UNC 8, VCU 0 - Postgame Interviews

North Carolina head coach Scott Forbes, starting pitcher Ryan Lynch and first baseman Erik Paulsen spoke to the media following UNC’s 8-0 win over VCU. Scroll down for excerpts and the full press conference.

Scott Forbes

“Credit to our guys, I thought they played really, really well in all phases of the game. This big guy (Ryan Lynch) set the tone. He was outstanding. VCU has a very good team, well coached and a tough lineup and Lynch was outstanding. The first inning was big for us, we extend the inning and a big swing by (Erik) Paulsen, by Cooper (Nicholson) and then that solo home run by Coop gave us some length.”

“What stood out to me is – and I took it in a little bit – I’ve been here a long time. I went out to the outfield during the Tennessee-ECU game, and just how far this place has come since we hosted that regional in 2006 and how awesome that is. So that’s a shout out to everybody that does so much behind the scenes, people that run this thing at UNC. They just do a top-notch job, makes it easy on us where we can just coach, but most importantly, our fans showed up. They were loud. I got to see a bunch of former players, so obviously that makes me smile. And looking forward to tomorrow night, hopefully we’ll pack it even more. We’ll be even louder. So we’re really excited about that.”

“I saw that same look in (Lynch’s) face as I did late in the season last year, number one, and I thought he was efficient, and the stuff was just the stuff. I mean, he was throwing cheese a lot of 95s late, I think maybe a 97 there was a 99 early in the game. So just ultra aggressive, and he is always a ground ball away, like you talked about just a while ago, and when you know that, and you see that, you are just going to let him see if he can get out of this right here. He’s earned that right, he’s done that many times for us, and you have stuff like that, you can get out of any jam.”

Ryan Lynch

“I was more efficient today. I made better pitches overall and I felt better not giving away free 90s and was able to get ahead a little better than I usually have.  

“Jason (DeCaro) had a great year, but last couple weeks we haven’t done our job, we haven’t gone really long enough, had a lot of inefficient outings, not putting our team in the best spot to win. So I just try to do whatever I could this week to make sure that wasn’t the case anymore. I worked on delivery a little bit more, just seeing what I can do to feel better and get my team better shot.”

“My pitches definitely haven’t been where I’ve wanted them to be, but I’m just doing my best to mix a little bit more. I was throwing a lot of fastballs, so I was trying to do whatever I could to keep them off balance, and just execute different pitches and different counts. I think I did a better job today, but there’s definitely more work to be done.”

Erik Paulsen

“Ryan is really, really awesome to play behind. He’s a really hard worker, and what he does behind the scenes, he just works his tail off every day. So seeing him go out there and dominate like that, it’s all because of the work he puts in. You know how good of a teammate he is, and all I was saying to him was, “Empty the tank”. He was at 100 pitches, and I wanted him to get after it and get the last guy, so I told him to empty the tank and attack him.”

“That tie (against ECU) kind of stunk so it’s a really good opportunity to show them that we are the better team and go out there and have a great game.”

“I know (Erik’s father) be very proud of me. I was very fortunate that he was able to see that I committed here, and he came down on my official visit, and met Coach Forbes, and all the coaches. So really grateful for that. He knew I was in good hands, but yeah, I just think he’d be very proud of me, and even through the ups and downs, he’d be on my butt to keep working hard.”