DUGOUT REPORT: Highfill, Tatum on win over Vanderbilt

Thanks to 7.1 stellar innings from Sam Highfill and a game-winning homer from Terrell Tatum, NC State baseball topped Vanderbilt 1-0 Monday night to move a win away from the College World Series final. 

Highfill and Tatum spoke to the media after the win, here’s a full breakdown of everything they had to say: 

Seeing a guy like Jack Leiter on the other side and hearing all the talk about him coming into this and what he was doing, how much did that fire you up and motivate you to want to go out there and go pitch for pitch with him, which you obviously did?

It did have a factor. I knew I was going to have to be good tonight. That kid's really good and you'll see his name called in the first, if not first five, 10 picks, he might be the first pitcher taken this year. I knew I was going to have to go out and be good. And Tatum hit the home run and I guess that was all we needed.

I know it's sometimes hard to talk about yourself, but just how proud are you of the way you've developed as the season's gone along? You seem to be getting better and better every week.

I feel good right now. And the last couple of starts I have felt good. Stages keep getting bigger and bigger. And to be able to pitch in this park tonight was an unreal feeling. I'm glad we came away with the win.

You obviously have an extensive NC State background. So, what you're doing in this journey is special, but to be doing it for the school that you have loved and adored and as part of your family, could you just speak to that?

It's everything I dreamed of as a kid. I remember going to NC State baseball games when I was 6, 8, 10 years old, and wishing I was able to be out there with them. I watched them come to the College World Series in 2013. And it's been a lot of fun.

You were able to keep the lead-off man off the base all but two of your innings tonight. How big a factor was that in your success?

That's huge. That's what we try to do. It's a big thing. You get the lead-off guy, you're in a good position for the rest of the inning. It's certainly not over after you get the lead-off guy out. It helps a lot to not be pitching all inning from the stretch.

I guess from a stuff standpoint you had the fastball, that Frisbee slider working for you. What did you think about your stuff tonight just overall?

I thought it was good, but I wouldn't say it was the best I've had all year. Change-up was good sometimes, but I left it up a lot tonight. Able to get away with some of those. And breaking ball was hit or miss today. But, yeah, from down side-arm, stuff felt good tonight. Fastball felt good.

Talk about the chemistry tonight between you and your catcher and shutting down the Vanderbilt offense tonight?

Luca is awesome. He had another great game tonight back there. Coach Chrysler calling pitches. And Luca playing defense, I don't want anybody back there, anybody else back there for me right now.

When Tatum hit the home run, could you tell me how it made you feel? Did you think it was one of those games where one run would win it?

I wasn't sure, but that home run was huge in the fifth inning, I guess it was. I knew I had done well so far, but I knew the game was far from over. I didn't know if one run was going to be enough or not. But that was a big home run.

Can you just talk about the confidence that this team has right now going forward?

We have a lot of it. We've beaten, in the last five or six weeks, we beat the ACC pitcher of the year; the SEC pitcher of the year, Kevin Kopps; we beat Jack Leiter tonight; we beat Brendan Beck on, whatever, two days ago. And we've got a lot of confidence. We've slayed a lot of giants and we’re trying to carry it forward.

Vandy has a lineup that hasn't been shutout in a couple of years. What was the key to shutting those guys down in your eyes tonight?

I touched on it a little bit earlier, get the lead off guy out every inning, especially their lead-off hitter. He can run and keeping him off base -- I don't know if he got on tonight -- but keeping him off base was big. And just go from there.

Terrell Tatum

Can you just take us through your home run, both what you got and how you hit it? And also just the feeling and the adrenaline of hitting that in this park?

I'll start off by saying my first at-bat he started me off with an off-speed pitch then continued the trend, threw another one. And the second at-bat when I hit the home run it was off-speed pitch that was a strike. And I completely sold out for the next pitch to be a fastball. And it just happened to be a fastball in and I put a good swing on it.

What can you say about Sam and his performance out there on the mound for you guys tonight? And how much did it fire you up to see him out there going pitch for pitch with Jack Leiter like that?

To me, that was one of the most impressive things I think that Sam has done up to this point. Like, I'm just at a loss for words, honestly. I've come real close to Sam throughout the course of the postseason and this year.

And every single day he comes and works as hard as he can and puts in the work and really deserves the results. And he keeps going out there and getting them every single time. It's really, like, unbelievable. I just can't really explain it.

What led you to kind of decide to sell out for the fastball in on that pitch? You mentioned he was off-speeding you outside. What kind of led you to look for that one pitch?

So for me, the first at-bat it was change-up, breaking ball for a ball, breaking ball for a strike, and then an unbelievable pitch that I tip my cap on. It was one of the best fastballs, I want to say, he threw all night. That was absolutely a great pitch.

So coming to the next at-bat, I realized that I hadn't seen many fastballs at all. So I was really hoping that he would start me off with one. But it ended up being a slider. So I took it. And then I just had this feeling that it was going to be a fastball, and I didn't care where it was thrown, I was going for it.

As Sam just said, you guys have slayed a lot of giants when it comes to you guys as batters. Even though when you're striking out, there never seems to be any fluster at the plate. Can you speak to the confidence the whole team has up and down the lineup when it comes to facing these guys?

I think that's a credit to our coaches and our coaching staff, and really the confidence that we all have within each other to believe we'll all put together good at-bats.

If we're going to talk about tonight, Austin Murr is probably not happy with what happened tonight because he feels he didn't do anything, but really Austin was the main reason we were able to have success tonight because he went out there first at-bat of the game and saw a lot of pitches. So, he gave everybody an opportunity to see everything that he had tonight for us.

And then [Tyler McDonough] did the same thing and [Jonny Butler] did the same thing and I did the same thing. We all try to build on each other and make sure we're all putting quality at-bats regardless of the result of the at-bat.

How does this feel to get another step closer to the ultimate goal? What's the feeling tonight?

For me, I'm really at a loss for words, honestly. From the start that we had and where we've been, I would say, like, this is -- we're really on top of the world right now. This feeling is unmatched, especially to do it here at this stage is one of the greatest feelings I probably ever felt in my life.

To come into Friday's game with no losses, does that take any of the pressure off at all, or do you approach it any differently than any other game?

So, for me personally, I look at all the games the same. I'm trying to do anything I can to help my team win and give it all I've got for those nine innings that we're playing.

You mentioned how guys were taking pitches and that helps the lineup. The big thing people say about NC State is that the lineup is stacked 1 to 9. Do you feel like your teammates are helping you and you're helping your teammates? Is that why you're having that type of season? Could you just explain that?

So, for me, I think that -- I actually talked to my uncle about this last night. So for me personally, I pay extreme attention to Austin Murr's at-bats and Tyler's at-bats and Jonny's at-bats, not only because they hit right in front of me, but because I feel a lot of guys will choose someone in the order to pitch you just alike.

To me, tonight I felt like they didn't pitch me like anyone. But I feel like on normal days I try to pay attention and find out where they're throwing the pitches to those guys, if they're feeding them in and out or if they're getting a lot of off-speed so I know what I'm likely to see in my at-bats.