Name: Pollard: Thrilled to be extending our season, another chance to chase a dream of going to Omaha
Uploaded: 2021-05-31T16:59:20-0400
Duration: 757552
Description: Duke baseball head coach Chris Pollard spoke following the NCAA selection show where the Blue Devils were selected as the No. 3 seed out of the Knoxville Regional. Pollard touched on their first opponent in Liberty, the resiliency of this group and how they keep the momentum going in to the NCAA Tournament

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Duke baseball head coach Chris Pollard spoke following the NCAA selection show where the Blue Devils were selected as the No. 3 seed out of the Knoxville Regional. Pollard touched on their first opponent in Liberty, the resiliency of this group and how they keep the momentum going in to the NCAA Tournament

12 game winning streak, form a CC Championship, all the emotions you're feeling right now. Yeah, well, just excited to be continuing our season. We've had so much fun down the stretch. I've had so much joy and just watching these guys play well, sort of uh you know, coming out of a really tough month of april to see them show the resilience and perseverance to be in this position, thrilled to be extending our season, another chance to chase the dream of going to Omaha. Uh yes, just excited for this group. What do you like about your matchup? Well, you know, we beat Liberty twice during the regular season. I thought we matched up really well with him. I thought we played them tough. Uh they're a really good club. Uh Coach Jackson is a good friend. He's done a terrific job there in Lynchburg, their deep, their offensive, but you know, we've played them really tough and we played them tough here at the d bat, but also up in Lynchburg just about a month ago, obviously right states and really offensive club. That's a tough number four seed in our regional uh And Tennessee's had a great year, coach, fratello has done a terrific job really, in a short amount of time in Knoxville, so three really tough opponents, but we're excited for the challenge eyes, they seem so relaxed and also sounds so just confident, confident group. Just how have you kind of seen them develop obviously during that mid point of the season two now, I think it's a been a big part of it cases these guys have relaxed. I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves early in the year. I think that during the month of april we really pressed. And I think a big part of that was feeling like we were not living up to the expectations that had been set for us. Uh coming out of the exam break, I saw a shift and our guys really loosened up uh you know, I think part of it is having the academic year over with and this has been a relaxed group down the stretch, they've had a lot of fun spending time with each other, you know, they were a blast down in charlotte this past week, so fun to watch and I think they're playing with a lot of confidence. I feel like we kind of dwelled on a little bit this the last couple days with Joey and just kind of being a leader and coming back, but you know, when you guys kind of needed a leader most this season, just how much has he? And maybe some of the other captains stepped up, I think, you know, joe, certainly mike Rothenberg too, and the leadership from our other two captains, chase cheek and chris too drunk. Uh They've done a terrific job, you know, they held it together for us, they were they were a glue because they're in the middle of april uh We didn't know if we'd be in the A. C. C. Tournament much less the N. C. Double A tournament and to be in a really tough spot at 1.8 and 15 in conference play and coming out of kind of a disastrous uh series finale with Carolina and then turning around on friday night and getting the doors blown off by Wake Forest and we looked like we were you know, we were in trouble but those guys were really tough, they were really committed, they held our team together and these guys stayed committed to one another and we kept saying throughout the year, just keep everybody within arm's length. Don't don't don't let it get away from us and we'll be able to make a run down the stretch. And and they did that. Can you take that you know when you're going into the tournament last week you're always saying yeah we can keep this momentum with a hot team going in. Can you keep that saint Mantra going here with the addition of what? In the I don't think there's any question because I mean you know what I've always heard in the nine years in my league. Um it's more difficult to win the A. C. C. Tournament than it is to win a racial. You gotta you gotta go through uh really uh three or four teams that are you know number one or number two seats and you saw that. I mean we you know we had to go through uh three really good teams just to get to yesterday, uh that are all still playing. And so I think that experience doing that on the road, I think it really uh continues to develop that confidence these guys are feeling right now. And what does this mean to continued us getting into the after not having, Yeah, it's it's it's really special. I mean, you know, kind of become accustomed to looking forward to the selection show monday around here. And that's a, that's a special way to spend Memorial Day. It's not what Memorial Day is about. It's about obviously celebrating and honoring those that have protected our country and paid the ultimate sacrifice. But uh, to be together still on Memorial Day and be here for this selection show, monday year after year. I think this is now uh, since we didn't have a selection show last year, I think this is three in a row and uh four out of the last five I think it's great validation for where our program is nationally. You mentioned maintaining contact. Uh huh. Back when Duke is struggling in place, you would turn around and go out on Tuesday and post the wind and a lot of cases against things like Liberty and Campbell and use that weren't automatic Wc. How important were those midweek games and keeping keeping the season? I think it was huge and I think those midweek games were what put us in a position that had we not one yesterday. We still be celebrating a trip to the N. C. Double A. Tournament today because you know, we we played an incredibly aggressive out of conference schedule. Um and because of that and because we had some success in those out of conference games, we wound up with the number one non conference, our P. I. In the nation. And that was what really bolstered our overall R. P. I. And also bolstered our confidence. You come out on a Tuesday and and and play a liberty, a Campbell and you play those teams a watch for another conference champion. You play those teams. Well, you know, I think that helped us understand that, you know, things are going to click here eventually on the weekend. It's a it's a matter of when, not a matter of if let me ask you a sort of seasoned art question, my understanding is the best ride back from Louisville was the occasion for some pretty serious conversations about the direction of the season. What what what can you tell us about that? Well, I challenged our guys, we got back here, we decided to practice on sunday. We were, you know, because of the double head or On Saturday. We got up at 5:30 AM and jumped on the bus and headed back uh to Durham. And we got off the bus, I said, go put on your practice uniform, were practicing and and I said, we're gonna have a team meeting first and I was pretty hard on our kids. I one of the things that bothered me about the first part of the season, it felt like when we were good, we were really good, but when something went wrong, we weren't tough enough to overcome it, and that's not a hallmark of of a tough team. And I really challenged our guys in their toughness. I I pointed out to him in that meeting that we didn't have a come from behind win to that point in the season all year. And I thought that was a sign that we weren't the type of Duke tough team, uh, that we're used to being and to their credit. And I really felt this way jim. Uh, when I decided to have that meeting, I said, we'll go one of two ways, right? We'll either go completely in the tank or guys, we'll summon something from within them, uh, and answer the call. And since that Team meeting, I think we've had five come from behind wins over this 12 game stretch. So I can't say enough about how our guys have responded. See you in the past over here and look at this selection show you kind of, you know, tens of needles or whatever and everything. But I wasn't too, I'm sure you were all the needles, but you didn't have to sweat for sure. For sure. It's a different feeling, uh, knowing that you're in and just waiting to see where you're going to go. Uh It was, you know, I told brad Barret we were chatting about it before the show started a very different feeling yesterday. You know, in in the in the past, especially in 2016 and 2019 where we were we were very much on the bubble. I can remember just sitting around on sunday watching all of those other conference tournaments, watching bids get stolen and trying to do the math and calculate R. P. I. S. And you know what's that mean for us? And there was peace of mind yesterday just to enjoy our championship win and not have to worry about whether or not our name was gonna pop up in the bracket of 60 for one last thing whether trophies, State Champions Club, right? That's uh that's that's where a trophy is supposed to be now. It was it was waiting on us this morning when we came in for the selection show. Thank you. And obviously no, go ahead, go ahead back in february to ask you for this team gold and said make it to the ideas and go from there. What are the keys to make go from there? Yeah, I think we've got to continue to pitch the way we pitched the tournament. I can't I can't say enough about the way we pitch this past week. Um five runs in four games against Florida State Miami. Uh you know, you're talking about you via and and then uh, what we did yesterday against an NC state team that I thought was maybe the best offense that we were going to play all year. Um but the key Jim four games, we walk one battle and if we can continue to challenge the strike zone like that, I think we give ourselves a chance, is there? I probably would be a better question for him, but I just got insight from you what, how long it takes as chris Gordon? I believe Right came in. So how long does it take for a to kind of develop that relationship? And like you said, they kind of get going? Yeah, I think it's such a great question, important question. You know, uh, remind people we lost our pitching coach about four weeks before the season was going to start, right, a guy who had had enormous success here. Um, but it wasn't just a matter of losing a pitching coach, we're losing them in a year where we had so much inexperience, right? We had all these guys in our bullpen that really never played any sort of role before this year. Some of them were going to be making their very first appearance in a Duke uniform. So the combination of, you know, a pitching coach, trying to learn his players, the players trying to learn a new pitching coach and you've got all this inexperience, all these guys that are and, and candidly, you know, partly because of covid, partly because of inexperience. We went into the season with a lot of roles still undefined, knowing that we were going to have to kind of play out the first few weeks of the season and figure out who fit best where I can't say enough good things about the job that chris Gordon has done ushering us through that, you know, we had that patch there in april where we pitched really poorly and it would have been really easy for the wheels to come off. Uh, and he didn't let it happen. And that's a credit to him. It's a credit to the pictures. It's a credit to, to have committed. They stayed to one another and we've, we've pitched really, really well in the month of May. What was it like in short, particularly yesterday in charlotte over 7000 fans after all the, what was it just like that? Many people in the stands, goose bumps, goose bumps. You know when, when the crowd erupted after the national anthem, I could feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up. There were several moments during the game where you could really feel the crowd and certainly when johnny Butler led off the bottom of the ninth with a base hit in that place got really electric. I said, man, this is what, this is college baseball at its best. And I hope our guys enjoyed the heck out of it. The fact that most of the fans were state fans. If you play Knoxville, does that Tennessee in Knoxville? Does that help your team? Kind of make it wanted without question? And I think, you know, you know us as a program, we've been pretty good in those situations. You know, we were pretty good in a hostile environment in Morgantown. I thought we were really good yesterday in a hostile environment in charlotte. Not that our crowd wasn't great too, because the Duke fans that were there were incredible, but we're comfortable in that setting where we're, uh, we're playing in front of somebody else's crowd, We know how to manage that. And I candidly, I think we do a good job of using it to our advantage. You better play in front of a large, hostile crowd than in the stadium any day of the week. Absolutely. And, uh, you know, I think the experience of West Virginia certainly taught me something as a coach. I'll remember, and it will be this case in Knoxville to that's a lot of pressure on the home team. And uh, you know, that's a, that's a tough way to play. We go in there with house money, we can be nice and loose and enjoy the atmosphere and just do what we do. Excuse me. Thanks guys, appreciate it, appreciate you guys. Thank you, coach. Yeah.

Kacy Hintz

Pollard: Thrilled to be extending our season, another chance to chase a dream of going to Omaha

Chris Pollard

ACC baseball,Chris Pollard,NCAA Baseball,duke baseball

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Pollard: Thrilled to be extending our season, another chance to chase a dream of going to Omaha

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