Norman Regional: Game 4 Quotes

NCAA Baseball Norman Regional Central

OU Head Coach Sunny Golloway

Opening statement:
"I am really proud of our players and the way they performed. This was a great baseball game and I am happy about the way our guys fought. About the triple, when North Carolina tied the game, you train all year and you let them go out, have fun and play and you don't feel bad about what happens."

"They are out there giving everything they have and that is one of the things that I told them. The reward for the coaching staff is that everyone on the team is filling their roll and picking each other up. One of the things we say in the dugout all the time is stay together, we are locked together and we are linked together in this thing. What I mean by that is if you boot a ball, you have to have someone come back in pick you up. If you strike out, you need the next guy to come back and pick you up."

"We are in the business of teaching and coaching student-athletes and see them perform and represent a university and fight that is rewarding."

On consecutive close games:
"You can't train anyone in the fall for this stuff because this is making me old in a hurry. Sure, I think we would like to keep scoring and run away. Sure, we would like to make things easier in the end but we are playing in the NCAA tournament and nobody is going to lie down. They are going to fight to the end."

On Oklahoma Sophomore Erik Ross double to go ahead:
"There is one quick simple answer to this and that is you have to believe in your players. We stayed with (Ryan) Duke, we stayed with Erik (Ross) and we were rewarded. You have to believe in your student-athletes because they do thing, work hard and you just have to get out of the way and let them play."

Sophomore Outfielder Erik Ross

On double to give Oklahoma the lead:
"When I was on deck, I actually peeked in the dugout to see who was going to get me. In my eyes, I was just trying to do the best thing that I could, which was put the ball in play. Luckily, I got the pitch to hit and I capitalized.

Junior Pitcher Zach Neal

On his performance:
"My defense played well and I was able to get a couple of strike out when I needed them. I walked a couple of guys, which is not good but overall it was a good team effort and a good win for us."

Sophomore Catcher Tyler Ogle

On teams attitude during the close games:
"We have been through a lot of close games and that is not something that you are looking forward to. We would like a blow out win every time but the atmosphere of the guys around, picking each other up, it is awesome. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."

UNC Head Coach Mike Fox

Opening Statement:
"Terrific game....terrific college baseball. I thought Neal was absolutely, really great today. If we strike out in double digits, we generally have a hard time winning and that's what happened to us tonight....too many strike outs in too many critical situations. I definitely can see why Oklahoma has won 45 games. They are a really good team and Neal pitched well tonight. We didn't make good adjustments. I thought it was a terrific game and I am proud of my team. We have played like that all year, we just didn't get it done."

On Jesse Wierzbicki's bunt pop up late in the game:
"We didn't get that pitch. I thought, let's get this tied and get him around to second base. I asked him to do something that is probably not one of his strong suits, probably would not have had him bunt again. He just didn't get it down. It's just one of those things."

On facing Oral Roberts tomorrow:
"We have seen too way too much of them. They are a good team, we have got our hands full for tomorrow. No doubt about it. They have four hitters that can really swing. It's going to be survival of the fittest now. We are excited to play tomorrow. Chris (Munnelly) will start tomorrow."

Freshman Outfielder Brian Goodwin

On his triple:
"It came at a really good time. I feel like I wanted to be at the plate. It was a situation where I felt like I wanted to be in the box. It was a good pitch and I just got a good swing under it, which was just great. I felt really confident afterwards.

On OU's starting pitcher:
"I thought he was really effective all game. He had some really good pitches. He got us to chase and I thought he was effective all game."

Senior Shortstop Ryan Groepel

The team's mentality going into the ninth:
"We were just trying to get guys on in that situation, get it tied and around the plate. Luckily, we were able to do that."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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