DUGOUT REPORT: Avent, Brown, Butler on Regional Championship
Thanks to an offensive explosion that included a game-tying single from Jonny Butler and grand slam from Devonte Brown, NC State baseball is going to a Super Regional for the first time since 2013 following a 14-7 win over Louisiana Tech Sunday night.
Butler, Brown and Elliott Avent spoke to the media after the win, here’s a full breakdown of everything they had to say:
Elliott Avent
Last week, you mentioned if your team could learn from the ACC Tournament, it could prepare you for this weekend. How did you feel last weekend’s Tournament prepared you for this?
The ACC Tournament was just a grueling, grueling tournament. You’ve got 12 great teams. Some are fighting for postseason bids, some are fighting to be a host site and some are fighting for a national seed, but it’s 12 great teams. So I told them that’s the toughest tournament they’ll ever play in. It drains you a little bit. It taxes you a little bit. Just learn from it. This weekend, you’re going to have four great teams.
I didn’t know this environment was going to be quite as electric as it was. It was an unbelievable baseball environment. It wasn’t hostile, like some baseball environments. They’re just great fans with respect for the game that pull for their team. It was an electric atmosphere. But I think going through the ACC Tournament did help them and I think they did learn from it.
You had two freshmen pitchers pitch against a regional host, what are your thoughts on them?
Just how much they’ve grown up. I talked to both of them after the game. I talked to the team after the game. Part of it is you’ve got to give them credit. You have to give Matt Willadsen and Chris Villaman credit. But any time a person grows, learns and develops, then you’ve got to give senior leadership credit. Our senior leadership, our older guys in that locker room, Devonte Brown, J.T. Jarrett, the list goes on and on. Jonny Butler. Reid Johnston. Evan Justice. It’s an outstanding list, and what they have done, setting an example, talking to them, providing leadership, allows Matt Willadsen to pitch in this environment and get down 4-0 but keep them where they are until they were able to claw back, and then Chris Villaman, after having a two-run homer from, their top of the lineup is as good as any top of the lineup we’ve seen all year. So just a lot of credit to our team, a lot of credit to those two guys and I’m just really proud of everybody.
Could you give us a sense of the atmosphere in the dugout when it was 4-0 and 5-3?
It was OK. It was early. It was the second or third inning. We’ve got a good lineup. We knew everybody was kind of the lineup pitching. They got a great start from their guy. I think he was 4-0 on the year, but I’m not sure they expected to get the start they got from their starter. But I thought he pitched outstanding, and, like I said, Matt Willadsen just kept them at bay. The two-run homers, of course he had a walk before each home run and I hope he’ll remember that. But we knew we’d get back in it. Terrell Tatum had the big hit when the rain started coming, with the bases loaded, and I think that relaxed everybody a little bit.
Does Devonte Brown’s performance show you have balance throughout the lineup?
I said that coming into the season, I said that all season, our one through nine just finds ways to do their job. Nobody tries to do too much. Nobody tries to hit home runs, nobody tries to be the guy; they don’t have to. They know they can just pass it to the next guy and walk it down the line. If we keep walking it down the line, stay within ourselves and stay in the strike zone, we’re going to be a tough out for pitchers next weekend.
Your opponent next weekend isn’t clear, Nebraska won today. How will you approach that? Will you guys watch the game tomorrow?
We may not know what time the game is tomorrow. You said Nebraska won, so I guess they have a one-game thing on Monday. We may be flying back. We’re trying to get back. We may have to split the team up and get them out of here, may not get back until like 6 or 7, so we may be in the air when that game is decided.
How good of a feeling is it to see this group go out and take care of business and get you back to the Super Regionals?
This group knows nothing about the things you mentioned, the TCU and Kentucky and the Coastal thing. This group knows nothing about that. They just know who they are and what they are trying to do. But I was very pleased. Beating this team twice with this crowd. And this was a good team. I thought the crowd might have been worth a couple runs or maybe more. I just thought our guys competed. This La. Tech team is a veteran team. The coaching staff is unbelievable. They’ve done a tremendous job with these players. As much as I think about our players in our locker room and our dugout, I know they think the same thing about their team. I saw it as they were walking off the field. There were a lot of good hugs and a lot of sad hugs because that’s a great ballclub.
How important was it for Matt Willadsen to shut down Louisiana Tech in the sixth after your big fifth inning?
Yeah, it’s always what you want to do on the defensive end. If you score, you want to put up a zero. If they score then you try to answer back. I thought Matt gained some confidence through how he was pitching. We knew he had settled in. As a matter of fact, we gave great pause to take him out when we did because he was just starting to pitch better. If we hadn’t had such a long inning there, he might have gone back out. But we decided to go with Chris [Villaman].
What proved the notion right about this team having a great chance to win it all this weekend?
It’s so tough to be where we are now. It’s so hard. You think about 200 and whatever, 86, and everybody is putting money into baseball now. It’s not like 286 teams and these guys don’t really care. People are putting money into baseball throughout the country. They’re putting money into stadiums, and it pays off in recruiting. To be down to the final 16 teams at the end of the day tomorrow, it’s amazing. This team reminds me so much of our first team that we had here, just a few select guys. We’ve played nine guys for like three months now. Five guys have pitched the bulk of our innings all year. We’ve got a bullpen that has stepped up the last month, and they’re ready to go too if needed. I couldn’t be more proud.
We had so many parents here. When I was on the way to the bus I spoke to every set of parents of these kids, and I told them ‘Forget how good of ballplayers your sons are. I know you’re proud. I know you love your kid no matter what. But I think since they’ve been gone from you for three or four or five years, I don’t know if you all understand. These guys are men. They’re young men, but they’re men. What you all have done in raising your children, you couldn’t be more proud because these are a tremendous group of men that represent NC State and their families.’
Devonte Brown
What are the emotions like and how satisfying is it to finally win a Regional and get to Super Regionals?
The emotions are everywhere. Everybody is happy. They’re excited. Everybody has been going crazy ever since that last out. It’s what we’ve been training for. I think we kind of expected this. Right now we’re going to enjoy it, and then after this we’re gonna have to get back to work.
Your grand slam was a backside hit, has that been more of your approach to be able to go backside?
I wouldn’t really say I was trying to go backside. I was just trying to hit the ball hard, put a barrel on something and just drive some runs in. The ball just happened to go over there.
How sweet did that grand slam feel?
It felt amazing. I knew in that moment when we took that lead, I knew we were going to win the game from that moment.
Is that grand slam the biggest hit of your career?
Yeah, it is.
Did you know the ball was gone immediately?
When I hit it, I knew it had a chance. With the sky and the time it was, I kind of lost the ball. I was just looking at the right fielder to see his reaction. When I saw him sprinting back and he just stopped, that was the moment I knew and I started getting chills kinda. The crowd went crazy, and I just started taking it all in.
Did you expect to have power numbers in this Regional, was this surprising to you?
I wouldn’t say it was really surprising. But I wouldn’t say I was trying to hit home runs. I was more just trying to have good at-bats and barrel a bunch of balls up and hopefully get a bunch of hits.
How neat is it to be in a lineup where you have four or five guys that can hit home runs and four or five guys who can steal bases?
It’s amazing. Teams can’t hold us to just hitting home runs. We can run, we can bunt, we can steal. We can do a bunch of things. We have a bunch of different points of attack, so it’s really neat.
Did rebounding from a 1-8 start give you a point of view to know you could rebound from the Duke loss last week?
Oh yeah, I don’t think anybody ever got down. I think we just knew we had to step it up a little bit. Some people just had to step up and realize who we are.
Was it almost fitting that you had to come back from an early deficit to head to Supers?
Yeah, I think we just kind of knew how we needed to go about the day. I think we just realized what the bigger picture was. I think it was that.
Jonny Butler
Was it almost fitting that you had to come back from an early deficit to head to Supers?
Yeah, I think it does. It’s just been a rollercoaster all year. This is the same way.
Austin Murr said he looks up to you as a hitter and wants to be like Jonny Butler, do you look at the way he starts rallies and leads things off and think the same about him?
Of course. Just the way he is able to control the zone and fight and take his walks. He hardly ever strikes out. He’s just a great hitter. I try to pick up on some of those things.
What is it about you and this team that makes the effort standing out the norm?
We just know that if we play hard every single game, we’re gonna have a chance to win it. Every single one of these guys, we all have speed and can create havoc on the basepaths. That’s one of our strengths, and we know it. We know we bust out everything and put pressure on people and cause them to make some mistakes.
What are the emotions like to win a Regional and advance?
It feels great. It feels great right now. But this isn’t the end goal for us. We know how good we are. We know we can make it as far as anyone. It’s really relieving right now and satisfying, but we’re not done yet. We’re ready to go.