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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 15, 2014Mike BiancoChris EllisErrol RobinsonOMAHA, NEBRASKA Virginia – 2 THE MODERATOR: Representing OleMiss, head coach Mike Bianco, Chris Ellis and Errol Robinson. Coach, opening statement. COACH BIANCO: It's a tough lesson you learn in baseball, but we've learned it a few times this year, that the team that plays best usually wins. And I thought they outplayed us tonight. Not by much, but enough to make a difference, especially in this tight of a ballgame. You have to tip your hat to Virginia. But Kirby was tremendous. And we just could not solve‑‑ could not catch up to the fastball. Just when it seemed like we'd get to it, he would mix in a breaking ball or changeup but really couldn't get to his fastball. But offensively, I thought Chris did a good job, pitched out of some jams. But they were able to put enough runners on and finally get a couple of timely hits. But proud of the way we competed. If you're going to win here you've got to play a little bit better than we did today. Q. Errol, for you talk a little bit more specifically about Kirby, some of the things he was doing to get ahead or just get the outs like he got. ERROL ROBINSON: All credit to him. He was a great pitcher. He dominated the zone and really kept us off balance most of the game and really did all the things that you would expect a great pitcher to do, so really all credit to him. Q. Chris, seemed you walked the first, the batter and you seemed to get in that zone. How did you get past that first thing? Seemed to get in a zone there. What was working well for you? CHRIS ELLIS: I guess Anderson making that diving play helped me get back in the swing of things. Seemed like from that point on I was able to field it in with three pitches and let my defense work behind me. And they did a great job. I thought their pitcher just did a tremendous job. One of the best games thrown I've seen in a long time. I thought they just kind of deserved to win that game. They played a little bit better than we did. But, yeah. Q. Coach, what did you like about the matchup with Greenwood against Papi and with the base open there? COACH BIANCO: He's been our guy. We had already used Massie and were short left in the bullpen. I liked him. We were going to pitch him tough. But he's really good but you've got three left‑handers in a row and McCarthy right under him. It's not like you feel a little uncomfortable just pitching around him and walking him to get to McCarthy. We did that last time. And McCarthy was able to get a base hit. And you've still got Fisher behind that. So it's three guys, not the place that you want to be with the winning run at second base. And Aaron was close. Just a pitch away from getting out of it. But Mike did a good job of staying on that ball. Q. Mike, I think through seven innings, Kirby had 73 pitches. Was there a different approach or a more patient approach maybe you want to take going forward or were you happy with the seven innings, the offensive approach? COACH BIANCO: You can sit there and try to take, but he's not the guy to take against because he'll just eat you up. He's a strike thrower and he's going to be strike one a lot. You almost pick your poison. You can sit there and try to take pitches and then put yourself in even worse counts. We chose not to do that. We chose to try to be aggressive. The problem wasn't the pitch count. The reason the pitch count was so low is because we didn't get any hits. We got one base hit. So he walked three guys, and that's probably a high number for him when you look at his statistics. But obviously he's lights out. He's been like that. He's thrown a no‑hitter. I think he's thrown a one‑hitter. So he was just too good for us today. Q. [Indiscernible]? ERROL ROBINSON: It's about knowing what we know how to do. This team is so consistent and, really, it's toughness we built in earlier the season to embrace the adversity and to come back late in the game, just really sticking with what we know how to do. NATHAN KIRBY: We were in that position a lot this year. We came out on top a lot. I liked our chances going into it. Felt like Greenwood was doing good, and we had top of the lineup up. So I liked our chances, but they got the big hit and we didn't. Q. Coach, not a lot of time obviously, but what do you tell your team after a loss and then kind of regrouping, refocusing for Tuesday? COACH BIANCO: Well, it is a lot of time. It's one of the things we've talked about. Unlike most of the baseball tournaments you play in, if you lose that game, you go into the losers bracket, usually you're playing the next morning. It's not as big an uphill battle, because you have the rest, the guys that threw tonight, especially the bullpen guys will be able to throw for sure back on Tuesday. But you gotta play well. That's kind of what we've preached all week here is everybody's good, but you gotta make pitches, you have to have good at‑bats and you have to play good defense. And tonight Kirby was tough, like we said, just unbelievable. But we gotta do a better job. And again I thought Chris competed and did a great job and kept the score intact and Greenwood did that. But we gotta continue to make one more better pitch than them. We've got to continue to have one more better at‑bat than them. Today they were just a little bit better than us, but we've got to come out and play better on Tuesday against a very good Texas Tech team. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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