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NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP REGIONALS: BATON ROUGEMay 30, 2015Evan PhillipsMark ScalfZach ShieldsBATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA LSU – 2 THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with our starting pitcher Evan Phillips. Why don't you talk about your outing, please. EVAN PHILLIPS: It was a great game. Hats off to LSU. They're a fantastic team, and it was a great battle all night. Their starting pitcher did a fantastic job keeping us off balance, and I was trying to do the same, and we had a few opportunities, just didn't really go our way tonight. THE MODERATOR: Zach, you had a great catch there in right center, and also why don't you talk about facing Lange. ZACH SHIELDS: He did a pretty good job getting ahead with his fastball, and then as the course of the game, he mixed in his breaking ball that was out of the zone, but we failed to make the adjustment, not chase out of the zone, and he kept us off balance. THE MODERATOR: Mark, a few comments, please. MARK SCALF: It was an outstanding college baseball game. You know, we knew going in we were facing one of the best clubs in the country. When you look at games like that, you know your scoring opportunities are going to be limited, and we felt like we could limit theirs, as well, and I think we did a pretty good job of it. They had five opportunities with runners in scoring position, they cashed in twice. We had four opportunities, and unfortunately we didn't cash in, and I think Alex Lange had a lot to do with that. Alex made big pitch after big pitch when we had guys in scoring position, and I thought he was outstanding tonight, and apparently that's the way he's pitched all year long. That's why he's 11‑0 right now. Q. Zach, what was Alex able to do? Was it specific pitches? Was it location? What was it really? ZACH SHIELDS: For my at‑bats, at least, he got ahead with the fastball, and then he mixed in the curveball, which was not for a strike but for a varied pitch, to get us to chase, and as the game went on, we failed to make the adjustment to lay off of it and see it up in the zone, and that's what made him effective. Q. Zach, did you feel like he got stronger as the game went on or did he change up what he was doing? ZACH SHIELDS: From the game standpoint, it just seemed he gained more confidence as the game went along and got more confident in the curveball as he seen we failed to make adjustments, so he kept going to it, and I guess that boosted his confidence. Q. Zach, you talked so much about coming out here and what it was going to be like. Do you feel like it was what you were expecting tonight? What was that like seeing that atmosphere, especially late at night like this? ZACH SHIELDS: I mean, the atmosphere, it was a big stage coming out here, seeing all the crowd. But at the end of the day, you've got to block all that and play the game, stick with yourself as a team, and come out and play harder today. Q. Evan, you touched on it briefly, kind of knowing that they weren't going to get much against Lange. How did you look at that matchup, going up against him but not trying to do that too much, I guess? EVAN PHILLIPS: I wasn't too worried about the pitching matchup between me and Lange. I was just trying to go out there and get outs, miss some barrels and just keep those guys off balance. They're one of the best hitting teams in the country, and I just did what I could to keep them off balance. Q. Mark, like you said, your guys were kind of chasing more than they usually do. Was there any kind of adjustments you guys felt like you could make in game? Kind of talk a little bit about that. MARK SCALF: We talked about it, but like I said, I've got to give Alex credit. The breaking ball he throws with two strikes is tough to see, and it's coming at the same plane and same angle as the fastball down the zone. It's very difficult to lay off of it. You know, and offensively, that lineup, they just keep grinding at you, and I thought our pitchers, I thought Evan and Jordan did a great job against those guys tonight, but you know, they continued to grind at‑bats. They have the ability to put a lot of pressure on you with the foot speed they have up and down the lineup. You know, I thought they handled the bat extremely well tonight. They had 10 hits, and the majority of those 10 were pretty good pitches. Q. How do you guys get ready to play again at 4:00 p.m. tomorrow? MARK SCALF: We've got 14 hours. We'll get ready. We'll get back, we'll get some rest, and we'll come back and get after it again tomorrow afternoon. We came here to try to compete and put ourselves in a position to play the back end of this tournament, and that's what we're going to have to do tomorrow. It's going to be a grind, but we've got to play well Game 1 tomorrow to have an opportunity to get back to the back end. Q. It's been a couple really long days for you guys. What is going to be your message to your team? How do you deal with that and continue to be able to come out and play with that kind of energy? MARK SCALF: The biggest thing is get some rest tonight and show up and do the things that we've done all year. I've got to give these young men credit. They've shown up every day. They've given us energy. They've played the game with energy. Some days it's not quite good enough, but they're going to show up the next day and get after it. I can't see us doing anything different 14 hours from now. Q. The seventh inning there, do you feel like you were starting to kind of run out of gas a little bit there? EVAN PHILLIPS: Yeah, I think they definitely took advantage of my pitching. I think the lead‑off batter, I got him 3‑2 and tried to beat him with the fastball, and he was ready for it and he handled it pretty well, and then the next two guys, the first two pitches maybe, and I pitched a hit and they put a barrel on it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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