NC State head coach Elliott Avent met with the media to discuss winning the Duke series this weekend.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the full press conference!
What’s your overall takeaway from today?
It was a great series win. I will just tell you what I told the team: a series win is what you have to do in this league. In this league, any day you don't play as well as you can (and I am not saying we didn't play well today, I don't want to take anything away from their pitcher or the way they played), but Cooper Consiglio was unbelievable. I had Carlos Rodón, and everybody knows how tough-minded he was, mentally and physically. He used to pitch with a blister a lot.
Cooper, from the second inning on, had a blister, and by the fourth inning, he had two. Basically, he had no skin on either finger. The valiant effort from Cooper Consiglio was unbelievable. That is what our guys are doing right now. Heath Andrews yesterday, Cooper today, digging deep and giving us everything they have. We just weren't able to put anything together until the end. We made a good rally there at the end and just came up a little short.
How frustrating is it to have the offense go really, really well the first few days and today be a bit of a slump?
That is the way this game is. Every day starts with a new pitcher, and obviously, their guy did a good job and kept us all off balance. They had their two best relievers in the pen, so they were set up for exactly what they did today. That is just the way baseball goes.
There are sort of two aspects to the team's response: there is the response to Florida State and Georgia Tech, and then there is the response to Jacob Dudan’s injury. How do you like the way your team is responding to adversity?
I just think we are playing well. I think we are playing baseball now, the way that I am used to seeing our teams play. Obviously, we are a little shorthanded, and that happens in sports sometimes, but our guys are digging deep like Cooper did today and Heath did yesterday. Ryder Garino came in and did a good job; he just made that one mistake to a good hitter, and it cost us.
Early on, we hit some balls on the screws. The wind was blowing in pretty early, and we hit maybe two or three balls on the screws that they caught at the wall. That is the way baseball goes, but I am happy with the way we rallied at the end against two quality relief pitchers and just came up a little short.
Do you have final tallies on the "Victory Over Cancer" numbers?
I am not involved with that part. I wish maybe I should be, but I am not involved in that side of it.
How proud were you when you invited Duke’s coach out there? Corey Muscara seemed moved by that gesture to take the photo before the game yesterday. Do you recall that?
Yeah, he is a good guy. Corey is a good guy, and it is his first year as a head coach. I know what that means. When Milo rang that bell, that was a moment that I will never forget, and I am sure it moved everybody in this ballpark who was here and paying attention. Seeing the smile on that kid’s face, I didn’t think it was right for just me to be out there.
That moment wasn't about a baseball game; that moment was about something far, far greater than a baseball game. I thought it should be shared by both coaches, so I was glad to have him out there. Plus, their trainer, Aldo, has a son, Christian, who is going through a battle. Aldo hopes Christian is about five months away from ringing that bell himself, so that is something far greater than anything that impacts a baseball game.
