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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 17, 2015

OMAHA, NEBRASKA

Florida 10 - Miami 2

THE MODERATOR: Representing Miami head coach Jim Morris, third baseman David Thompson, second baseman George Iskenderian and right fielder Willie Abreu. Coach, if you'd begin with an opening statement.

COACH MORRIS: First of all, we want to congratulate Florida on the game tonight. They played very well and beat us in every area. They outpitched us, outhit us, outplayed us as a team. Played very well. Disappointed in the ending, no question. But I'm proud of our guys. They've worked very hard the entire season. I feel like our group was a close-knit group that stuck together. And ended up one of the top teams in the country. And I'm proud of what they've accomplished. I'd like to win a ring, no question about that. But I'm proud of what they've done and where we got to.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Coach, as you look back at this year and the last year, 40-plus wins last year and getting back here to Omaha, do you feel like David's class kind of put Miami baseball back to where it needs to be, and how do you feel about this team moving forward next year as well?
COACH MORRIS: There's a lot of guys that had really good years. David Thompson being one, no question. Getting back to Omaha is a big step for us. I'm proud of the fact we're back here. I realize how hard it is to get to this particular level. There's a lot of great teams in the country who didn't get to this level. And I think that you're exactly right. I think that we've kind of taken a step. We've got an outstanding recruiting class coming in, and I'm sure we'll lose some of our juniors and of course our seniors, but we'll have a good club next year. We've gotta just build on what we've done this year.

Q. Willie, just a little bit, they take a 3-0 lead on you guys in the first inning. How much did that kind of take the wind out of your sails, come up next at-bat three straight strikeouts, that kind of thing?
WILLIE ABREU: Obviously that hurts. But what every team wants to do is jump out in front. But we're not a team that usually gets down on ourselves. We're a pretty live and active group. So we didn't let that bring us down. Obviously the other innings with the big runs, it hurts everybody when they have a 10 spot on the board because, obviously, it shuts down our game. But it is what it is. We didn't stop fighting. We did what we had to do and unfortunately it didn't come out our way. But proud of all of our -- all my teammates and everybody that did their part to get here. And we hope to be back next year.

Q. Jim, 28 hits in two games against Florida. I mean, is there anything specific that you see out of their lineup, or is it just simply good players making plays?
COACH MORRIS: Well, I said when I got here I thought Florida had one of the best clubs since I've been at Miami. They've got some outstanding players. They can swing the bat, they hit the ball hard tonight and they earned every run that they got. We didn't make any errors. They swung the bat very good. They're very good offensively, no question, and pitching-wise, we've just got to play both ways tonight. But they played very well.

Q. Willie, George, David, when you saw the wind kind of blowing out and you saw their balls carrying early on there, did you guys think you had a chance to kind of slug your way back into this thing?
GEORGE ISKENDERIAN: I think we were just looking to get base runners on. I know that first inning we went three up, three down with three strike outs. Our goal was to nick away any way we could, just try and get guys on and drive them in like we have all year. We didn't necessarily think about the wind.

DAVID THOMPSON: No, just like George said, we were just trying to put good swings on the ball, get base runners and try and make something happen on offense. But we didn't do that.

Q. Coach, you guys were such an offensive team this whole season. Just a little bit of scuffle offensively in Omaha. Is there a particular approach that pitchers had against you guys and just were they able to keep you guys off balance? Just your thoughts on the offense?
COACH MORRIS: We always say good pitching beats good hitting, and we got pitched -- those guys pitched good against us and hit their spots and they pitched very well tonight. And we didn't do what we had to do as a club offensively to swing the bat. But we've done a good job all year most times. But we've had some times when we got in situations where we struggled a little bit offensively. But overall during the year we swung the bat pretty well.

Q. Coach, you touched on it a little bit about your season this year, but just how satisfying was it of a season for you compared to some of the others that you've had that have ended up here in Omaha?
COACH MORRIS: Well, you know, first of all, I appreciate getting back here probably more than any other time I've been here except maybe that first year. Because I hadn't been here before that time. But I respect how hard it is. It's gotten harder every year. As you guys know that cover college baseball, college baseball has improved so much nationally. It's much harder for us as a school. The Atlantic Coast Conference is a great conference, and we have to battle every game we play to get where we are at. We won the Coastal Division and won the championship last year in our conference. So we've done some good things. No question about it. But getting back to Omaha is what it's all about. And it's sweet to get back. But I don't like to lose and I would have liked to have won tonight and still be fighting for a championship tomorrow.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about Enrique's start. Obviously you had a quick hook knowing lose and go home kind of thing. And how tough was it to call Suarez there in the second?
COACH MORRIS: Suarez wanted to start. But we thought maybe he's got four days' rest, which is really -- we normally don't pitch guys once a week, our starters. And he wanted to pitch, actually wanted to pitch the day before yesterday. But that's a good thing because he wants the ball. I credit him for that. And Sosa hasn't pitched lately as much. He's been our No. 3 starter all year. They threw their No. 3 starter against us. And we felt like if he struggled any at all, that we had to get him out, because he hadn't been pitching much in about in a month with some issues he had, but nothing serious. But an injury that kept him out of the lineup. But he was healthy and ready to go back. We felt we could patch it together. If we could get him to throw a few innings. Suarez and the bullpen has been very good all year, hoped to patch things together and make it happen to get a win. But didn't work out.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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