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NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP REGIONALS: BATON ROUGEMay 31, 2015Garrett DeschampLex KaplanAlex MasseyDavid PierceBATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA UNCW – 8 THE MODERATOR: Let's start with starting pitcher Alex Massey, a couple comments about your outing, the third inning in particular. ALEX MASSEY: Felt great. Started out hot. I was throwing all three pitches for strikes, just kind of hit a wall there in the third inning. I was still making quality pitches but they were just putting barrels on them and finding holes. I mean, that's all I have to say. THE MODERATOR: Lex, if you would talk about maybe how effective their pitcher was. You got the base hit in the first inning, one of the few, and talk about what made him so effective, please. LEX KAPLAN: He was keeping the ball down and he was throwing two of his pitches for strikes, and we barreled balls up. We lined out seven, eight times hard, and there was nothing we could do about that. I thought we swung the bat really well today. Credit to all the guys today. They came out to play, and it just didn't go our way. THE MODERATOR: Garrett, being a senior, talk a little bit about your journey here and your experience at Tulane. GARRETT DESCHAMP: It's been a great experience. A decision like I will be happy for for the rest of my life. These guys these past two years I've made friends I'll remember for the rest of my life, and being able to be the first team since '08 to make a regional, not coming out the way we wanted to finish the season but getting here and putting up a fight, I can't be any prouder. THE MODERATOR: Coach, a few comments, please? DAVID PIERCE: As far as the game tonight, I just think avoiding the big inning is what affected us, and actually it was the tournament because in Game 1 against Wilmington we didn't avoid the big inning, and we created the big inning against Lehigh, and tonight we didn't avoid it again. You know, when you look at the way it ended, you don't like to see it end like that. People would say if you're going to go out and get beat, you'd rather be in a blowout. Not me; I would rather be in a ballgame. I wouldn't say it was a blowout, it was just the one big inning that kind of deflated the entire game. I thought we really did barrel some balls tonight, and we just didn't play clean throughout the game, especially in the third inning. That's part of the game. Very proud of our team. Very proud of our seniors. Just a great job of getting to where we came this year, the ability to get into the regional and learn and have this experience to build on, and hopefully create some hunger for the younger players. Q. How is Stephen Alemais? DAVID PIERCE: He tweaked his hamstring, and we tried to push it. We weren't going to push it in an 8‑0 game. He wanted to play, and I just want to him and told him I was proud of him and everything he did for the team the entire year. He played every inning at shortstop this year. He didn't miss any. Well, I think I pulled him one game. But really he was our everyday guy. I just didn't think it was worth pushing it at the time. Q. I mean, it was almost a tough spot because we were thinking‑‑ we were watching, I guess it was the second inning and everybody was out there to field and he's running out, and we were thinking what you would have done there if he couldn't come back. DAVID PIERCE: Well, we would have put Matt in just like we did later. I mean, Matt has worked a lot over there, and he's actually become a very reliable backup. You would like to see your starters finish it, but at the same time, if he couldn't have done it‑‑ I mean, probably our best option is to move Garrett over from second, but Matt hasn't had as many reps at second base. So we probably would have just went with Matt at short. Q. This is not kind of a normal ‑‑ in some ways ‑‑ regional experience with all these rain delays. Two back to back days of three hours, and none of these guys have been in a regional before. Just kind of your overall thoughts on this weekend. DAVID PIERCE: It was long. It was tough. I thought we handled it well. I didn't see any letdown. I didn't see anyone play tired. I just thought they did a good job of handling the delays. The experience for our players is outstanding. For us to get in, you're not satisfied, of course. We really wanted to get to the finals of the regional, it just didn't work that way for us. I'll tell you what, Wilmington really played well the two games we played them, and they played well against LSU last night. The starting pitching was as good as it's been all year. I truly think the best two offensive lineups are playing tomorrow that we've faced this year. Q. Garrett, you said last night that a loss in that game wouldn't have soured your feelings on the season. Obviously you feel the same way tonight, but just talk about how much fun was it getting to play in a regional and how much do you think this will help build for the program for the future for the guys coming down the road? GARRETT DESCHAMP: It's definitely a dream come true getting to a regional and just the chance to get to Omaha, that's every kid's dream, play college baseball and get to Omaha. Just to have the opportunity this year with these guys and this coaching staff was just amazing, especially after last year. Next year's team is going to be great. That's all I can say. They're going to be really good, well coached, and they're going to come out and play. Q. Coach, as Lex commented, there were a lot of hard line shot outs, but this pitcher had really struggled coming into this game for them. Is that the next step the program needs to take is to be able to find a way to manufacture more runs? DAVID PIERCE: Well, we want to always be able to score in multiple ways. You can say manufactured, you can say short game. Yeah, we're always trying to improve the team, and we want to be a little quicker at the top of the lineup, the bottom of the lineup, and a little more powerful in the middle. I'm really more concerned about talking about these players tonight and how well they did all year. Q. How do you kind of sum up‑‑ I know the season just ended, but how do you sum up the difference between this team at the start of the season and now, and just where you see this program after just one year? DAVID PIERCE: Well, first of all, I want to say that I thought this was one of the toughest seasons that I've had as a coach, but I also think it was one of the most rewarding seasons as a coach. Not only do you have a new staff, but you have a group of guys that are from all over the country, and really looking for guidance. They really wanted to be coached. From September up until tonight, sitting on this podium with these three guys, I can honestly say that there's not one of those 25 guys that I wouldn't take home with me. I have one biological son and 25 others. Q. Lex, just talking about the state of the program, the storied past of Tulane baseball, you guys trying to get the program back to where it used to be, how big was this season and how big was being here in this weekend in this regional for where you want to go? LEX KAPLAN: I mean, it was a great season. I'm proud of all my guys and proud of the seniors, and I'm glad we got to get here. I mean, from here I see everything going up. I'm excited for next year and ready to start working. Q. Coach, how was it with the adjustment this season more than anything else coming from the Southland Conference and going to the American Conference and how you guys really achieved this season and what it really makes the team look forward to next year? DAVID PIERCE: Well, I mean, the American was very tough, as you can look in the RPI ratings, we're the third‑best league in the country, and not only leaving the Southland, I feel like we made two jumps, from the Southland through Conference USA to jump up to the American. It was a tough year. There's so many games that we could have really thrown in the towel, and we hung in there. 35‑25, that's a lot of losses in my opinion, but there's so many great wins there, and we just kept fighting. I don't know, just very satisfied with the group that we had, and just the way that they handled themselves throughout the year. Q. How much did you like to see just that fight up until the last out, even though you were down eight runs? DAVID PIERCE: Well, I think that's what‑‑ when you look at our team from the beginning of the season, I think we created that fight in our offseason, and we did some things to extend guys throughout our November strength and conditioning. We did the same thing in the early part of the spring. Guys were preparing themselves for it. We just have a will to do everything we can to win the game, and to really try to do it the right way. You know, it was very satisfying. Unless you win the national championship, you're talking about your season being ended with a loss. Q. A couple things: Now that the season is over, you guys had kind of a situation going into the regional with John Gandolfo. If you could just tell us what happened with that. I know you kind of threw it to the players and kind of let them ultimately decide? DAVID PIERCE: Well, we just had an indefinite suspension and it was an internal issue, and we took care of it. Q. Alex, this season, the pitchers have been really good statistically, and it's kind of been almost every pitcher on staff has had that one‑inning issue and you usually recover and bounce back. In that third were you thinking I've just got to work through this, this is just like not every other outing but most of them have been kind of like that? ALEX MASSEY: Yeah, I mean, sometimes that's just baseball. The ball finds a hole. I knew my guys had my back, and I knew we were going to put up runs. Just trying to minimize as much as I could and make pitches and continue to give my team a chance to win. Q. Lex, are you Major League Draft eligible? I know there's an age thing. LEX KAPLAN: No, I'm not. Q. Lex, you've been open with how much you wanted a crack at LSU in this regional. How disappointed are you? LEX KAPLAN: I mean, it's disappointing, but there's always next year. That's how I've got to look at it. We get to play them twice next year, and hopefully we're right back here playing them again in a regional. That would be awesome. DAVID PIERCE: Real quick I'd like to say thank you guys, especially LSU, your hospitality is outstanding. Joe has become a very good friend of mine, and y'all treated us with respect, and I really appreciate that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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