North Carolina - 7, Notre Dame - 2
THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening statement.
COACH JARRETT: Like I talked about day one, our thoughts and prayers are still with the people in Texas, those families with the young children that were lost. That's been on our mind, and I just want people to know that.
North Carolina played a very good game. It was a well-rounded game. They did a very nice job today. They deserved to win that game. They pitched well. They played good defense. They had some timely hitting.
We didn't play one of our better games. And in this setting, against a team that's obviously playing red hot, they did a very nice job. Their starting pitcher had a little [inaudible] speeds. Did a good job.
Their relief today was clearly a little more sharp than ours. We didn't finish off some plays. I think if we could have finished off that double play -- the first run, the 5-4-3, we didn't make a good throw. Didn't secure, I thought. We never had the momentum in this game.
There's some relievers that had done a solid job for us that weren't quite as sharp today. I thought Rao did a nice job and watched Temple settle in there and started to run that strikeout total up a bit. But clearly not good enough to beat a team that's playing the caliber of baseball that North Carolina is playing right now. They did a very good job in all phases of their game.
There were some plays in the outfield, some of those balls fell in, if we could somehow finish those off and record outs, maybe the score doesn't get to the deficit we found ourselves in. But they played a very good game.
Q. Just reflect on the week here and where your team is, feel good about the way you went through the season, what did you see from this club particularly that you found encouraging after this week?
COACH JARRETT: Our week started at Northwestern last Tuesday night, playing a game, 48 degrees in the rain. Jumped on a plane, flew to Miami, dealt with that. You bump ahead to that series.
We flew right here, and we couldn't stumble to find our way back to Chicago, drive South Bend back to Chicago here. So we just came. And had some guys clearly banged up. Hopefully Cole is back where he needs to be soon, and Miller's trying to pull him along.
So the week here, I thought it helped us. Matt Bedford, the arm you've seen a few times, he's back able to pitch with us.
I like us. Did I think we were a national seed, I do [Zoom buffering].
Last year we won the league by four and a half games, and were a national seed. I don't know that's -- this is really good top to bottom. They're teams in our league that are good that are not in this tournament.
So what you deal with the longevity of the season in this conference and in the SEC and there's other conferences in the same realm as this, but challenging.
When you have to bring your A game to win one of these games, not to mention when the dust settles after 30, you know, did you play clean enough, long enough, healthy enough, dynamic enough to put yourself in a position where you feel like you're one of the best teams in the country. Our guys worked very hard.
If you look at where we played on the road Tallahassee, going to Miami and going to Raleigh and going to Louisville and Duke, those are some tricky trips.
And our guys, they responded in all facets of their world at Notre Dame with academics and the demands and wind it up, and there's no finer example of that than Carter. Those guys bring it. Clearly today, as the dust settled on that, not a good enough game. We did not play clean enough or well enough to beat a team that's playing.
I thought that last year, too. So I don't make those decisions. We just try to go compete and play and that committee has some trick things to sort out in the next 48 hours.
Q. Do you think because of the traveling you've done the teams you've played Regional and potentially a Super Regional is almost like almost like a regression, like a little easier there you don't have to focus on so much, not traveling so much?
COACH JARRETT: Clearly the travel impact will be none, once we get home from here. We categorize these series as Super Regionals. So every week we prepare, in essence, we're trying to calibrate for what the Super Regional feels like and what it takes to win a Super Regional.
These teams we play are going to be in that discussion. So how you manage the league as a whole in a Super Regional -- [Zoom issues].
Trying to prepare for that. Is it easier? I don't know. These are teams that are playing beyond the conference tournaments that have clearly established themselves as being very good and complete.
There aren't a lot of chinks in the armor. So in terms of travel, I would say in terms of the quality of play required to win it, I would say you have to step on the gas and play the way you played in these conference games to win either of those.
Last year to win the league by four and a half games and end up in Starkville, Mississippi, which is probably one of the most exciting atmospheres, especially when you're the home team.
Our guys able to find -- but that's the magnitude of where you may end up and what you have to do, and I hope we don't have to deal with something like that again.
It's just the level of play in that, I think, is very similar to this. Whether you're playing a 4 seed or 2. The teams know what they're doing and are completely confident at the time you get them in this place.
Q. What do you think about Carolina? Is that a team that can make a deep run in the playoffs?
COACH JARRETT: Absolutely. We didn't play them this year. The starting pitching, I would have to -- it's been solid. That bullpen, the mixing and matching, I think so. They play good defense. [Zoom issues].
Nice job for them back there. The variety out of the bullpen, it's a good variety. So I think they're more than capable. You're playing with confidence which they clearly are. That goes a long way you start really believing no matter who you're playing you can win. I feel like our guys -- this didn't shake the mindset of our guys beyond -- like we won enough difficult games all over the place. But Carolina I thought they were complete.
The other starting pitchers not having firsthand experienced it, I can't grade that out.
Q. Jarred Miller, what are the chances to get him back for the Regional? Your team did a great job hitting the reset button last year after the ACC tourney, turning it on for the NCAA Regional. What's the key to kind of doing that and getting that kind of focus?
COACH JARRETT: Miller is coming along. Now, when you're a switch hitter and you dealt with the little quick dislocation in and out, it's just how quickly he responds and is able to do all the things in the game that are required to do. We're not at that point yet. I think there's a chance he's ready, I do. We didn't even want to stretch it this league not even an attempt on either party's end. He was smart enough to realize we've got to get through this.
There's things coming. And that's a long way off. You're talking another six days. When these guys are athletes like they are, their body tends to recover maybe a little more quickly than for somebody that's not in that type of physical shape. So he's doing rehab constantly. And we didn't take him to Miami, didn't want to drag him on that kind of trip, rehab on campus, and he met us here. We thought he was a little more equipped to do the rehab and not make that trip to Miami.
So he's getting there. Part two was what?
Q. Reset button.
COACH JARRETT: We try to hit the reset button every day. I've got my notes from the game, today not the best notes you might find.
We tried -- the thing that happened in the game we just played. Now there's good things that happened today. There's guys that had some good at-bats. Good to see Brannigan get on one and Putzy didn't have one in a little while. That was good.
But I think you constantly reset what you're doing, whether you win or lose. Today will be no different. They'll be in the team room and we'll go through our 15-minute talk on what happened and what we did well and what we need to improve on.
I don't know that we had a magic reset. It's just a constant desire to play elite type baseball every inning and that's a constant reset.
Q. What was the challenge facing UNC's bullpen today? Schaeffer going the distance yesterday, and the new bullpen today.
CARTER PUTZ: Like coach said, they did a good job mixing and matching. Their guys had pretty much at least two pitches a play, they did a good job of not giving us the time, upgrade opportunities, pitch us down the middle. They did a good job of keeping us off the fastball and mixing it.
So it's tough when you're not able to sit on -- see either pitch. And they did a good job of pitching to their strengths trying to keep us on those.
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