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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 24, 2016Andrew BeckwithGary GilmoreAnthony MarksDavid ParrettOmaha, Nebraska Coastal Carolina - 4, TCU - 1 MODERATOR: We'll have a statement from Coach Gilmore and then questions for the student-athletes first. Gary, your overview. COACH GILMORE: It was a very well pitched game on both sides. Ten hits total, and Andrew was absolutely incredible. I can't say enough about him. I think I would have had to hit him with a brick or whatever to get him to come out of the game. I was trying to take him out of the eighth. He wouldn't come out. I didn't want to see him out in the ninth, and he just wasn't going to have any part of it. He's a unique young man, and what he did tonight was incredible. And we're fortunate enough to get a couple hits here and there and execute a couple of things and live again for tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Andrew, how do you feel out there stuff-wise? How has the week been there for you with two performances for you on this stage? ANDREW BECKWITH: I just felt like I had all my pitches. I've pounded the strike zone. Loaded the strike zone. I think the one today, the home run, I think it just ran up on me, ran up on his hands. But he got the barrel out on it. So just pounding the strike zone. Letting my defense work. I think today I had the same amount of ground balls as I had, but they were fly balls today. So I guess they just had a different approach than Florida did. Q. Andrew, just how did you approach the game knowing that it was elimination possibly for you guys? Did you approach it any differently, or is it just kind of the same mental for you? ANDREW BECKWITH: No, I knew our defense was going to come out and play. I knew they were going to scratch some runs across. Like I said on Sunday, or Tuesday, whatever, I don't remember, just pounding the zone, let your defense work. We got the best infielders, the fastest outfielders I feel like in Division I baseball. And they really came to play today. Q. David and Anthony, what's it like to watch Andrew turn in two games like this in a span of a week at the College World Series? ANTHONY MARKS: It's pretty amazing, but, honestly, you guys are just seeing this past week, but we've watching him do this for three years now. I mean, his numbers speak for himself. He's, if not the best pitcher in the country, one of the best pitchers in the country. It's fun to play defense for him because he's filling out the strike zone, like he said, letting the defense work. We've got his back like we know he's got our back. He's done this two games here, but this is nothing new to us. This man does this night in, night out every time he gets the rock, whether he's the starter, coming out of the bullpen. It's really fun to watch, and I mean he's going to do big things. He really is. DAVID PARRETT: When I knew Dap was starting and I was catching, I was very excited about it. He's been one of our guys, whether it's mid relief or starting the game. He's been solid all year. And we worked really well together tonight. He had his slider and two-seam working very well. It was fun to get out there in front of that amount of people, and we did. Q. Anthony, just how are you guys feeling going into tomorrow, knowing that you have one more of these games to go? ANTHONY MARKS: I think we feel the same we did the whole tournament: confident, locked in, ready to go. Knowing if we play Coastal Carolina baseball like we play Coastal baseball, we'll be tough to knock out. Ran into some great competition. Tip your hat to them. TCU, that's a great baseball team over there, and I think tomorrow will be a great nine-inning game and everyone will get their money's worth, for sure. Q. David, what did it mean to you to kind of follow up last night's performance with, again, that ground rule double tonight, and just what does it mean to you personally? DAVID PARRETT: Means a lot. You know, when I woke up this morning, the day before it was over and knew we had another game tonight, so ready to go for that. So everything that happened in the past is done with, and I wanted to get out there and do my best for the team again. ANDREW BECKWITH: And he loves the Midwest. ANTHONY MARKS: Yes, he does. He loves the Midwest. Q. Andrew, Coach referenced how you didn't want to come out of the game. How much of a fight did you have to put up to stay in there? Did you think you had much left? ANDREW BECKWITH: I knew I had a lot left. But I think 75 percent of my pitches were probably sidearm. So that's not usually the toll I take on my arm when I'm going to start. I think the next step was probably to yell at him. Or hit him with a brick. No, I'm just messing. No, he trusts me. I know he does. And I really thank him for letting me go back out there in the ninth. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. Gary, a week ago we sat in this room and talked about this team getting you here and just getting into the College World Series. Now those teams are a win away for playing for the national championship. I guess from your perspective, how does that feel, just how this last week's transpired for you guys? COACH GILMORE: I mean, I don't think a whole lot of people -- even though we'd gone to LSU to win, I don't think a whole lot of people here or in the country probably thought we belonged here, it was a fluke that we got here. And I think these kids have more than proved that that's not right. And I'm just so very happy for them. Honestly. They have -- to get a group of 35 guys to put everything in perspective, every personal thing behind themselves for the good of the team, it was one of the most -- in this day and age and this society we live in of people who only care about themselves, to do that is one of the most incredible experiences I've been through as a coach. And they deserve this opportunity, and we'll be back out here tomorrow. And like Marksy says, I know TCU is going to come out throwing haymakers as well. So it should be a great battle. Q. Brick fights aside, how nice is it to save those, given all the other arms in your rotation, a night off, especially after three guys had to go last night? COACH GILMORE: I mean, that part was huge. But, honestly, it was for me personally -- I was more than ready to burn up one of the pieces we'd use tomorrow just to get through this game if I thought there was any chance of physical jeopardy on his part. I mean, from the seventh inning on, Coach Thomas was begging me. I'm on him, I'm on him. He doesn't want to come out. The kid's on me. I'm going: Are you okay? Are you okay? How do you feel? If you look at the velocity, he was 88, 89 in the eighth and ninth inning from up top, which was harder than he threw in the first inning. And he got through the middle innings throwing primarily subby, which, I mean, for him he says outside of physical toll on his back a little bit from bending over, I mean, that doesn't put any strain on his arm at all. So they were crushing me, because, honestly, I can tell you right now, if they had a camera on me, I probably got whiplash looking up there at the pitch count the whole time because it's something -- I don't know that I've ever let someone go that far. But he just kept telling me: I'm fine, I'm fine. If he had got in any trouble in the ninth, we were going to move regardless. But, I mean, that's just who that kid is, too. I mean, he's just such a competitor. We've got several on our team that are like that. But he's just that guy. When he starts, he plans on finishing. And he's more old school like the generation I grew up in: When it was your turn to get the ball, there wasn't no bullpen; you started it and you finished it. That's just kind of how he is. Q. How difficult is it for you, though? How much of it is kind of gut instinct, looking at the numbers? How much of a tug-of-war were you in, particularly as we get later and later in the series, with the pitching? COACH GILMORE: I mean, we've been doing this chess game for a while. So, I mean, tomorrow -- there's going to have to be one or two guys throwing for us tomorrow that have yet to pitch. That's just where we're at. And they're ready for it. The biggest thing in this park, in my mind, if you throw a ton of strikes and don't walk guys, it's tough to score here. I don't care who you are. You put a swing on a ball here and there, but that ball David Parrett hit, if it's at our place, it clears the boardwalk. That thing is absolutely hammered. And so, I mean, for me just trying to figure out the right combination of guys, we're just going to have to run a guy out there, if he gets in trouble, have another guy come behind him. My offense has to -- even though we scored four runs, we only got four hits today. But we did a couple of good things. We got a couple of bunts down and beat out a hit in one of them and we capitalized on an error as well. And we'll have to be able to do that. And in all honestly, we have to put a swing or two on a ball with guys on base probably to have a chance to win tomorrow. Q. Coach, in the third inning you guys had a sacrifice bunt, a sacrifice fly, an RBI bunt. Just a lot of small ways to manufacture some runs. And how big was that to get on the board like that with that type of play? COACH GILMORE: I mean, it was huge for us. But in all honesty, it's been one of the elements we haven't executed well since we've been here. We probably misbunted more balls than we have all year. And it was nice, the bunt Anthony got down for the safety squeeze was huge. And with the way he runs down the line, all it takes is for you to look real hard at home and take one extra step and he beats those balls out. So too many people think that our short game is just giving up outs. And it's not, when you can run and move. So TCU plays a lot like that as well. They have great athletes as well. So we were just fortunate today that it worked out for us. Q. Just to follow up on the pitching. Do you have an idea of who is going to start tomorrow yet? And who is, besides obviously Andrew, unavailable to pitch tomorrow? COACH GILMORE: Morrison may be unavailable. But, I mean, he'll have two or three bricks to throw at me. So outside of that, I don't know, probably, to be honest with you, Coach Thomas and I talked about it a little bit, probably sleep on it, as to which order we're going to try to go with guys and based on what their lineup is and just kind of play it through in our brain exactly how to match up as best we can and steal some outs until we can get to some of our guys. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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