DUGOUT REPORT: Wolfpack Obliterates Chanticleers

No. 7 NC State head coach Elliott Avent and several Wolfpack players met with the media following State's 24-7 win over Coastal Carolina.

NOTE: Click on each respective thumbnail to watch each interview.

Elliott Avent

“[Austin Pace was] really good. His stuff was really good. What we’ve seen in Austin Pace is the reason he got the start. In a game like this where you’re going to pitch everybody, you just want to get off to a good start. They’ve got three big-time arms in the bullpen that we didn’t want to see. If they get the lead, from the fifth inning on, we were going to see some guys that are going to be awfully tough to hit for Coastal. That’s a good baseball team. It may not seem that way for the people who pick up the box score tomorrow or read the score along the bottom of ESPN. That’s the team that just beat Charlotte who swept St. John’s. They beat them, 15-6, last night, and Charlotte just came off a sweep at St. John’s. That’s a good baseball team, but Pace got us off to a good start. Our offense just clicked, and it was the opposite for them. They didn’t get off to a good start. Our offense was very, very good today.”

“Luca [Tresh] was a big key. We lost him early in the year. Getting him back this quickly and this good right now… And he’s probably going to have some setbacks. It was a broken hand, and he had surgery. He works his tail off to rehab. Scott Ensall does a great job with rehab, and Eric [Arve] does a great job with rehab. These guys work. He’s diligent about coming in. He doesn’t just show up and play. He has to go through a long process to be ready to swing a bat, and there are some days where it doesn’t feel so good. Having Luca back is big, and like I said, the other five guys at the top of the lineup have been very good. And the bottom of the lineup… when you look at J.T. [Jarrett], J.T. had four hits today, and the last ball he hit, he had a great at-bat. He hit a deep fly to right field. Jose [Torres] has had some good at-bats for us as a rookie. [Vojtech] Mensik got the big double today. I think he got maybe another one or something like that. Some guys are doing things up and down the lineup, and we’ve got a couple of guys that we think can help us that aren’t getting at-bats right now, but I just told him, ‘It’s a long season. If you’re not playing right now, get ready to play because we’re going to have to call on everybody before this thing’s over.’ It’s a long season, and in talking to some of the veteran coaches like Danny Hall at Georgia Tech and Mike Fox at North Carolina, this is probably the deepest and best the league has ever been.”

“I don’t expect anything. I’m not a guy with expectations. You’re trying to build your team. You try to build chemistry. You try to keep everybody moving along, look at the big picture down the road, but know what the daily task is to try to somehow be there. I don’t have expectations or projections. I just try to get guys to play hard. It’s not easy for guys to play hard every day. These guys are going to school. They’re doing other things. They have emotions. They have other things in their lives. Getting guys, when they get to the field, to want to lock in and play hard every day is not an easy thing, and it’s not something you take for granted. That’s what I focus on, and like I said, I don’t make predictions.”

“[Devonte Brown] has just grown. That’s what baseball is. Baseball is a game of growth. It’s a game of repetition. You have to have a certain number of at-bats before you can even begin to try to understand this game. This is a hard game. He and Coach [Chris] Hart work constantly on his swing. He’s comfortable with his swing right now. You hit it on the head: this summer helped his confidence so much. Summer ball was a big help for Devonte Brown, and he’s just so relaxed as a player, baserunner, and defender. Right now, he’s the whole package, and beyond that, he’s a tremendous person, he’s got a great attitude, and he’s got tremendous leadership. There’s a lot more to Devonte Brown than what you see on the field.”

“There’s no question. When you talk about the leaders of the team, [Jarrett is] one of the more well-liked guys on the team. He’s the most positive person you can be. You’ve got the term, ‘chip off the old block.’ That’s what his dad [Link Jarrett] was. Coach Hart’s good friends with his dad who is the head coach at Notre Dame. That’s what he was as a player, and J.T. brings a lot of smarts and energy. He’s the opposite of Devonte. Devonte goes out this summer, plays summer ball, and gains great confidence. J.T. worked his butt off in the weight room and got a lot stronger, and they both got to the same place. You tip your hat to both of those guys for what they did in the offseason.”

“[Nick Swiney] has been good, and his [improvement] is much like Devonte. It’s a confidence thing. They both have tremendous ability. They both have great talent, and they knew that, but this is a confidence game. I see basketball games, and guys get 22 points, and everybody goes crazy. I look at the box score, and they’re 4-for-17 or something and 8-for-13 from the line, and I’m like, ‘Really? That’s a good game?’ You can fail in that game, and everybody says you’re awesome. This is a game of much failure, and it’s hard to gain confidence in this game because you fail so much. Nick Swiney is getting a great deal of confidence. As Devonte’s worked with Coach Hart, Nick Swiney and Clint Chrysler have hit it off as coach and player, and I think the development of Nick Swiney has been fun to watch.”

“Confidence. It’s all confidence. He’s always been good. Sometimes, the light goes off, and what everybody sees in you, you see in yourself. When you see it in yourself, that’s when you really grow."

Patrick Bailey

“I’m seeing it good, and it helps to have everybody rolling. When everybody’s hitting good, I feel like it’s a lot easier to hit. When some guys are scuffling, sometimes it becomes contagious. These past couple of weeks have been a lot of fun.”

“It’s been huge. Devonte’s had an incredible three weeks. Getting Luca back healthy and seeing Jonny [Butler] and [Austin] Murr starting us off has been fun to watch and fun to be a part of.” 

“It was a 3-2 fastball that was left over the plate a little bit.”

“I wasn’t really sure at the time just from the game. When you’re struggling to throw strikes, a lot of times you just throw it over the plate. I was able to get a fastball, and I hit it pretty well.”

“It’s awesome. Coastal’s always had a really good program. It’s a good team over there, and to come out to a hot start like we did was really important. Hopefully, we can just carry what we’ve done so far into ACC play.”

“It’s tough, but at the same time, it’s so much fun to see guys like [DeAngelo] Giles get their first hit, Pace go out there and really throw well, and new guys come out and get the experience that they’re able to get. For us as upperclassmen, that’s as fun as us getting the hits, and it’s cool to watch the guys grow."

J.T. Jarrett

“I started off in the eight-hole today, and by the time I’d gotten to the plate, some guys had seen a lot of good pitches and made good contact. We talk to each other when guys come back to the dugout after an at-bat and tell each other what we’re seeing up there. I had a good report on the guy, and I was seeing the ball pretty well. I made good contact a few times, and good things happened.”

“I also feel like this is the best I’ve been in the box. I worked on getting stronger this summer, and Coach [Joey] Holcomb comes in and helps me work on some mental parts of the game in the box, along with Coach Hart also. I’m seeing it probably better than I ever have, and it’s helping a lot.”

“Going into every game, you have to take it seriously. Coming in against a midweek like this, we try to act like every game’s the same, but we know things are going to take a step up when we start playing ACC schools. Honestly, I try to take every at-bat as serious as I can and act like it’s a really important game which they are."

Luca Tresh

“I feel good right now. I’m seeing the ball really well. I feel good. I’m almost 100 percent healthy.”

“Like you said, it really just drives me, but I’m just trying to be simple at the plate right now, do my thing, and let the rest play itself out.”

“Like Pat said, they’re a really good ball club. It’s really good for our confidence.”

“We’re really motivated. We’re 12-0."