POST-­GAME QUOTES
2 0 1 6 N C A A C H A R L O T T E S V I L L E B A S E B A L L R E G I O N A L D a v e n p o r t F i e l d • C h a r l o t t e s v i l l e , V a . 2016 NCAA Division I Baseball Regional • Game 6 June 5, 2016 • 3 p.m. William & Mary (31-­31) vs. East Carolina (37-­21-­1) East Carolina University Quotes East Carolina Coach Cliff Godwin Opening Statement: “Regional Champions, that sounds pretty good. We started out this season in the summer of last year, the guys worked their butts off to be tough and this season hasn’t been easy for us. There have been a lot of ups and downs and I felt like it prepared us for this regional. There were so many great teams in this regional, any team, William & Mary, Bryant, UVA, any one of those teams could have won this regional. Our guys played their hearts out. We’re lucky, but our guys earned it. I’m so happy for East Carolina University, all these players, all the former players and former coaches at East Carolina. That’s what East Carolina is about, we are a baseball school and we wanted to get it back on the map.” On the mindset following the rain delay “It’s unbelievable for the program. Midway through the season after playing South Florida last season, I looked at Jeff and said ‘We’re not going to make a Regional are we?’ and he said ‘no, we’re not going to make a Regional.’ Then the guys got hot and made the Regional. This year the expectations, plus obviously our coaching staff puts expectations on the players, because in this program we expect to win. We can’t expect to go to Omaha every year because East Carolina has never been to Omaha, but we expect to be in a regional every year. We expect to host regionals. We expect to be in the postseason. I think that weighed on the guys because we had such a tough schedule, we never got the momentum going. But it prepared us for this weekend by playing such a tough schedule. We were able to handle the home crowd yesterday and come up with the big hits, and we were able to continue to play well today.” On what Travis Watkins meant this weekend “The guy has started all but one game behind the plate this year. He’s got to be tired, but he caught his best three games in a row this weekend. He swung the bat better. I know the media said the best thing that could have happened was for the team to go 0-­2 in the conference tournament. I guess you were right for the first time all year. But, no, I think it did help us out to get off our feet some and come here rejuvenated.” On any advice from Keith LeClair that might have been used this weekend “The number 23. The guys have read The Coaching Third every day, the players and coaches on our staff. They know how much Coach LeClair means to this program. Our motivational video ended with Coach LeClair saying we’re going to make it to Omaha and it’s going to be sooner than later. They understand this is bigger than themselves. So many former players texted me yesterday that are so proud of our guys. That’s what East Carolina baseball is all about. We showed the Chad Tracy home run from the super regional in our motivational video. They know Chad because he comes by. They know John Williamson. It’s a family. East Carolina deserves to go to Omaha. Will it be this year? I hope so, but we’re going to get there sometime.” 2016 NCAA CHARLOTTESVILLE REGIONAL
Post-­Game Quotes: Bryant vs. William & Mary
Charley Yorgen On getting the team over the hump: “It’s been unbelievable, I’ve been with these guys, my best friends, for three years and all the blood, sweat and tears that we put in over three years finally paid off and it’s an unbelievable feeling. I’m so happy for all these guys and our coaching staff because they’ve all worked so hard for it and it’s just a great feeling.” Travis Watkins On the home run he hit: “On the home run, I honestly wasn’t going for the home run. He beat me in and that’s what we talk about in this program. Coach Godwin stresses it, ‘Don’t get beat the same way twice. So he beat me in and I was like ‘I’m going to get to that fastball in’ and he threw me a fastball in and I got the barrel to it. I’m so thankful for my teammates we battled up and down the lineup. Our pitching staff did great, our bullpen all did an awesome job, our coaching staff put us in a good position to win in games and we came through in the end and it was a great feeling.” On which felt better, the dog pile or the walk off home run the previous night: “Dog piles are awesome. I’m the catcher so I’m always on the bottom of it. It hurts in the moment but man it’s worth it, you’ll remember that for the rest of my life. It was awesome to celebrate that with my teammates.” Eric Tyler On getting the team over the hump to super regionals: “It’s just been a blast this entire season, it’s been up and down but there’s not a closer group of guys than this team. It’s just such an honor to go down in history for East Carolina baseball.” On his homerun today: “That guy was really good today. Travis got me going a little bit, he got me amped up and so he threw me a slider and I put a good swing on it.”