Georgia Tech 13, Florida A&M 2 (May 31, 2019)
Georgia Tech Postgame Quotes (Game 59)
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (42-17) 13, Florida A&M Rattlers (27-33) 2
May 31 2019 • Russ Chandler Stadium • Atlanta, Ga.
Georgia Tech Head Coach Danny Hall
Opening Statement:
“First of all, I would like to compliment Florida A&M for certainly being here … [we made] this ballgame look like we had a chance early on to blow them out, but give [Kyle] Coleman credit, he hung in there and did a really good job of competing and getting out of some tough situations. I was proud of Amos [Willingham] to just give up two runs. He was in some tough spots, but made his pitches when we needed him to keep that lead. I felt like [Jonathan] Hughes came in and settled the game and after his inning, we were able to put a crocked number on the board and distance ourselves a little bit. So, happy to win and move on to get a chance to play Auburn in the winner’s bracket game tomorrow.”
On managing the bullpen in preparation for tomorrow
“Yea we have a lot of guys ready. I thought it was key that we scored right after [Jonathan] Hughes came in the game. I didn’t really want to pitch him at all, but I felt like we had to. But he only threw 11 pitches, so he’ll be good to go for tomorrow, and then we have everybody else ready to go. I thought it was huge that we didn’t have to burn anybody really.”
On Luke Waddell and Charlie Benson’s performance
“There is nothing structurally wrong with his [Luke Waddell] knee. It’s the third time it’s happened this year, so I know some of the guys here have seen him do it. It also happened at Virginia Tech when we were up there. It’s just weird. I don’t know what happens, but structurally his knee is fine. He was walking around after the game, so we’ll see how he feels tomorrow and see if he can go. As far as Charlie [Benson] goes, it was definitely a tough spot to put him in with two strikes on. That’s a tough assignment, but after that, he drew two walks and had one play at second that he made and was close to turning a double play. I thought Charlie handled it extremely well, which I thought he would.”
On the Auburn matchup tomorrow
“I thought they played really well today. I thought they swung the bat well, and probably some guys they’d been counting on all year to have a big year for them, [Steven] Williams being one of them, probably didn’t have the year he would have liked to have had or they would have liked him to have had, but he had a great day today. He’s definitely capable. I’ve seen him play for a long time. The way they played today, they are capable of putting runs up on the board. The ball does carry a little differently at night time as opposed to daytime here. They got a good guy going on the mound and we got a good guy going on the mound, so it should be a heck of a ballgame.”
RHP Amos Willingham
On his performance and command of his pitches
“I would say I was a little disappointed in myself, just the way I did command the baseball. They did a good job of not helping me out when I did throw pitches that were close to the plate. As a pitcher, you’re not going to have your best stuff every day and you just have to work with whatever you have. So I tried to attack their guys with my fastball and my curveball. You have to trust your defense and I felt like we did a really good job as a team to keep ourselves in that game.”
1B Tristin English
On the offensive performance of the team with only one extra base hit
“I would say that kind of speaks towards what we do as a team – we see pitches, we grind at bats and we try to get on base any way possible. Today it was a lot of walks and singles – give credit to their pitcher, they throw a lot of pitches right down the middle for us to punish, but credit to our hitters and myself for sticking to our game plan, staying up the middle, not trying to hit the long ball and taking what the pitchers give us.”
OF Colin Hall
On his performance today after his first plate appearance
“I just tried to flush that previous at bat and look for the next one. I knew I was going to get another chance in the game to come through in a big way, so sure enough, I got into a deep count and just kept fouling off fastballs and I knew he’d [Kyle Coleman] make a mistake eventually and missed over the middle and I got a barrel on it.”
