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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 19, 2015

OMAHA, NEBRASKA

Florida 10 - Virginia 5

THE MODERATOR: Representing Florida, head coach Kevin O'Sullivan, starting pitcher Logan Shore, catcher Mike Rivera and shortstop Richie Martin. Coach, an opening statement.

COACH O'SULLIVAN: Obviously we're excited about the opportunity to play tomorrow. I was really concerned when I saw Kirby's first couple of innings. He kept flipping changeups in there for strikes and his command looked really good. Our approach was to take a first-pitch strike and get his pitch count up because he was probably going to be on some kind of pitch count. But he kept throwing first-pitch strikes and looked really sharp. We hung in there, and like I said, we played good defense, we had some really good at-bats. Logan gave us a great start again. And looking back at it, we had first and third, Ryan hits a single, we had first and third in the third inning there, and Bader gets the two strikes, and it was almost reminiscent of the other night. He put the ball in play. He didn't hit it hard but it got us on the board for the first run, and that kind of got us going. If he strikes out there, who knows what happens. But like I said, we responded all year long when we had our backs against the wall. And we're obviously excited about the opportunity to play Virginia tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Richie, you had the opposite field home run against Miami on Wednesday night and then you went the other way again for the double today. How much has that maybe gotten you out of your earlier your funk, the ability to take the ball where it's pitched?
RICHIE MARTIN: I struggled the first two games, but that's baseball. It's going to go like that. But I just stuck with my approach. The first two games I hit a few balls on the barrel. But it was just unlucky. Stick with my approach and happened to work out today.

Q. Mike, you had two big RBI in this game. Tell me about the at-bat in the third inning when you guys were finally able to break through on this team and get rolling?
MIKE RIVERA: I just try to keep it simple, just try to hunt fastballs and square something up. It was bases loaded so I was trying to elevate the ball, that's one thing, but I didn't want to elevate it too much. I don't know, just made a good swing and drop it in.

Q. Richie and Kevin, if you have anything to add, fourth time this CWS you've scored four-plus runs. Every other team has combined for three. And in particular today every time you had something going on, you put some runs on the board. What is it about your guys' ability to do that when you do set the table, especially today, to see it through and put some runs on the board?
RICHIE MARTIN: I just think that we're coming together as a team at the right time throughout the season. We haven't really put everything together as an offense, defense and pitching-wise. So it's nice to get this going in the postseason when it matters.

COACH O'SULLIVAN: We have a tendency to have big innings. In order to have big innings you have to have a consistent lineup, 1 through 9, and not necessarily is it the first four, five guys in your lineup but the guys that hit 7, 8, 9. I think we're getting a lot of contributions up and down the lineup and it just allows us when we get things rolling in an inning to build some big innings.

Q. Logan, you're on the mound for all that. You saw the 11 runs on Friday -- Saturday night. How much more confidence does it give you knowing that this offense can put up those kind of innings and give you that 4-1 padding coming into the fourth?
LOGAN SHORE: Start of the SEC tournament everyone just started hitting, especially when I'm on the mound, seems like every single game they're putting up double digit runs, which is awesome. Gives you a lot of confidence going into a new game. I gave up a run in the first there. And I know we're going to bounce back. I knew that one run wasn't going to hold us down. And Bader came through there with that hit there and got us rolling. And that was the end of it.

Q. Coach, just how big was that sixth inning, too, to be able to tack on and kind of create a lot of breathing room there with the bases loaded in the sixth and coming through some hits and runs?
COACH O'SULLIVAN: I think anytime you have opportunities to score, you've got to take advantage of it. And we knew Virginia's hitters weren't going to go away. We knew the game was a long way from being over. But you play good teams this time of year, you get a couple of cracks to have some opportunities to drive runs in. Bases loaded, nobody out. We needed to take advantage of that opportunity.

Q. Logan, they were very aggressive up there swinging at a lot of first pitches, second pitches. Did you pick up on that pretty quickly, and how did that affect your performance there?
LOGAN SHORE: Yeah, you know, first pitch of the game a guy swung at it hit a single. I could tell right off the bat they would be aggressive, which going into the game I wasn't really expecting. I thought they were going to take a little bit more, especially earlier in the game. But I tend to do a little bit better against teams that are more aggressive, having three pitches and throwing them in the zone. So worked out for me today. And just excited to get back out there tomorrow.

Q. Logan, if there are any adjustments you had to make after that first inning to kind of shake that off, and also for Coach, what was your assessment of Logan out there today?
LOGAN SHORE: First inning I thought I made some good pitches. That first single was pretty weak in the 6 hole. And then they put a pretty good swing on the ball up the middle and got out there with one run. So just try to keep the ball down, move the ball in and out, and try to make pitches throughout the game.

COACH O'SULLIVAN: I thought he threw the ball good. I think he got a little tired there at the end. Last pitch, changeup, dropped his elbow and the ball took off, and left-handed wants to stop momentum, but up until that point he threw the ball good, really good.

Q. Coach, any thoughts on a starter for tomorrow?
COACH O'SULLIVAN: Yeah, obviously we've got two options either Puk or Dunning. We've got confidence in both. Both very talented. So we'll get together with staff tonight and figure it out. But it's all hands on deck tomorrow. We're not going to hold back. So we'll worry about the next day the next day. But we're going to do anything we need to do to hopefully win tomorrow's ballgame.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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