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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 17, 2014Zach DavisAdam KirschTim TadlockOMAHA, NEBRASKA Ole Miss – 2 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by head coach Tim Tadlock. Coach, if you'd open with a statement. COACH TADLOCK: Just congratulations to Ole Miss. They played a great game. Christian Trent threw a great game, and we're really proud of our guys. I mean, they battled throughout the whole year and tried to play the game the right way. It's a game of inches, obviously. The ball goes down the third baseline. I think we had some opportunities today. But, you know, it's why we all love this game. It's why we all keep showing up, because it's very unpredictable, and just an inch here or an inch there, and the game could go either way. At the same time, Ole Miss earned it. They earned the right to move on, and good luck to them. Q. Coach, obviously you guys are good enough to win both of these games up here with just a couple of plays. Could you just talk about how frustrating that was? COACH TADLOCK: I don't think I'm frustrated right now. I mean, obviously, you replay the game over in your mind, and I take every situation we had in both these games. Take every guy we had at the plate with men on. We take every play we had, we take every guy we had on the mound against their guys in both games, and we got a lot of trust in these guys. Just didn't go our way. As far as frustration right now, I think I'm not there yet. I'm really just ready to get back at it. Q.  Coach, your defense has been so strong all year long, and you just had a couple of miscues in this series, but they proved to be pretty costly. Can you put your finger on maybe what happened in some of those situations? COACH TADLOCK: Well, we don't put it on any one guy. You're talking about a couple miscues, and I think we scored‑‑ we only scored, what, one run in a couple games? That's a lot of credit to the pitching we saw. As far as the miscues, I mean, I think we could go take Cameron Smith. I'll take a comebacker to him right now. I'd bet everything I had on him. It's just one of those deals. It's just a game. I think he slipped a little bit as far as that one goes. We still had an opportunity. We got one of our best guys on the mound with the game on the line, and got the swing we wanted. I don't think‑‑ I mean, the pitch was down and got the infield pulled in. So we kind of go over those things what we could do. You know, we just didn't give them enough. Q. Adam, talk a little bit, even though you had two hits against him, what you thought about Christian Trent, please? ADAM KIRSCH: Yeah, he was very effective. He located well, makes his pitches very well. He was tough. We couldn't really string a lot of things together. We got a lot of one‑out hits, left a lot of people on base. But he's a solid guy. Q. Zach, talk about getting on in the ninth, and getting to third? I assumed you probably knew how important it was to not get picked off first, then hustle around the bases? ZACH DAVIS: Yeah, Adam did a great job of getting me on. Got a base hit, and as a pitch runner, obviously you want to put your team in the best situation that you can and get in scoring position, and that's what I tried to do, got a good pickoff. I was able to get back and I just knew I had to get in scoring position for our team, and that's what happened. Q. Tim, with the five‑man infield, how do you decide where to play the fifth guy? COACH TADLOCK: Well, you've got sink on the mound, and right‑handed sink, and ball sinking in, most of his fastballs are going to end up arm side, so most of your ground balls are going to end up over there. He did a really good job with the slider, staying inside of it, getting a piece of it, however you want to say it. I wish I had Zach playing out there right behind second, that's what I wish. He's the only guy in the park that fast enough he probably could have played rover. Believe me, it crossed my mind, but I just didn't pull the trigger. Q. Tim, what does it do for your program to make a College World Series trip like this? And for the players, what was it like to experience the College World Series? COACH TADLOCK: Well, it's what we all shoot for. I mean, it's what we‑‑ you shoot for getting here. At the same time, we're all competitors. We line up to play and we want to win. So right now it's kind of an unusual feeling for me, because we did do something. I mean, these guys will hold forever. At the same time, we're going to lay our head down every night and wake up every morning trying to get back. Q. Having played two games that were as down to the wire as those two were, what can you say about the way your guys responded to pressure throughout those games and how it can help impact your program in the future? COACH TADLOCK: Well, we talk about we enjoy playing close games. If you don't enjoy a close baseball game, if you want everything to be a blowout, I mean, that wouldn't be much fun, would it? So we kind of relish those moments and enjoy them and try to thrive in them. I mean, it just didn't work these two games. Again, that game today, it was really tough to score today. Christian Trent was outstanding. They played great defense, and that's that. But it's kind of like a barn burner every now and then. Q. Along those same lines of getting here, you had a lot of freshmen and underclassmen playing big roles in this. What does that do for them moving forward, having been on this stage and having performed so well? COACH TADLOCK: Well, hopefully they take something away from it. Hopefully they all do, and we learn from it, and we learn from the good times and the bad times and keep playing the game the right way. By no means does this mean it's going to happen again. These guys got to this point by doing things right every day and not by getting to postseason and just turning it on. I mean, you've been to a couple of inner‑squads and been to practices. These guys get after it every day. Really have a lot of respect for this whole group, and I'm proud of them for that. Q. Coach, this is the most wins for Texas Tech in a long time. Do you feel like this is the start of a run for Texas Tech baseball in your second year? Is that what you hope this turns into? COACH TADLOCK: Well, I think we're going to show up every day and play the game the right way. We never were counting. We never have. I mean, when we get done with a game, we're done with that game and we move on. I couldn't tell you how many it is right now. But I do know the guys in our program that got here got a little taste of it, and they've won a few games and been beat some too. They understand, I think, there is a big nucleus of guys that understand what it takes to win. But you have to continue to do what it takes to win. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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