Baseball coach David Pierce talked Wednesday as Tulane prepared for its weekend trip to Tampa to face South Florida. The Green Wave is in the same position it has been in for three of the last four weeks with a real chance to take over first place in the American Athletic Conference this late in a season for the first time since 2005, the last time it won a league title.
Here is what Pierce said in a one-on-one interview:
Do you have any explanation for why there have been only two sweeps out of 20 league series?
"Because everybody can pitch, and pitching and defense keeps you in the games. When you have guys on the mound that can give you an opportunity to win either early or late, that’s what creates the parity."
South Florida, which has struggled all year, has outstanding Friday and Saturday starters. Is that an example of what you're talking about?
"That’s exactly right and they’ve got a guy in the bullpen. The sweep that we had at UCF, we scored late in one of them, we had a close game and then we had a 6-0 game. You’re not playing anybody in this league and getting any type of blowout. We’re just trying to survive and right now we’re just trying to win on Friday night. Mark Kingston and Billy Mohl can teach pitching. South Florida’s got a lot of pride and a lot of good players, so we’ve got to go to work."
How has Corey Merrill handled not being able to pitch much since early in the season?
"I don’t think he’s handled it well at all because he’s such a competitor. He wants the ball. That’s a good thing. He was actually in my office yesterday and wants to pitch. He had a real good intrasquad yesterday. A lot of positives came out of that for him and a lot of confidence from me after seeing yesterday."
How close to 100 percent is he?
"He’s very close. His competitive juices help him no matter what. As far as what’s on the ball, I think he’s probably a couple miles an hour off. He was much sharper yesterday than the previous outing at Central Florida. The command is the last thing that comes, and it’s starting to get a little better feel after yesterday."
What will his role be?
"Right now I’m not willing to disrupt the starting pitching because that hasn’t been our issue. He can come in and close for us."
The bullpen has been an issue all year. How comfortable are you with what you have in relief?
"Sam Bjorngjeld and Patrick Duester have been the glue to the bullpen right now, and having the availability of France this past weekend really helped, but I’m seeing improvements from a lot of guys. It really gets exposed when they don’t do the job, but there are a lot of times when they haven’t done the job. The duty for me is to make sure I’ve got the right guy in the right situation. I see the right frame of mind and a lot of of guys working right. Now we’ve got to convert it to the competition."
Tulane struck out 15 times on Saturday but still scored 10 runs on Houston. What does that say about this team's resolve?
"It says that we have a very good OBS. We have a very good run-production type team. At times it looks like we’re out of it, but at the same time we can get a base on ball and then another 2-run home run. its’ working. We still talk about a two-strike approach. That’s a part of the offense. Right now we want to continue the strengths and improve the weaknesses. We’ve also been scoring the last couple of weeks in multiple ways."
USF's staff leads the league in strikeouts. Is that a concern considering your own propensity to strike out?
"We’re not going to strike out a lot more (laughs). Usually when you see guys with high strikeouts, there’s stuff, either power or they have an out pitch. That’s what they have. When we get a ball, we’ve got to be ready."
Hunter Hope struck out four times on Saturday and is on pace to break his own school record for strikeouts, but he also leads the team with 11 home runs, is second in hits (45) and batting average (.302) and tied for first in runs (36). Is he emblematic of the entire team?
"He’s our offense in a nutshell."
USF has three guys who have stolen a lot of bases and rarely been thrown out, but hardly anyone has run successfully on Jake Rogers. Do you like that matchup?
(Kevin) Merrill and (Luke) Maglich can really run. Merrill came back against UCF. He’s 16 of 16 and Maglich is 23 of 25. What you have to do is identify the runners. That’s when you have to pay a little more attention on the mound. The key is paying attention but not giving up anything with the pitch."
Your home run differential remains one of the best in the country (42 hit, 13 allowed). How do you explain that huge a disparity?
"Us hitting them I attribute to guys having the right swing plane and really working hard on their bodies outside of the season and then just confidence. We’re swinging the bat with authority. The reason why we don’t give us as many is a little baffling but more than anything we don’t give in. We’ll throw 3-1 breaking balls. We just don’t give in."
Here is what Pierce said in a one-on-one interview:
Do you have any explanation for why there have been only two sweeps out of 20 league series?
"Because everybody can pitch, and pitching and defense keeps you in the games. When you have guys on the mound that can give you an opportunity to win either early or late, that’s what creates the parity."
South Florida, which has struggled all year, has outstanding Friday and Saturday starters. Is that an example of what you're talking about?
"That’s exactly right and they’ve got a guy in the bullpen. The sweep that we had at UCF, we scored late in one of them, we had a close game and then we had a 6-0 game. You’re not playing anybody in this league and getting any type of blowout. We’re just trying to survive and right now we’re just trying to win on Friday night. Mark Kingston and Billy Mohl can teach pitching. South Florida’s got a lot of pride and a lot of good players, so we’ve got to go to work."
How has Corey Merrill handled not being able to pitch much since early in the season?
"I don’t think he’s handled it well at all because he’s such a competitor. He wants the ball. That’s a good thing. He was actually in my office yesterday and wants to pitch. He had a real good intrasquad yesterday. A lot of positives came out of that for him and a lot of confidence from me after seeing yesterday."
How close to 100 percent is he?
"He’s very close. His competitive juices help him no matter what. As far as what’s on the ball, I think he’s probably a couple miles an hour off. He was much sharper yesterday than the previous outing at Central Florida. The command is the last thing that comes, and it’s starting to get a little better feel after yesterday."
What will his role be?
"Right now I’m not willing to disrupt the starting pitching because that hasn’t been our issue. He can come in and close for us."
The bullpen has been an issue all year. How comfortable are you with what you have in relief?
"Sam Bjorngjeld and Patrick Duester have been the glue to the bullpen right now, and having the availability of France this past weekend really helped, but I’m seeing improvements from a lot of guys. It really gets exposed when they don’t do the job, but there are a lot of times when they haven’t done the job. The duty for me is to make sure I’ve got the right guy in the right situation. I see the right frame of mind and a lot of of guys working right. Now we’ve got to convert it to the competition."
Tulane struck out 15 times on Saturday but still scored 10 runs on Houston. What does that say about this team's resolve?
"It says that we have a very good OBS. We have a very good run-production type team. At times it looks like we’re out of it, but at the same time we can get a base on ball and then another 2-run home run. its’ working. We still talk about a two-strike approach. That’s a part of the offense. Right now we want to continue the strengths and improve the weaknesses. We’ve also been scoring the last couple of weeks in multiple ways."
USF's staff leads the league in strikeouts. Is that a concern considering your own propensity to strike out?
"We’re not going to strike out a lot more (laughs). Usually when you see guys with high strikeouts, there’s stuff, either power or they have an out pitch. That’s what they have. When we get a ball, we’ve got to be ready."
Hunter Hope struck out four times on Saturday and is on pace to break his own school record for strikeouts, but he also leads the team with 11 home runs, is second in hits (45) and batting average (.302) and tied for first in runs (36). Is he emblematic of the entire team?
"He’s our offense in a nutshell."
USF has three guys who have stolen a lot of bases and rarely been thrown out, but hardly anyone has run successfully on Jake Rogers. Do you like that matchup?
(Kevin) Merrill and (Luke) Maglich can really run. Merrill came back against UCF. He’s 16 of 16 and Maglich is 23 of 25. What you have to do is identify the runners. That’s when you have to pay a little more attention on the mound. The key is paying attention but not giving up anything with the pitch."
Your home run differential remains one of the best in the country (42 hit, 13 allowed). How do you explain that huge a disparity?
"Us hitting them I attribute to guys having the right swing plane and really working hard on their bodies outside of the season and then just confidence. We’re swinging the bat with authority. The reason why we don’t give us as many is a little baffling but more than anything we don’t give in. We’ll throw 3-1 breaking balls. We just don’t give in."