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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 20, 2016Andrew CheckettsRyan CumberlandNoah DavisOmaha, Nebraska UC Santa Barbara - 5, Miami - 3 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with a statement from Coach Checketts and then opening it up to player questions. COACH CHECKETTS: It was a pretty good battle. And our guys did a really good job of competing. And Collins hit that ball out and it looked like, oh, here we go, and we were able to punch back after that. And I thought they did a really good job during the rain delay of kind of staying in third and fourth gear and being able to come out and land some more blows. Happy for our guys, our fans and everybody is celebrating like we just won the whole thing. But it's hard to act like you've done it before when you've never done it before. First program World Series win, and it sure looked like it. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Ryan, you're 22nd at-bat of the season, you'll remember it forever, won't you? RYAN CUMBERLAND: Absolutely. That's something special. I obviously don't get an opportunity without the guys getting out in front of me. Right before I went up to hit, Checketts said, See something up, and I got something up in the zone that I could hit well and happened to find a hole. COACH CHECKETTS: I know I'm supposed to let him talk, but he also had the flu all morning and throwing up all day, and it speaks to his level of competitiveness and toughness to be able to go up there take that at-bat after being violently ill all morning. Q. Noah, obviously it seemed like you had your good stuff and your good command today. Been any adjustments for you before this start, coming from maybe struggling a little bit more the previous week or two? NOAH DAVIS: Well, this week basically just came out knowing that Miami has pretty good offense and that it was going to be really important to keep the ball down. In the past two weeks I haven't really been able to do that. So that was my main focus and being able to cross count with offspeed pitches was very key today. Q. JJ, just what is the feeling of being a part of the first team to win a game at the College World Series, with this program? JJ MUNO: It's been a very special ride. I think this group of young men all cares for each other and they all have each other's backs and we all love each other. We're kind of just playing for each other, and it's an awesome feeling to have that camaraderie pay off and come out with a victory, and then our fans have came out and they've been unreal and they've been awesome for us. Q. JJ, talk about how important that was after the home run in the top of the first inning, great at-bat by you to get that run back, because Miami is so dangerous; they are so good. And if they get going with momentum, probably pretty difficult? JJ MUNO: Yeah, that was kind of a big slap in the face right in the opening. And I could kind of tell that we kind of needed something to go our way to get the little momentum and then some good vibes going in our dugout, and I was fortunate enough to be able to get that two-strike, two-out knock. Q. JJ, you had about an hour to think about that at-bat. You headed into the sixth inning knowing you were second up after that rain delay. What did you do during that break? Coach talked about staying in third or fourth gear. What were you able to stay loose then? JJ MUNO: We were trying to stay loose in the dugout -- or the clubhouse, not trying to lay around and just sit around and wait. We kind of were up and moving around, music going. And then I got a couple of hacks in the cage and then just tried to go out there and compete. Q. Ryan, go back to what Coach said about your health this morning and maybe how you felt and at that point, what you thought your role might be today, if any? RYAN CUMBERLAND: He had told me to get ready hit and plant to your spot before the rain delay happened. And I wasn't feeling particularly well before the rain delay, and I just -- I went back to the locker room and kind of laid down and relaxed and visualized my next AB if I had it and got ready in the cage and tried to focus on what the team needed rather than how I felt. Q. To follow up on that, did that hour delay help you? Would you have been able to go up had the game continued on, or did that hour give you enough time to at least partially recover from your flu? RYAN CUMBERLAND: Throughout the day I've kind of been up and down, so it was a matter of timing, I guess. And at the time I felt better than I had before the break. So it worked out well. Q. Noah, you looked like a junior or senior in the postseason with your poise and everything. Coach talked about poise all the time. Facing this lineup that hit .300, 49 home runs, it looked like you were not intimidated at all. Did you feel the way you looked out there? NOAH DAVIS: I mean, it's hard to be tight when you're playing with these guys around me. If I'm ever feeling scared, I look around, I see JJ and all the other guys, and they're not scared. So kind of reassures you that there's no reason to be scared. And, yeah, poise is key. If I'm scared, then they're not going to be scared of me. So I might as well come out there with confidence. Q. JJ, you guys now eliminated the No. 2 and No. 3 national seeds from the ACC. Considering where you guys were, I guess, at the beginning of the season and uncertainties surrounding this team, are you surprised by everything this team has accomplished? JJ MUNO: No, we're not surprised at all. I know everyone said we were going to be a .500 team, rebuilding year, you lose Dillon Tate, Justin Jacome, seven starters on the position side, and we all knew we had been working hard, and we were all ready for our opportunities. We got guys that have grinded out years where they've just sat the bench. And we kind of have a tough junior class that was ready for their opportunity and ready to prove people wrong. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Can you talk about how big that was for Noah Davis to get through the sixth inning before the rain hit as opposed to the rain hits and he's out there. Was it a big difference or was it not? COACH CHECKETTS: I thought he was about done, if the game continued on we were probably going to make a move pretty quick. Pitch count was up. So the timing worked. I think we were fortunate, though, that we didn't have Nelson in there and have to sit. I think that was how it really picked us up is not bringing Nel in for a couple of hitters and him having to sit and go back out. And the bullpen was fresh and we had Kelly and Bettencourt and Carter down there. I felt like we could absorb some weather delays and had enough arms to keep it close. Q. Andrew, can you take us through the sixth with first the delay, and then the double squeezes, the four-run inning, all of that occurring? COACH CHECKETTS: Had to play it in my mind, there was a lot happening. Yeah, Bush flies out. We don't move Gradford. We got Gradford at first. JJ hits the double after that. Is that right? Hits the double after that, on time for a fastball. He was trying to work some four-hole there with Gradford being held on and did a good job of being able to get his barrel out. The safety, Coach Walton was a pitch ahead of me because I was ready to lean over and say safety, and it was already on. And then felt like after the 31 move that they wouldn't suspect us to do it again, wanted to do it early in the count so we didn't get Clark the two strikes and risk him striking out in that situation off the slider. So decided to do it again on first pitch. He got kind of a funny pitch to bunt on but did a good job getting it to the ground and got a decent read at third base to be able to get -- I believe that was the fifth run there at that point, if I have it correctly. So pretty good execution. Billy Fredrick's bunt was beautiful and Ryan Clark had to bunt a tough pitch and did a nice job. Thought our base runners were good at third base and made good reads there in that situation. And seems like there's a lot of double plays out there on this field because it's a little bit of a slower infield. So really just trying to stay out of those double plays. We hit into a couple on Saturday that hurt us. Guys did a good job executing. Q. What possessed you to pinch-hit Cumberland there in that situation? I can't imagine you've called on a guy who, as he said, was violently ill too often in your career to deliver a big hit? COACH CHECKETTS: Don't want to throw Plantier under the bus, but his at-bat led me to want to get somebody else that was sick at that point. Kyle has struggled all year, but he's had big hits for us. And hoping he would get hot. And his at-bats weren't great there, and felt like maybe a double play -- not that Cumberland runs great, but felt like Cumberland was a better match there. We had two left-handers on the bench but I didn't feel like were as good of matches. Ryan has a pretty good feel. I know he's hitting .188, but he's got a pretty good feel and he's had some pretty good at-bats off the bench. He and Frederick have been two pretty good guys off the bench for us. Thought the matchup was decent there. Older guy as well and thought he would be able to keep it simple. Q. Davis has had a pretty nice year as a freshman but I know he's had some ups and downs and really good highs, maybe a margin, then maybe a struggle down the stretch. How have you worked with him to get him back to this point where he can go out there and hold Miami to two hits in the College World Series? COACH CHECKETTS: It hurt us late with him hurting his foot and being out. And it hurt us during conference play where we didn't have Carter healthy. We didn't have Kelly back yet. And so we were really struggling depth-wise. When we lost him, it was six innings a week that we had a real hard time to absorb. But I think it's actually worked out really well for us. A lot of those freshmen they get to that 55-, 60-inning range and start to fade because they've never thrown more than that in their high school season. And him being able to kind of shut it down and he had to rehab his foot, but to rest, it seems like we're benefitting from that now where he's sharper and still has something. And he gave three I think in Louisville, but he was pretty good. He threw the ball well, came out of his hand well. And I thought he was good again today, and he continues to get a little bit better each time out. We haven't done anything crazy with him because we've been nursing that foot a little bit and making sure he throws on the right days. It flared up in Louisville, not 100 percent with it, but it doesn't seem to be affecting his delivery right now. Q. What does it mean when you look around and you see the fan support that you have in this ballpark and is the team feeding off of that? COACH CHECKETTS: Yeah, I think so. Our fans are a little bit like our players. They're pretty energized and rowdy and get after it pretty good. So I think it's fun to see. The first game, when we -- whether we lost all the games or not coming here, we don't want to do that, but the first game after the Anthem walking back there, seeing our crowd go crazy gave me the chills. I've said it before, but just where this program's come and all the help that we've got in terms of that grassroots effort to get our kids to this point is pretty special. I think it's really special and we've had a lot of people that got behind us. And I know our guys feel that because we talk about it a lot. We talk about making sure we say thank you by playing hard, make sure we say thank you by taking care of our stuff. Maybe we don't have the fanciest stuff, but we're going to take care of the stuff we do have. I think it's special to see that those people continue to follow us and have come out here. And a lot of people have been waiting a long time to go to Omaha. For this group to be able to take us there, it's been really special. Q. You were going to have some time left after the sixth but the way the third, fourth, fifth went, did you have a little do-or-die sense to that sixth that you needed to get something there or make something happen in that one? COACH CHECKETTS: Yeah, had the earlier one when Fisher had the stinker at-bat and hits into the double play with bases loaded, and we had the opportunity there and didn't really want to let another one go. And going into it, I was hoping we scored in Omaha after Hatch took care of us. When we scored one run, I felt like that was almost a win. And then getting there, you never know what everybody else's bullpen looks like. But a lot of times I think they had a fresh bullpen. Sometimes it doesn't get easier once you get to the bullpen. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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