CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—Arizona came into the Super Regionals as one of the hottest teams in the country, winning eight in a row that included conference tournament and regional titles. Then North Carolina promptly put an end to all that momentum, crushing the Wildcats 18-2 on Friday.
“Just flush it,” UA coach Chip Hale said when asked about his message to the team. “Flush it and move on. We’re in single elimination now. We did that in the Big 12 Tournament. We just have to play our best game tomorrow. Obviously we don’t like the score, but it’s one loss.”
Arizona (42-19) must win Saturday to extend the series to a third game. On three occasions this season it has lost the opener of a weekend series and come back to take the next two.
Our game recap can be found here. Below is what Hale and senior second baseman Garen Caulfield said about the loss:
Hale on the loss: “Obviously not the best first game, but it’s one game. And it’s a 3-game series, which is the beauty of baseball. We’re not in uncharted waters. We’ve lost some Friday games and come back and won the series. So I think the guys feel that way.”
On North Carolina: “Their offense was tremendous today. Hopefully we’ll do something to shut them down tomorrow, because I felt like our offense, we had good at-bats all day. We had hard contact. I think we struck out (four) times.”
On the pitching overall: “Obviously our pitchers have picked us up so big all year. It’s just one bad one.”
On Owen Kramkowski lasing only 1.1 innings: “I think he was center cut a lot. It was a little bit reminiscent of Globe Life. He stuff wasn’t bad, it’s just the location. You look at up and down their lineup, they’re veteran guys who know how to hit. They’ve got short swings, but they’re going to take advantage of that location. I think the first batter getting hit by the cutter in, I think that threw him off.”
On UNC’s ability to beat the shift: “When you have short swings like they do, especially with two strikes and you leave the ball up, he can guide the ball where you want to. If we make better pitches, probably it’s hard to do that.”
On failing to capitalize on a bases loaded situation down 5-1: “I hold up the runner at third, one out with the top of the order coming up, and Brendan (Summerhill) gets a little reachy and hits a double play. But again, they made the play. They made the double play, they turned it beautifully. And it’s a fast runner going down the line. It’s just the way kind of the game went.”
On not going to a lefty at one point: “The right/left thing isn’t a really a big deal for us. Some of our righties get lefties better if you look at the splits. Kevin (Vance) makes those decisions. We talk about it, but it’s his decision. He know what that guy has, what the hitter’s weakness is. And I think he just felt like that was a good matchup.”
On Aaron Walton’s play in center: “He’s a fantastic defender, a fantastic baseball player, and doesn’t matter what the score is, whether it’s early or late, he’s going to go 120 percent, gonna run through that wall to get the ball. We know he’s capable of making those plays all the time. It’s part of the reason why I got him out of the game, he started to cramp up, and I didn’t want him to do anything to endanger him for tomorrow.”
On if the humidity impacted Arizona: “I don’t want to say that, because it’s just an excuse. We just played in Houston three weeks ago, and it was warmer, it was turf all over the field, for three days. I think sometimes, too, there’s some anxiety, to be frank with you, and stress that comes along with being one of the last 16 teams. And I think that even in our pregame, you can see some guys perspiring more than they usually do, so we have to do a better job tomorrow morning of getting ourselves and figuring out, maybe backing off a little bit in BP and wearing something different so we can cool off more.”
On Michael Hilker Jr. vomiting on the field: “When I was in pro ball, we used to have guys that would vomit, and I didn’t want anybody pulling a muscle or anything like that. So that’s part of it. The other part of it is he’s available tomorrow. He’s available on Sunday. Once we get behind like that, we’re going to run some different guys out there and try to save some.”
On the bullpen: “Unfortunately, some of the guys that had to pitch at the end have not pitched a lot innings lately, and so it’s tough for them. They’re not at their best right now, frankly, it’s the back end of our bullpen, but I credit them. Like Eric Orloff, he’s been here for four years, since I got here, and he gave everything he has, and he sucked it up so we could have other guys available for Saturday.”
Caulfield on how to bounce back: “I think you just get back to the hotel, you get some fluids in you, get a good meal, and get in bed early. That’s all you can do right now.”
On shaking off the loss: “You can’t put too much importance on one game, I’ve learned. It was just a baseball game today, and there’s another baseball game tomorrow. And obviously our backs are against the wall, but we just got to flush it and get to tomorrow.”
On Walton: “Anytime a ball is hit in the air in center field I feel there’s a good chance he’s going to get it out there. I credit it to his effort in BP. He’s making those plays in BP, I don’t know if anyone sees that, but he puts in a lot of work when no one’s watching.”
On facing UNC ace Jake Knapp: “The first couple innings felt outstanding. We just credit that to the staff and the plan we put together for him. We knew he was one of the best pitchers in the country and for the right reasons, and he’s got good stuff up there, but I was excited to see those at-bats, and they were really contagious early on. It felt like we went down 5-1 and didn’t feel like we were quite out of it yet. I just credit that to the plan.”