DUGOUT REPORT: Pack Secures Sweep Over Dukes

NC State head coach Elliott Avent, junior third baseman Devonte Brown, and junior right fielder Jonny Butler met with the media following the Wolfpack's 11-2 win over James Madison Sunday afternoon.

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

Elliott Avent

“I thought we played well. Sundays are sometimes hard to play. It can be an emotional game. You’ve won two, so maybe you relax a little bit, or you’ve lost two, and you can’t get your emotions to come out and play the way you need to play. I thought we came out ready to play. I thought we played consistently all three days. Defensively, I thought we were really, really good though not great. For the most part, we threw strikes. Right now, we’re trying to grow, we’re trying to see who can do what, and we’re trying to play different people so, when conference comes, you’ve answered a lot of questions. I like the growth of this team and the way this team talks in the dugout. There’s just something about this team in the dugout that I like, but we’ve got to continue to grow, and hopefully we will. Some guys had some good weekends. You’ve got two guys right here that had big-time weekends. Murr had a big-time weekend. I think we’re going to continue to get better.”

“Chris [Villaman] is tremendous. He can be one of the best pitchers that’s pitched at NC State, and he’s got tremendous stuff. He didn’t seem himself on the mound today. Chris has got a lot of confidence and a lot of poise as a freshman. He just didn’t seem himself, but we were only going to throw him 35 pitches. He’s on a pitch count because he and Reid Johnston both had a setback at the beginning of the year with some sickness, so they just kind of got shut down for a while. We’re taking it slow with them. I just didn’t think he seemed like himself, but yet he still did okay.”

“I think we’ve got a lot of team speed. We’ve got a lot of guys that can steal bases. Coach [Chris] Hart and Coach [Joey] Holcomb worked really hard on the guys on getting reads. I liked the double-steal with [Tyler McDonough and Patrick Bailey]. Pat did a great job. He was really pleased with himself, too. Pat’s faster than people think he is. He did a great job on that double steal because they did a great job at throwing to second because McDonough got such a good jump. When you see things in practice work in games, it’s what it’s all about. I think we’re doing a good job on the bases.”

“It’s a hard game; you’re not going to do that very often. I thought their at-bats were good. I don’t ever judge that kind of stuff. At the end of the year, you can talk about that stuff. These two and [Austin] Murr were locked in. For them to be locked in this good in the first weekend, I thought it’s a big tribute to their work ethic and what they’ve done. The way they took pitches and the way they did some things, they were really good.”

“Everybody likes to hit, but Pat takes his walks. I think he’s really good at taking his walks. You’ve got to get walks, one, because of his reputation and the accolades he gets in the preseason, but the other thing is that he’s got guys behind you that are doing their job. He’s got Devonte behind him who’s building a reputation slowly, then Butler behind him. He’s got to get walks if he’s smart enough to take them."

Devonte Brown

“For sure. I think, as a team, we prepare very well hitting-wise. We always talk about being ready for fastballs, and if you’re ready for fastballs, all the other off-speed pitches will be easy to take or adjust to. Throughout preparation from practice from the fall to now, I think we did a very good job preparing for fastballs. We’re going to be a solid hitting team.”

“As Coach said earlier, it probably won’t be like that for the rest of the season, but just being ready hitting, working the counts, preparing in the box, and staying ready is going to be a big thing for everybody. We have to stay ready and not sitting back, being too pleased about what’s going on right now just because it’s the first weekend. I think there’s still a long way’s to go, so I think we’ve just got to stay prepared."

Jonny Butler

“We just wanted to play well. We wanted to come out with high energy which I thought we did. Everybody was locked in. We got a bunch of new guys in there that haven’t played yet. It was fun to see them get their at-bats. That’s a tough role to come in with no warmups, and they had some very good at-bats.”

“It’s awesome. Every single time I'm hitting with somebody on, it puts pressure on the pitcher, and I know that. [Brown] was getting great reads off my hits all weekend long. I hit a soft blooper over second base, and he read that perfectly and was able to score. [Later,] I hit it through the hole into left field[, and he got third]. Not many people get to third base on that, and it allowed me to get to second. It’s awesome."