USC 9, UNC 5 - Postgame Quotes

North Carolina head coach Scott Forbes, starting pitcher Ryan Lynch and first baseman Erik Paulsen spoke to the media following Carolina’s 9-5 loss to USC in game one of the super regional on Friday.

Scott Forbes

“That was a tough one. You want to try to grab that first one but credit to Southern Cal, they have a really good team. Walker McDuffie has been outstanding for us. I’ll put that dude right back out there tomorrow. It just happens and the game can flip. That’s the beauty of baseball. But the beauty of a super regional is it is a three game series, and we’re trying to win the three game series, and this ain’t the first time we’ve lost the first game. So I told the guys, move on and flush it…

“They’ve completely bought into being process oriented, to understanding what that means. We just have to play as well as we can when we’re playing. If I remember correctly, we won by a lot last year in game one, and we didn’t come out on top, so we talked about that briefly in (the locker room). We just happened to lose the first one (today), so I just reminded them, have that short memory, move on. If your family’s here, be present, don’t go pout about it, hang out with them, and then come in here tomorrow and just play…

“I definitely felt the momentum change (after the grand slam), but I didn’t feel our guys changing. Credit to their pitchers, they threw the ball well. They were throwing strikes, and you’ve got to beat them. I thought we hit some balls really hard. I thought we had some good at bats. We just didn’t find any grass or any holes. We still moved the ball, and not many strike outs. So really, anytime that happens, you have got to get up off the mat because you just got smoked on the mat with a grand slam with two outs, and you’re down by one when you’ve been in control the whole game. But I felt like our guys kept playing and I was proud of that.”

Erik Paulsen

“We just kept sticking to our approach, and when we got a ball to hit, we went after it, whether it was an out or ended up being a hit. We stuck to the approach and there’s nothing you do after it leaves the bat…

“I just have got to give all the credit to the coaches (on the success against Mason Edwards). They do their hard work, they dive into it, and we just need to trust them and buy into the approach. That’s exactly what we did today. So same thing for tomorrow, whatever approach Coach Jesse Wierzbicki and Coach Scott Jackson have for us, we are going to buy in and we are going to do it.”

Ryan Lynch

“I think I just did a better job getting ahead and putting guys out with two strikes, not walking anybody…

“There’s not one single person to blame for anything. I mean, some of the guys that maybe didn’t have their best games today have been absolutely saving our butts all season. They’re unbelievable competitors. So we’re not placing and blame on anybody.”