chad Flack
On his home run to take the lead:
"He left a changeup up over the plate. I was just lucky to make good contact with it and I was looking for just a base hit right there to keep the rally going and luckily got a hold of it a little better."

Andrew Carignan
On being able to pitch four innings:
"I always want the ball and when that's on the line, I pitch off adrenaline and there probably couldn't be anymore adrenaline than right then so that's basically what I was running off of. We know what it feels like to be [in Omaha]. I don't know if anybody has any idea how bad we want to go back."

On if he was worried about James Darnell's hit being a home run in the 7th inning:
"I didn't think he got it that good off the bat. I saw Timmy [Fedroff] kind of camped and I had a little smile on my face. I didn't think he got it."

Reid Fronk
On getting the chance to go back to Omaha:
"It's just such an emotion right now- the adrenaline. We just wanted another chance. I've been telling guys that I'm just trying to get back to that `Promised Land'. That's Omaha to us and now that we have that opportunity, I think we're going to relax and enjoy it and give everybody out there our best shot for sure."

On confidence in bullpen:
"Those guys are unbelievable. The job Rob [Wooten] over the last three days- I think he pitched in every game, keeping them off balance. Their big hitters really attacked the baseball, they were off balance and they weren't able to get the job done. Obviously, with Carignan, we have so much confidence in him, his nickname being `The Stopper' says it all. Those guys are awesome and definitely a lot of confidence when they come in the ball game."

South Carolina

Head Coach Ray Tanner
Opening Statement:
"First, congratulations to Coach Fox, his players, and his coaches. They are an outstanding team. It was a great game for a long time tonight and they were certainly the better team tonight. The effort that Andrew Carignan gave them was special and nullified any opportunities we had of putting runs on the board. We did some good things this year. I am proud of our effort but we got beat by a better team in the super regional."

On being one-win away from Omaha:
"It's frustrating, but you have to keep it in perspective as well. We were up 4-1 and Wooten comes in and strikes two guys out. That was certainly a key point in this game and Carignan figured in greatly. We didn't tack on another run and that might of changed the game. We made a couple of nice plays for Mike early, we were playing pretty well. After that they out-played us, out-hit us, and out-pitched us. We battled hard, but they were better than us."

On the team's season:
"We haven't been a great team, but we compete we battle and we're mature. We show up to play everyday and tonight we were just not good enough. We played hard, we tried to get in a position to win the game. We did some good things this year, certainly not anything to be ashamed of and I am not ashamed to get beat by a team as good as North Carolina."

On Tar Heels bullpen:
"Tonight was there 53rd win, it wasn't just tonight or two nights ago. They have all the ingredients in place. Danford has done it for them all year, Wooten has 41 appearances on the season, which is incredible, and to hand the ball over to Carignan you have a good chance to win. Their offensive output is special, they have some veteran players and they've come from behind all year to win. They are a tremendous team and we knew we would have to be at our best to win the game, but they outplayed us today."

Catcher Trent Kline
On battling through adversity all year:
"We were up 4-1 early in the game. We didn't tack on runs like we probably should have, but give them credit they have a great pitching staff. We did not do our job defensively and we got beat by a better team tonight."

Starting Pitcher Mike Cisco
On being one win away from Omaha for the second straight year: "Last year you have a bitter feeling in your stomach leaving Georgia and tonight it's the same thing all over again. It makes it that much worse when you are that close, we just didn't play our game tonight and they played better than us."

3rd Baseman James Darnell
On Wooten's shutdown performance:
"I think he did a good job changing speeds and keeping us off balance. He had a pretty good slider throughout the entire weekend. You have to tip your hat to him. He was able to keep us off balance and he did a good job tonight."

On long fly ball in seventh:
"As soon as I hit it I thought it had a chance off the bat, I thought it might be gone. I put the best swing I could on it, but it was a good pitch. I was trying to stay alive with two strikes, but it was a tough one."

On Carignan performance:
"He has a real live arm, a really good fastball. He is confident in his stuff and he was able to locate pitches on the outside corner and just go right after us."