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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 27, 2016Gary GilmoreZack HopeckMichael PaezOmaha, Nebraska Arizona - 3, Coastal Carolina - 0 THE MODERATOR: Gary, an overview from your dugout. COACH GILMORE: I mean, for me, I obviously see it from an angle and whatever and listen to our hitters. But Cloney was -- I mean, he was very good. He was moving the ball both sides of the plate, throwing cuts, breaking balls, you name it, and locating. First six innings, I don't think we hit a ball square the whole entire first six innings. And then we did a little bit better in the seventh, eighth and ninth. And just the game of baseball is in a lot of ways a matter of inches here and there. That ball that Paez hit, that ball is six inches further, it's out of the ballpark and all heck breaks loose and who knows what happens. And, again, at the end of the day, I have to tip my hat to that young man. He just pitched -- he was the guy that was bigger than life today. He beat us pretty much by himself and that, and they played great defense behind him. So tip my hat to him, and we'll have to come back tomorrow and see if we can figure out a way to even this thing. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Zack, how did you feel out there, and how did you feel about your stuff in general? ZACK HOPECK: I thought I threw pretty well. Missed a few spots and they took advantage, no doubt. It's tough when you lead off a game with a ground rule double like that. But basically I just bounced back and I tried to do the best I could, give it all for my teammates. Q. Michael, you guys have been in this spot before facing elimination, and you fought back from it. What are your thoughts going into tomorrow's game? MICHAEL PAEZ: We've just got to stick to the process. We got out of it a little bit because I felt like we had to chase some runs. And like I said, if we carry over that seventh, eighth and ninth, like Coach said, we hit the ball pretty well and carry over to tomorrow and pitch like we did today and play great defense, we'll see what happens. Q. Zack, when your coach came out to talk to you during a little bit of that trouble in the first inning, what was the conversation? ZACK HOPECK: He was just staying positive. He had like no doubt in me. So he knew I was going to get out of it. And I was fortunate enough to get two strikeouts. And I trust him pitch calling. I put all my faith into him. He calls a great game. Sometimes it goes unnoticed, but I trust him fully, and he helped me out there and made the right pitch calls. Q. Michael, why was JC Cloney so hard to square up? What was he doing that was so effective out there? MICHAEL PAEZ: Adding and subtracting, throwing three pitches for strikes. You want to sit on a fastball, and he throws you a cutter. And you sit on the offspeed, and he throws a fastball. He just threw a great game, like Coach said. It's hard to hit when you have a guy that's going to add and subtract, throw three pitches for strikes and keep you off balance all game. And he didn't really dial down until like seventh, eighth, and ninth and he still was throwing pretty much the same he was throwing the first inning. And, again, hats off to him. He threw a great game and adding, subtracting, it's going to win you some games. Q. Michael, did you think that ball was gone when you hit it, and what was the mood in the dugout in that ninth inning as you were trying to come back? MICHAEL PAEZ: I thought I got enough of it. But knowing this field, you can't predict what's going to happen. And the mood was -- like I said, we're never out of the fight. We stick to the process. We believed. Marks led off the inning with a hit, and great bunt by Zack. We were all in it. We had no doubt we were going to come back. And unfortunately C.O. hit a one-hop shot to second base, he can't do anything about it. Great two-out hitting. And we never thought in our heads that we weren't going to win this game. Q. Zack, you've minimized damage there in these two games you got in. How did you stay calm in those moments pitching in the biggest game of your life? ZACK HOPECK: I knew my defense. Paez was talking to me throughout the game, keeping me calm. No doubt I just stayed within my best. And I have a good defense. They're going to play behind me. I know I got a couple of strikeouts in those jams. That really helped. Everybody knows I'm not a strikeout pitcher, but it just so happened to be today I got a few key ones at the right time. Q. Zack, you hadn't started since the Regionals. When did you find out you were starting today, and what was the thrill for you to be on this stage and pitching in this moment? ZACK HOPECK: I found out the other night right after the game Coach Thomas came up to me and said: It's your turn. I was thrilled. I was excited. I was just ready to come out here and have fun. You get to play on a stage like this, it's just second to none. It's awesome. It's unbelievable. I just wanted to go out tonight, have fun with my teammates, and I did. I had fun. Obviously the kid pitched really well, but I had fun. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. Gary, in your scouting, what did you make of Ramer, their lead-off hitter at Arizona? COACH GILMORE: He's a little bit like Anthony Marks. He's that guy that he's a pain in your side, you know? Have a ton of holes, he's going to put the barrel on the ball. I haven't seen where the pitch was, but Zack hadn't been out there in a while, and it may have been right down the middle, whatever. The kid hit the ball. You tip your hat to him. That kid, he's one of the kids on their team that as the opposing coach you go: Man, I'd like to have that kid. He's a good-looking player. Q. Does the path you took to get here and the big wins you had to have fighting off elimination, does that make this team more prepared for a game like tomorrow night? COACH GILMORE: We know where we're at. If we lose, it's over, obviously. But, I mean, at this point we just want to play really aggressively and really hard and compete and play with a lot of confidence. And I think Cloney, I honestly think he just kind of took a little bit of that away from us tonight. He just pitched so well. It's three up, three down, three up, three down. And as much as Zack did a great job for us, for about four innings we were out there for a while on defense and the rhythm of the game and things like that, it started eluding us. Once we started getting them out three up and three down, we -- those last three innings we took a little bit better swings at them and the rhythm of the game came to us a little bit more. We have to come back tomorrow. That's -- if they have another guy that throws his pitch everywhere he wants to, it's going to be tough scoring. I'm hoping that our guys can answer on the pitcher's mound, and hopefully we'll get a few more balls to put swings on. Q. As tough of an offensive night as it was, you still got the tying run to the plate and the guy you probably wanted to the plate in Owings. Talk about having that chance in the ninth inning to maybe still pull this game out. COACH GILMORE: Absolutely. We had him and G.K. right behind him. I was just hoping that somehow a miracle could happen. And he got down in the count in a hurry and ended up hooking that breaking ball. Again, hits that ball a quarter inch lower or whatever, that ball's a hit or possibly a ball over the guy's head in right. It just is what it is. But we're in position. The kids never quit. I think they were more frustrated than anything, just trying to figure out how to solve this guy and get some runners on base. He wasn't walking anyone, and there early we just didn't get anybody on. It was very frustrating for us. I'm just glad the kids didn't quit and we had a shot there at the end. Q. You mentioned the rhythm of the game. That one tough stretch there after the pitching change is kind of when it felt like the rhythm went away. Is that how you felt as well? COACH GILMORE: Yeah, Cole hadn't been out there in a while, and if you go back and look, if we -- and, again, I've got a second baseman who's not played there in four years, and those two guys haven't played together, to me they made a huge mistake tagging at first running to second on that play. If Mikey doesn't cut that ball, we tag that guy out and the run doesn't score. That was a frustrating moment for us. Then we turn around immediately and give up a hit to the guy that had tagged and gone to second. It could have been potentially a lot different if we just had made one simple play right there. And it gets real loud out there when someone hits the ball and the play goes on, it's difficult for them to communicate. And we were just a split second late in that decision-making process, and it caught us. Q. Facing elimination, do you bring back Beckwith tomorrow? COACH GILMORE: Absolutely not. No shot. Q. Where do you go? COACH GILMORE: They kind of didn't tell us today until game time. So they'll get the same thing from me tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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