What a dramatic victory for Tulane, which showed its resilience again after taking the gut punch of being one strike away from victory and then falling behind by two runs in the top of the ninth.
Here's every word from Travis Jewett after the game, which ended on a four-pitch walk to pinch hitter Luke Glancy after LSU intentionally walked back-to-back batters to load the bases.
On responding to another gut punch:
“That’s resiliency. It’s like I told them there at the end, you got punched in the face and backed into the ropes, you might have sat down on the bottom one but you didn’t put your butt on the canvas. And then Spoon’s big hit there closed it to one run, and just the at-bats got better from there. Tigues drawing a tough walk, and you heard me yelling timeout because I put a bunt on and when I did it, I was like, what are you doing right now? We’re going to try to win this thing right here. I don’t believe in a runner-on-first, nobody-out bunt, so I’m yelling timeout and changed the call. Then they brought in a guy with two strikes, and that’s not an easy thing for the hitter to see a new pitcher with two strikes. He was missing a bunch arm side during the warm-up and left it out over the plate and Hoese put a good swing on it.
“It’s good, but I’m going to talk to the kids tomorrow. There are certain things throughout the course of the game that don’t even make it as close as it was. We’re in no doubles and we don’t check up on a ball in front. Tigues is going to make that play all the time, but there’s a little ground ball that he throws away. The Spoon throw to the plate (in the ninth) was where it needed to go but it was off line and our first baseman needs to just stop the ball, and if he does that, the hitter’s going to be out at second and you just limit their inning. We just made some uncharacteristic mistakes that kind of gave them a chance at it, but we responded well.
“Great crowd tonight. Great rivalry of course. I’m just happy for our kids.”
On Connor Pellerin’s pitching performance:
“It stabilized the game. In a lot of ways he’s the MVP because he came in after McAffer was able to just kind of keep the game in check. I was real proud of him. He’s going to be a good pitcher. I think you guys can see it. I’m pretty excited about him and Bates being young kids in the program and getting a chance to put their foot on the mound quite a bit. We’re just hopeful their experiences will keep them moving forward.
On moving Witherspoon out of leadoff spot and watching him kill LSU again:
“I’m probably done with that. Spoonie and I talked and he just didn’t feel as comfortable leading off, but he said I’ll do whatever the team needs and I appreciate that. We’re searching for (a leadoff guy) after moving Tigues out of there, and he’s done well where he’s at. Spoonie didn’t have much statistical success (batting first) but his at-bats were still fine. He just didn’t really feel it and I don’t think I did either. I told him, and he was like, well you can do something about it. He’s right, and tonight we did. We just tried to insert a Ty Johnson, somebody who can run a little bit and compete at the plate, so that was good.
“You don’t have to quote me on this, but today is my birthday. I told them I just want one present today—win this game. The kids wrapped it up for me, put a bow on it and I’m just happy for the kids. Hopefully we can use these types of moments, and I think the kids are starting to feel pretty good about themselves in terms of what we can do going forward. I’m excited. Now we’re on to East Tennessee State.”
On seeing a four-pitch walk win a game rather than lose it:
“Yeah, right. Not against us but for us. Certainly Paul (Mainieri) had to manage that how he saw fit. I remember when I was at Vanderbilt with coach (Scott) Brown, our pitching coach, we just kind of always came to the assumption that walking the bases loaded never really works out. That was probably their only option, but (Luke) Glancy did a good job. The crowd got on their feet, which was good to see in a big moment, and he grabbed the strike zone, took control of it and didn’t leave and got himself a game-winning RBI, so it was good."
Here's every word from Travis Jewett after the game, which ended on a four-pitch walk to pinch hitter Luke Glancy after LSU intentionally walked back-to-back batters to load the bases.
On responding to another gut punch:
“That’s resiliency. It’s like I told them there at the end, you got punched in the face and backed into the ropes, you might have sat down on the bottom one but you didn’t put your butt on the canvas. And then Spoon’s big hit there closed it to one run, and just the at-bats got better from there. Tigues drawing a tough walk, and you heard me yelling timeout because I put a bunt on and when I did it, I was like, what are you doing right now? We’re going to try to win this thing right here. I don’t believe in a runner-on-first, nobody-out bunt, so I’m yelling timeout and changed the call. Then they brought in a guy with two strikes, and that’s not an easy thing for the hitter to see a new pitcher with two strikes. He was missing a bunch arm side during the warm-up and left it out over the plate and Hoese put a good swing on it.
“It’s good, but I’m going to talk to the kids tomorrow. There are certain things throughout the course of the game that don’t even make it as close as it was. We’re in no doubles and we don’t check up on a ball in front. Tigues is going to make that play all the time, but there’s a little ground ball that he throws away. The Spoon throw to the plate (in the ninth) was where it needed to go but it was off line and our first baseman needs to just stop the ball, and if he does that, the hitter’s going to be out at second and you just limit their inning. We just made some uncharacteristic mistakes that kind of gave them a chance at it, but we responded well.
“Great crowd tonight. Great rivalry of course. I’m just happy for our kids.”
On Connor Pellerin’s pitching performance:
“It stabilized the game. In a lot of ways he’s the MVP because he came in after McAffer was able to just kind of keep the game in check. I was real proud of him. He’s going to be a good pitcher. I think you guys can see it. I’m pretty excited about him and Bates being young kids in the program and getting a chance to put their foot on the mound quite a bit. We’re just hopeful their experiences will keep them moving forward.
On moving Witherspoon out of leadoff spot and watching him kill LSU again:
“I’m probably done with that. Spoonie and I talked and he just didn’t feel as comfortable leading off, but he said I’ll do whatever the team needs and I appreciate that. We’re searching for (a leadoff guy) after moving Tigues out of there, and he’s done well where he’s at. Spoonie didn’t have much statistical success (batting first) but his at-bats were still fine. He just didn’t really feel it and I don’t think I did either. I told him, and he was like, well you can do something about it. He’s right, and tonight we did. We just tried to insert a Ty Johnson, somebody who can run a little bit and compete at the plate, so that was good.
“You don’t have to quote me on this, but today is my birthday. I told them I just want one present today—win this game. The kids wrapped it up for me, put a bow on it and I’m just happy for the kids. Hopefully we can use these types of moments, and I think the kids are starting to feel pretty good about themselves in terms of what we can do going forward. I’m excited. Now we’re on to East Tennessee State.”
On seeing a four-pitch walk win a game rather than lose it:
“Yeah, right. Not against us but for us. Certainly Paul (Mainieri) had to manage that how he saw fit. I remember when I was at Vanderbilt with coach (Scott) Brown, our pitching coach, we just kind of always came to the assumption that walking the bases loaded never really works out. That was probably their only option, but (Luke) Glancy did a good job. The crowd got on their feet, which was good to see in a big moment, and he grabbed the strike zone, took control of it and didn’t leave and got himself a game-winning RBI, so it was good."
