Story Poster
Photo by via SEC Media Portal
NC State Baseball

Video + quotes: Elliott Avent on win over Arkansas

June 12, 2021
1,649

NC State bounced back in a huge way from Friday’s 21-2 drubbing against Arkansas, coming up with a 6-5 win Saturday to even the series and force a decisive game three. 

Head coach Elliott Avent spoke to the media after the win, here’s a full breakdown of everything he had to say: 


What was the key to bouncing back from such a tough loss yesterday? 

Just good players. You don’t do any coaching with that. It’s just good players. Good players who are committed to each other and they’ve done this all year. Nothing needed to be said. That’s all you can do about that. 

What did you think about Sam Highfill’s performance?

I just told Sam, and he’s pitched great for us in his whole career for us, and pitched great for us all year, I just told Sam outside that I thought it was the best game he’s ever pitched if you consider all the circumstances, the meaning of the game, the crowd, but mostly the heat. It was just really hard for him to throw a breaking ball early and get a grip on that thing. He had to throw a lot of fastballs today. I thought it was the best game. Sam likes to pitch quick. He’s a pitcher who gets the ball and throws it, but today he had to take his time and become a different pitcher. That’s just the quality of a competitor and a bulldog, which Sam is. 

It seemed like every time you called a bunt, you got it down and moved the runners. Could you speak to your execution? 

Yeah, we talked about it. I think we made the statement early on, whether it was the ACC Tournament or whether it was at the regional, sometimes you beat teams during the regular season because you might just be better and you still don’t execute well. When you get to the last 16 teams in the country, that execution takes on a different parameter and importance. You’ve got to do the little things, whether it be base running, getting bunts down or rolling on a dirt ball, you’ve got to do the little things and you’ve got to do them well. You’ve got to do them aggressively but with a little smartness. I thought we did a great job getting the bunts down today and yesterday as well.

Is this the best setup you could hope for with your bullpen for game three? 

This has been the way we’ve done it the last three months. Nothing’s changed. This is the way we’ve done it. We’re in the same situation we’ve been in for the last three months. 

You came back from what was probably one of the more embarrassing losses in NC State history and beat a 50-win team in their place. Is this one of the bigger wins your career? 

They’re all big, and this one is obviously really big, to beat a great Arkansas team that was pretty much No. 1 in the country all year. Winning the SEC, this crowd, this environment, but I disagree with one thing. I don’t think it was an embarrassing loss yesterday. Obviously the score was lopsided, but when you’re playing when like 240 teams are sitting at home, I don’t think there’s anything embarrassing about that. 

Did the relief pitchers yesterday help you set this up?

Absolutely. 

Looking at what Evan Justice did with getting out of the seventh and shutting them down in the eighth and ninth, was that one of his better outings? 

That’s actually a very similar outing to how he’s been the last two months of the season. That’s what he’s done. It was unfortunate there in the seventh. A couple things happened. The ground ball, which was hit very, very well, I think [Jose Torres] was going to make the play because he’s the great player, but it not only hit the rosin but it hit the bag and kind of hopped away. Jose was going to have a chance at that play, and then he kind of pulled a throw to [Austin Murr]. So with all that in there, it just shows the toughness and the competitiveness of Evan Justice, as well as really good stuff. But he’s done that the last couple months of the season. 

I think you guys have won eight straight games after a loss, and today you go down early. How impressive has it been all season to see the resilience of this group? 

That’s what I’ve told you all all season. You basically just repeated everything I’ve said at every talk we’ve had after the games. This is the most impressive group I think I’ve ever had, and it reminds me so much of the first team that I was fortunate enough to coach with coach [Ray Tanner]’s players. We’ve had great, great teams in between. But when you use the word resilience and you use the word toughness, I instantly think of this team.

Having a game with a loss of 19 runs seems to get a lot of teams down. Your team seemed to use that as fuel to come back and win today. What does that say about the character and grit of this team? 

Character, grit, whatever adjectives you want to use, they know who they are. This team, they understand who they are. Yesterday, nobody wants to get beat by that margin, but they knew how the game went and they knew how he got this point. Breakfast this morning was as good as it’s ever been. This team is very consistent, and the pulse of this team stays the same no matter what. 

You talked about how loose this group has been. Did you expect this group to be loose and approach today the way they did? 

I just expect them to be professionals. That’s what they’ve been all year. They’re never tight, but they’re not too loose. They know they’ve got a game to play, they’re focused. This is a special group. They approach the game the right way, they respect the game and each other. It’s just been a fun team to watch play. 

Did you guys talk to Highfill about slowing down his tempo?

He had to battle a lot of things today, and he figured out how to battle that. He’s not only a competitive player and bulldog, he’s smart. That’s what this team is. They have a lot of smarts about them. He likes to pitch fast, but he couldn’t grip the breaking ball early on. He was throwing a lot of fastballs, more than he normally throws, but part of that is the moisture running down his forearm and his hand. He probably had to go to the rosin bag 40 times today just to be able to throw the ball. He was forced to slow things down and he understood that, but no, we didn't talk to him about that. 

Evan Justice finished with 48 pitches, could he come back and throw tomorrow? 

That’d be a better question for Evan Justice, but I wouldn’t count him out. 

 

Video + quotes: Elliott Avent on win over Arkansas

1,642 Views | 0 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by Andrew Schnittker
There are not any replies to this post yet.
Refresh
Page 1 of 1
 
×
subscribe Verify your student status
See Subscription Benefits
Trial only available to users who have never subscribed or participated in a previous trial.