I taped Graff's interviews off the radio:
LEX KAPLAN
On catching fly for final out
"I just took off after it, and when I caught it I was just excited. It's the first conference championship in 11 years. It's great."
On special day for Kaplans, with Jon Kaplan having led Tulane to CWS in 2001
"It's a great feeling. I'm proud of him and I know he's proud of me. He's over in Spain, and we're not done yet. We're going to keep working hard and we're going to go all the way."
On knowing this was possible after last year
"We worked hard and our chemistry was great and we never gave up, even when we were down. We lost the series to Cincinnati, but we said, hey, we're not going to give up on this, we still have a chance to win the conference, and it showed. We did it."
On team meeting before USM game that Tulane won 12-0 right after losing Cincy series
"We just talked about it and said it's in the past and we're going to go on with the future, and we showed it tonight. We're conference champions, getting a pinky ring."
DAVID PIERCE
On winning AAC
"The team we just played was pretty darn hot, but I'll tell you what, our kids just gutted it up. They did so many things right this weekend. We played tremendous defense and we really pitched and we had those timely hits, and our timely hits seemed to be the long ball. We've lived and died on it, and it's been awesome to watch these kids and just watch the development of growing with each other and watching the way the program is just cultivating. The kids are hungry and they're loving it and they're loving each other and we're going to the postseason right now."
On treating Houston series like super regional and using J.P. France for four innings at end of game
"Yeah, he was unbelievable late, and that's the thing. I was asking him every inning, 'how do you feel, are you good, do you have your legs under you?' and he felt great. He wanted the ball and we wanted him to keep it, and he's just determined. That's what we did all weekend. We had some determined at-bats. Hunter Williams just killed the ball all weekend. Hits a bullet with (runners on) second and third (in the seventh inning) and we don't get them in because they catch it, but the whole weekend was a tough one. We came in and didn't get to play on Thursday. We had to go to the doubleheader, and the doubleheader was extended. I'll tell you what, that right there really exemplified this team because what you saw is them fight through that tough loss and come back and win two.
"And we did talk about a super regional because if you don't win it, you go home. We started the postseason then."
On confidence going to Clearwater
"This is the thing. We talk about different phases of the season. First of all you play a lot of your non-conference games for RPI, and then you get in your conference series, and the midweeks are also important, but the conference series at that point, every one of them is a grind, so you're in this long, dreaded thing of just trying to survive weekend to weekend, and we won the first championship. The next championship we have our eyes set on is the tournament championship, and we move on from there. They have ambition, they have desire to play for a long time for the rest of the summer. We're not guaranteed anything, but we will be right."
On being Houston alum and winning title at Houston
"Honestly, if you're going to win a championship for the first time at Tulane and the University of Houston is in you're conference, it couldn't happen at a better place.
It's just been an incredible start, and that's what it is--a start."
J.P. France (who retired the last eight batters)
On long rain delay after fifth inning
"The guys were getting cabin fever. We were ready to play about 30 minutes before they told us we were going to play. I had to get my mind right. I knew this was going to be a big win and I knew I just had to go all out. It was huge. I had the guys back me up. Willsey had a huge hit to put us up 4-3. It was just a great win for all of us."
On getting out of sixth inning with runner on second and one out after Houston tied it thanks primarily to fly ball lost in the twilight
"No doubt. Those pop-ups were hit and everybody looked up and it just vanished. It was crazy. Yeah, i had that guy on second and couldn't give them anything to hit. I just threw strikes and let the defense work for me."
Last out to Kaplan
"At first I was thinking please catch it, please catch it, and then I saw it go into his glove and just went crazy. It was amazing. Everybody gathered around me, and it was huge."
LEX KAPLAN
On catching fly for final out
"I just took off after it, and when I caught it I was just excited. It's the first conference championship in 11 years. It's great."
On special day for Kaplans, with Jon Kaplan having led Tulane to CWS in 2001
"It's a great feeling. I'm proud of him and I know he's proud of me. He's over in Spain, and we're not done yet. We're going to keep working hard and we're going to go all the way."
On knowing this was possible after last year
"We worked hard and our chemistry was great and we never gave up, even when we were down. We lost the series to Cincinnati, but we said, hey, we're not going to give up on this, we still have a chance to win the conference, and it showed. We did it."
On team meeting before USM game that Tulane won 12-0 right after losing Cincy series
"We just talked about it and said it's in the past and we're going to go on with the future, and we showed it tonight. We're conference champions, getting a pinky ring."
DAVID PIERCE
On winning AAC
"The team we just played was pretty darn hot, but I'll tell you what, our kids just gutted it up. They did so many things right this weekend. We played tremendous defense and we really pitched and we had those timely hits, and our timely hits seemed to be the long ball. We've lived and died on it, and it's been awesome to watch these kids and just watch the development of growing with each other and watching the way the program is just cultivating. The kids are hungry and they're loving it and they're loving each other and we're going to the postseason right now."
On treating Houston series like super regional and using J.P. France for four innings at end of game
"Yeah, he was unbelievable late, and that's the thing. I was asking him every inning, 'how do you feel, are you good, do you have your legs under you?' and he felt great. He wanted the ball and we wanted him to keep it, and he's just determined. That's what we did all weekend. We had some determined at-bats. Hunter Williams just killed the ball all weekend. Hits a bullet with (runners on) second and third (in the seventh inning) and we don't get them in because they catch it, but the whole weekend was a tough one. We came in and didn't get to play on Thursday. We had to go to the doubleheader, and the doubleheader was extended. I'll tell you what, that right there really exemplified this team because what you saw is them fight through that tough loss and come back and win two.
"And we did talk about a super regional because if you don't win it, you go home. We started the postseason then."
On confidence going to Clearwater
"This is the thing. We talk about different phases of the season. First of all you play a lot of your non-conference games for RPI, and then you get in your conference series, and the midweeks are also important, but the conference series at that point, every one of them is a grind, so you're in this long, dreaded thing of just trying to survive weekend to weekend, and we won the first championship. The next championship we have our eyes set on is the tournament championship, and we move on from there. They have ambition, they have desire to play for a long time for the rest of the summer. We're not guaranteed anything, but we will be right."
On being Houston alum and winning title at Houston
"Honestly, if you're going to win a championship for the first time at Tulane and the University of Houston is in you're conference, it couldn't happen at a better place.
It's just been an incredible start, and that's what it is--a start."
J.P. France (who retired the last eight batters)
On long rain delay after fifth inning
"The guys were getting cabin fever. We were ready to play about 30 minutes before they told us we were going to play. I had to get my mind right. I knew this was going to be a big win and I knew I just had to go all out. It was huge. I had the guys back me up. Willsey had a huge hit to put us up 4-3. It was just a great win for all of us."
On getting out of sixth inning with runner on second and one out after Houston tied it thanks primarily to fly ball lost in the twilight
"No doubt. Those pop-ups were hit and everybody looked up and it just vanished. It was crazy. Yeah, i had that guy on second and couldn't give them anything to hit. I just threw strikes and let the defense work for me."
Last out to Kaplan
"At first I was thinking please catch it, please catch it, and then I saw it go into his glove and just went crazy. It was amazing. Everybody gathered around me, and it was huge."