	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 15, 2015

OMAHA, NEBRASKA

Virginia 1 - Florida 0

THE MODERATOR: Representing Florida, head coach Kevin O'Sullivan, starting pitcher A.J. Puk, second baseman Dalton Guthrie. Coach, opening statement.

COACH O'SULLIVAN: It was a heck of a ballgame. Both teams played at a very high level. Both starting pitchers were outstanding. Came down to an at-bat that Robbie Coman did a nice job and got a sac-fly. But I'm real proud of the way we played. Waddell was really good tonight. He was moving the ball back and forth. He kept throwing two different speeds on his fastball and looked like he was throwing a bit of a cutter in on our right-handers and he just kept moving the ball back and forth and just didn't give us a whole lot. Obviously we had a chance there in the eighth with first and third, and Harrison put a really good swing on the ball. And Sborz did a nice job, and kept his composure, got the out at second. It's one of those things, if the ball gets through it's a totally different ballgame. Like I said, proud of our guys. We battled. We just came up a little bit short tonight. But congratulations to Virginia. They earned it. We didn't give them anything. So we'll just have to work our way through the losers' bracket. We've done it before. We won four straight in the SEC tournament. And we've got plenty of pitching to get through it. We'll take it one pitch at a time, one game at a time, and hopefully get ourselves back and have another chance to play Virginia on Friday. We'll see.

Q. Dalton, could you also elaborate on what made Waddell so difficult, one hit through the first seven innings?
DALTON GUTHRIE: He just did a really good job mixing his pitches, I think. He was throwing changeups and curveballs and weird counts and he wasn't missing. So we just didn't make the adjustment. But he kept putting pressure on us and he did a great job all night.

Q. Dalton, you were on first base when Bader hit that line drive. Literally knocked the guy's glove off. Describe what happened on that play and after it happened did you think: My God how did that just happen we had the game tied and it didn't happen?
DALTON GUTHRIE: I was third at the time. But, yeah, as soon as that happened, it's a lot harder to score with one out on first and third. But that was just a bad-luck thing. And I guess that's just the way it happened tonight. He did a great job getting out of it. And that's just baseball, I guess.

Q. A.J., on the missed throw that loaded the bases in the sixth inning, did you feel like you had a little more time, or just what went into that just kind of throw in the sixth?
A.J. PUK: I just should have -- I took my time. I should have got rid of the ball quicker.

Q. Coach, any thoughts about bunting there in the eighth, or were you always going to go swinging away?
COACH O'SULLIVAN: We're visitors. We come this far, we're not going to play for the tie. Richie is a first-round pick, very talented. He's hard to double up. He can really run. I'm taking my chances there. I'm not going to play for a tie in that situation. We're going to go and like I said, he'd be really, really difficult to double up. If it's someone that can't run as well as him, maybe think about it. But no, we're not going to play it safe.

Q. A.J., it seemed like you got into a pretty good groove there after the first. Was it a typical pattern for you take an inning or so to find your stride?
A.J. PUK: Yeah, it was kind of tough today with the rain delay and everything. I was in the hotel room all day, and I was really excited to get out here. And the first inning I was struggling with my command and just found a groove and was able to attack the zone.

Q. Coach, I know you were talking about how tough Waddell was but how did you feel like the approach and the at-bats tonight, was there maybe a little too much in the air or on the ground, how did you feel you guys hit the ball?
COACH O'SULLIVAN: Sometimes you've just got to credit the pitcher. I'm not going to fault our guys. You gotta remember he's a fifth-round pick. He beat Vanderbilt last year in the second game, forced a game three. He's good. Probably the best he's pitched all year. He was on tonight. I don't want to take anything away from him, I don't want to blame our hitters that we didn't have good approaches. It's just we ran across a really good pitcher that located his pitches tonight and didn't give us a whole lot. So I'm going to give all the credit to Waddell. He pitched really good tonight, and we'll come back, we'll have practice tomorrow and get right back at it on Wednesday. I trust our guys. We'll have to bounce back. Obviously everybody's disappointed right now, but we've got no choice but to move forward. We're playing Miami, a rival of ours. So let's have at it on Wednesday and see what happens.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297