Talked to Jewett yesterday and ended up not using anything he said in my Advocate story because Luis Aviles was so good.
JEWETT
On players' only meeting:
"One I can't confirm that it actually happened. I was told that it might have happened. I didn't see it with my own eyes. I certainly don't ask about it. It's not my place. If they wanted me there, they would have invited me I think. Hopefully if that was the case, they came together and tried to get some stuff right."
On Groff and Aviles on fire:
"It's unbelievable. I don't even know how to explain it. I can only wish and hope that it continues to go. They are getting on base at alarming rates and being productive to all parts of the field. Groff is smashing balls this way and homering that way. Luis is going here and leaving the yard that way. Like I asked him, how many times did you strike out at Memphis? Twice. Those two guys are a nice table-setting deal. And then shoot, we hit Jackson (Linn) in the 3-hole for quite a bit, too, and he was only hitting .500 there for a while. Bennett (Lee)'s batting average hasn't been like it was last year, but I don't ever watch him when I don't think he's going to get a hit, and they are not bad at-bats. He's made a couple of swing adjustments since we left Memphis that I think have been good. He likes it and hopefully it will start to find some more outfield grass for him. Now all of a sudden we're almost getting to that halfway point. Simon (Baumgardt)'s hitting 1.000 against left-handed pitching, so you add him to the middle of that lineup and there's some length."
On Groff's dramatic improvement from last year:
"The one thing that resonates in my mind is this last summer heading into this year, or maybe it was late summer, early fall, he kind of made a declaration to me that I just kind of want to be who I am and do the things that I think are successful, and then he was talking to me about some stuff and basically a lot of the stuff that we've talked about since I've been here, but I think he had some come to Jesus and had some people helping him think that way and say, you know what, I just want to please myself and do some things that I think I can do well personally, which thusly would help the team, and that's what he's done. His mechanics, his willingness to take pitches and walk. He bunted for a hit the other night. He's just doing a lot of different things, and when he's not doing it well there, he's doing it on the bases, he's throwing people out, he had another throw-out last night."
On Groff's knee:
"I think pretty good. I still haven't green-lighted him as much as I'd like on the bases quite yet because that's probably me being more like a dad than a coach because I just want to make sure, and if i don't need to then I probably won't, but once I get that feeling for him that we're in full go, then you're probably going to start seeing the bags get activated a little bit, too."
On USF star pitcher Jack Jasiak not being available due to a shoulder injury (Saturday starter with 1.32 ERA, who two-hit Tulane with 12 strikeouts in AAC tourney):
"It says that he's not going to start, so I don't know what that means, but yeah, any time one of your better pitchers is not pitching (it benefits the opponent), but they plenty of capable (arms), including (Orion) Kerkering on Friday (2.20 ERA, 56 Ks in 41 innings), so it will be a good test for us. We'll need to continue to pitch the ball well. When we do that, we can get through some ups and downs of what offense is against good pitching. We have been pitching the ball well, which is keeping us close in the games, and even for some of the up and down with our offense, we are being opportunistic in some big moments."
On sweeping Memphis despite trailing in late innings Saturday and Sunday:
"I think that's huge. I do. Because basically what we did was we won three games in different fashions. We had the explosion ourselves on Friday and then kind of got behind and things weren't going our way and pitchers were kind of navigating us and things like that, but the (Brady) Hebert) and (Trevor) Minder at-bats after three strikeouts apiece was the catalyst for one of those victories. Just staying momentary and knowing that we can and we're capable. When you're in range, you are a swing away. That's baseball, and this game has more parity than any of them. Even if you're better statistically than somebody and your record's better, it's tough to win. Just the ability to find the way to score more than the other team."
On RPI shooting up:
"The kids have done a great job of (staying in the present). We're starting our eighth week, and we've won six of the seven full weeks we've played. We had one week where we just gathered a few losses and coupled them all together, but other than that, it's been win your week, win your week, win your week. When I was at Vanderbilt, Corbes (Tim Corbin) did a great study where he took the weeks and broke them down for us before the season started and wrote 3-1, you're going to have your 2-2s and you need to stay away from your 0-4s. If you win your weeks, you win your weeks and at the end of the season you're staring at 40-16. We're right on that pace. Now we have one of the start of eight weeks now where it didn't go our way, but that's baseball. I'm proud of the kids because if we just stand around and feel sorry for ourselves after you're losing five in a row, that can turn into six or seven and losing weeks and all of a sudden you're fighting uphill and you have to count on other people to lose and you have to do something, and right now we're not in that position. We've had one conference series and we won all three on the road."
AVILES
On how he changed his swing and started hitting incredibly well:
"I got into my legs a little bit more and I wanted to feel some separation. I wasn't feeling that much separation for about two weeks. I don't know what that happened, but once I recognized that was happening, I made the adjustment and it clicked."
On if this is his best stretch ever:
"If not the best, then a close second. In junior college I had a few stretches like this, but definitely within the past two years it's easily been my hottest stretch."
On players' only meeting:
"The biggest takeaway from that was keeping each other accountable. There were way too many excuses being made on the field, off the field and in the weight room. We just decided to cut the bullcrap, stay as vanilla as possible and as you can see, the results have definitely shown that."
On team-wide confidence:
"We feel really good about ourselves. We never really lost confidence. It was just we would lose faith, which honestly might be a little bit more important than confidence in some aspects. We've know how good we are since the fall, and we've just got to continue playing how we're playing."
On Groff and him at top of order:
"it's definitely tough. I remember at Missisippi State Rowdey Jordan and Tanner Allen were probably last year the best 1-2 in the country, and from a defensive standpoint it's really tough going out there and knowing that you have to lock in on one guy and the next guy might be even better. It depends on the day and who's hot, but we've been doing pretty good."
On Groff's production being contagious:
"It's really fun to watch him play. It's a cliche at this point, but hitting is contagious and when you see a guy like Ethan who's been around here for four years now and finally he's molded into the player that we all knew he could be. It's honestly nothing short of impressive. It's awesome."
On position team is in:
"I feel like we're in a really good position. We're a confident bunch right now. We've regained our faith in each other, in the coaching staff and everyone, and I feel like we'e just got to stick with each other and play for each other and we're going to have the best chance out there."
On confidence Grant Siegel gives entire team:
'It's really fun to watch him pitch, and as a defense it keeps you engaged. You know there's not going to be a lot of walks. There's going to be a lot of balls put in play, and just keeping the outfield and infield engaged throughout the entire game is going to be really huge for us going forward. We've struggled as of late defensively, but we know what we're capable of."
JEWETT
On players' only meeting:
"One I can't confirm that it actually happened. I was told that it might have happened. I didn't see it with my own eyes. I certainly don't ask about it. It's not my place. If they wanted me there, they would have invited me I think. Hopefully if that was the case, they came together and tried to get some stuff right."
On Groff and Aviles on fire:
"It's unbelievable. I don't even know how to explain it. I can only wish and hope that it continues to go. They are getting on base at alarming rates and being productive to all parts of the field. Groff is smashing balls this way and homering that way. Luis is going here and leaving the yard that way. Like I asked him, how many times did you strike out at Memphis? Twice. Those two guys are a nice table-setting deal. And then shoot, we hit Jackson (Linn) in the 3-hole for quite a bit, too, and he was only hitting .500 there for a while. Bennett (Lee)'s batting average hasn't been like it was last year, but I don't ever watch him when I don't think he's going to get a hit, and they are not bad at-bats. He's made a couple of swing adjustments since we left Memphis that I think have been good. He likes it and hopefully it will start to find some more outfield grass for him. Now all of a sudden we're almost getting to that halfway point. Simon (Baumgardt)'s hitting 1.000 against left-handed pitching, so you add him to the middle of that lineup and there's some length."
On Groff's dramatic improvement from last year:
"The one thing that resonates in my mind is this last summer heading into this year, or maybe it was late summer, early fall, he kind of made a declaration to me that I just kind of want to be who I am and do the things that I think are successful, and then he was talking to me about some stuff and basically a lot of the stuff that we've talked about since I've been here, but I think he had some come to Jesus and had some people helping him think that way and say, you know what, I just want to please myself and do some things that I think I can do well personally, which thusly would help the team, and that's what he's done. His mechanics, his willingness to take pitches and walk. He bunted for a hit the other night. He's just doing a lot of different things, and when he's not doing it well there, he's doing it on the bases, he's throwing people out, he had another throw-out last night."
On Groff's knee:
"I think pretty good. I still haven't green-lighted him as much as I'd like on the bases quite yet because that's probably me being more like a dad than a coach because I just want to make sure, and if i don't need to then I probably won't, but once I get that feeling for him that we're in full go, then you're probably going to start seeing the bags get activated a little bit, too."
On USF star pitcher Jack Jasiak not being available due to a shoulder injury (Saturday starter with 1.32 ERA, who two-hit Tulane with 12 strikeouts in AAC tourney):
"It says that he's not going to start, so I don't know what that means, but yeah, any time one of your better pitchers is not pitching (it benefits the opponent), but they plenty of capable (arms), including (Orion) Kerkering on Friday (2.20 ERA, 56 Ks in 41 innings), so it will be a good test for us. We'll need to continue to pitch the ball well. When we do that, we can get through some ups and downs of what offense is against good pitching. We have been pitching the ball well, which is keeping us close in the games, and even for some of the up and down with our offense, we are being opportunistic in some big moments."
On sweeping Memphis despite trailing in late innings Saturday and Sunday:
"I think that's huge. I do. Because basically what we did was we won three games in different fashions. We had the explosion ourselves on Friday and then kind of got behind and things weren't going our way and pitchers were kind of navigating us and things like that, but the (Brady) Hebert) and (Trevor) Minder at-bats after three strikeouts apiece was the catalyst for one of those victories. Just staying momentary and knowing that we can and we're capable. When you're in range, you are a swing away. That's baseball, and this game has more parity than any of them. Even if you're better statistically than somebody and your record's better, it's tough to win. Just the ability to find the way to score more than the other team."
On RPI shooting up:
"The kids have done a great job of (staying in the present). We're starting our eighth week, and we've won six of the seven full weeks we've played. We had one week where we just gathered a few losses and coupled them all together, but other than that, it's been win your week, win your week, win your week. When I was at Vanderbilt, Corbes (Tim Corbin) did a great study where he took the weeks and broke them down for us before the season started and wrote 3-1, you're going to have your 2-2s and you need to stay away from your 0-4s. If you win your weeks, you win your weeks and at the end of the season you're staring at 40-16. We're right on that pace. Now we have one of the start of eight weeks now where it didn't go our way, but that's baseball. I'm proud of the kids because if we just stand around and feel sorry for ourselves after you're losing five in a row, that can turn into six or seven and losing weeks and all of a sudden you're fighting uphill and you have to count on other people to lose and you have to do something, and right now we're not in that position. We've had one conference series and we won all three on the road."
AVILES
On how he changed his swing and started hitting incredibly well:
"I got into my legs a little bit more and I wanted to feel some separation. I wasn't feeling that much separation for about two weeks. I don't know what that happened, but once I recognized that was happening, I made the adjustment and it clicked."
On if this is his best stretch ever:
"If not the best, then a close second. In junior college I had a few stretches like this, but definitely within the past two years it's easily been my hottest stretch."
On players' only meeting:
"The biggest takeaway from that was keeping each other accountable. There were way too many excuses being made on the field, off the field and in the weight room. We just decided to cut the bullcrap, stay as vanilla as possible and as you can see, the results have definitely shown that."
On team-wide confidence:
"We feel really good about ourselves. We never really lost confidence. It was just we would lose faith, which honestly might be a little bit more important than confidence in some aspects. We've know how good we are since the fall, and we've just got to continue playing how we're playing."
On Groff and him at top of order:
"it's definitely tough. I remember at Missisippi State Rowdey Jordan and Tanner Allen were probably last year the best 1-2 in the country, and from a defensive standpoint it's really tough going out there and knowing that you have to lock in on one guy and the next guy might be even better. It depends on the day and who's hot, but we've been doing pretty good."
On Groff's production being contagious:
"It's really fun to watch him play. It's a cliche at this point, but hitting is contagious and when you see a guy like Ethan who's been around here for four years now and finally he's molded into the player that we all knew he could be. It's honestly nothing short of impressive. It's awesome."
On position team is in:
"I feel like we're in a really good position. We're a confident bunch right now. We've regained our faith in each other, in the coaching staff and everyone, and I feel like we'e just got to stick with each other and play for each other and we're going to have the best chance out there."
On confidence Grant Siegel gives entire team:
'It's really fun to watch him pitch, and as a defense it keeps you engaged. You know there's not going to be a lot of walks. There's going to be a lot of balls put in play, and just keeping the outfield and infield engaged throughout the entire game is going to be really huge for us going forward. We've struggled as of late defensively, but we know what we're capable of."