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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 28, 2016Gary GilmoreBobby HolmesAnthony MarksMike MorrisonConnor OwingsOmaha, Nebraska Coastal Carolina - 5, Arizona - 4 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with a comment from Coach Gilmore. COACH GILMORE: What an incredible baseball game. Man alive. There was a whole lot of emotion going on out there. And it's really hard to describe not having ever been in that particular situation in my life. I mean, it was kind of nerve-racking at times, but everybody kept -- I think our guys kept breathing pretty good and we got through it. Real proud of all these guys. Anthony Marks was incredible offensively for us with so many big hits. And Mike Morrison, what can I say about him? These guys were laughing, two of them are from the same high school, in the same town, and another kid is from Pittsburgh. All three of these guys were walk-ons in this program. And look at what they've achieved at this point in time. That's some pretty incredible things when you think about that in the world of scholarships and baseball players. These three guys here came into our program on their own. And so I can't be more proud of anybody that I've ever coached than three these guys. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Mike, how did you kind of feel stuff-wise out there and when Coach went to take you out, you had a hug and exchanged some words? What did you say there? MIKE MORRISON: First off, I came out and I got in a little trouble early. They had my pitches at first base. Coach did a heck of a job. He come said a little hi, and he had them over there, and he was picking them all day. I had a chess match all day. It's something as a reliever you don't really have to do much. And that's something I had to make adjustment on the fly. And we settled in a little bit, and I tried to conservative a little bit at the beginning, so my stuff wasn't as sharp as it was late in the game. When Coach Thomas came out and got me, I put my heart and soul into this program for four years, and to end it like that, that was special. That standing ovation was probably the coolest thing that's ever going to happen in my entire life. ANTHONY MARKS: Gave you the chills. MIKE MORRISON: Goodness, it was special. Will definitely be the pinnacle of my career, I would say. Q. Anthony and Connor, after the shutout last night, how did you guys regroup from that? What was your mindset after that and coming in today? ANTHONY MARKS: Yesterday their pitcher did a great job, tipped their cap, and today they did the same thing. Came out, pitched well, moved the ball both sides of the plate. And we came out. I mean, I felt like we came out swinging a good couple of quality at-bats. Not enough. Not enough. And then once we started locking in a little bit more, we just started clicking offensively, and I said it a couple -- like first, second game of the tournament, we just were missing that clutch hit here and there, and then once we got it by Dave Parrett a couple of games ago, our offense really took off. And then we got a couple clutch hits tonight, and then next thing you know, the offense takes off. Really just look for that one clutch hit to get everybody going and locked in just that hair more for sure. CONNOR OWINGS: Just kind of what Mark said, they really pitched us tough last night. That kid was incredible. Both sides of the plate with all three pitches. And, I mean, we hit the ball hard, a couple of times last night and a couple times tonight, and nothing falls. And a little scribbler here gets us going. So I think, like Mark said, that clutch hit just got us going. And once you get that one hit, everybody's like relax and focus and do what we do. Q. Connor, you hadn't had a ton of success at the plate coming into that eighth inning at-bat. What was your approach coming up to that with guys on base? CONNOR OWINGS: I mean, I always had the confidence in myself. I had some couple good swings throughout the tournament, been hitting some balls hard, just nothing really going my way. Baseball is a crazy game. I hit a couple of balls on the barrel and get out three times, and pitcher makes a great pitch up and in top of the zone, I fist myself, and ends up putting us ahead in the national championship. Q. Bobby, bases loaded there late in the game, kind of like Baton Rouge all over again for you. What is it about you that gives you the ability to get yourself out of those jams when you get into them? BOBBY HOLMES: Like you said, you followed me, I'm no stranger to adversity. I'm almost more comfortable in those situations than the 3-1 lead. But the eighth inning, I don't think I took a breath the whole time. And I had to regroup in the dugout and tell myself I was going to be all right. Ninth inning, really made sure that I was breathing well and breathing from the ribs, using my whole body, not just trying to arm dominate things. And I think the pitchness, sharpness, everything was back to normal in the ninth. I don't know what it is. I guess some people are made for the bullpen. I guess I am one of those guys. Q. Connor, just talk about getting the opportunity to play for the national championship tomorrow night? CONNOR OWINGS: It's just funny to hear you say that (laughter). Me and Mike have been joking all week that we've been winning national championships for NCAA football for years. So it's funny to be competing for one. And it's going to be a very exciting opportunity, very -- two very good teams that have been playing well down the stretch. And we're very excited for that opportunity. You can't write it better than it is right now. Q. Mike, after the game, you and Anthony shared a little hug and moment in the dugout. What are your feelings, Mike, about him and kind of the spark that he provided for your offense tonight, not just tonight, but all season? MIKE MORRISON: I'll tell you what, the first time I ever saw Anthony Marks, I think he was wearing a basketball jersey hitting off the tee in our facility. I didn't know what the heck to think about the jersey. I've grown four years to love him like my brother. We do schoolwork together. The stuff he does in the classroom, he's really picked it up. I think he was one of our highest GPA guys this semester. And the growing up he's done over the four years is unbelievable. For him, if you guys knew him to see where he is at today, four years ago, when he walked in this place, he's very, very special and he's going to dominate in whatever he does in his life. ANTHONY MARKS: To echo that from where I came from and before I got here, it's everything. This man sitting to my left took me under his wing. I mean, he showed me the ropes of how to go about life the right way. Like I said, I was in a basketball shirt -- might have been a wife-beater -- going to practice. Just little things that you don't really always do. And Morrison showed me so much love. He took me in, treated me like his kid almost. Really just looked after me. And you can't say enough about him. I love him so much, it's unbelievable. And to be up here and competing for the national championship tomorrow, I mean, it puts the icing on the cake. It's unbelievable to think where we came four years ago that we were sitting in a locker room four years ago: Are we going to win a big-style championship one time? Coach, can we do that? And to see where we're at now is unbelievable. STUDENT-ATHLETE: Heck, you weren't even on the roster. ANTHONY MARKS: I saw Remillard, I was like, How you doing? What's your name? He was like, I'm Zach. I'm trying to start at third. I was like, You're trying to start? I'm just trying to make the team. You're trying to start your freshman year? What? STUDENT-ATHLETE: Keep me around. ANTHONY MARKS: I was trying to steal a couple of bags. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Now that the comedians are out, when you look at Mike's performance tonight, first of all, what did you kind of think of him from just a sheer stuff standpoint? As he walks off the mound there, what's going through your head? This has to be a dream for you. You kind of mentioned a couple of days ago. COACH GILMORE: Absolutely. You know, to see where that young man came from to where he is today and as good as a pitcher as he has been, in all honesty, his makeup and what he's meant inside that locker room, out in the bullpen, I mean, the numbers of young men he's taken under his wing -- I mean, I tease him all the time that whenever he finds the woman of his life and gets married, he's going to be a better wife than she is. Because he does the laundry. He cooks. I mean, he's unbelievable. And he takes guys like Anthony Marks, honestly, under his wing, to make sure that Anthony passes school, that he knows when to be at home at night and things like that. I mean, it's unbelievable. Without him, I can tell you right now, this team as good as it is inside that locker room. Without him, he's the biggest part of that, absolutely. Q. We talked with Bobby a little bit about the trouble he ran into in the eighth inning. I know you had another pitcher up in the bullpen, but you stuck with him in the ninth. Can you tell us a little bit about why you decided to do that? COACH GILMORE: Because the guy that was down there stretching was Beckwith, and, I mean, I didn't want to do that. Coach Tom, we kept talking about it every single pitch, and I'm going, I don't want to do it. He's going, I don't want to do it either. What are we going to do? Honestly, we don't have anybody, we didn't have anybody else that has been in a game in forever that you could put in that situation, just Thomas. So I said, Somehow we've got to rock Bobby out. The last thing I want to do is do something to not allow Beckwith to have a day's rest or whatever because I knew if I had to use him tonight, I completely eliminate him from tomorrow. And at most he might have gone 10 or 15 pitches, and it just wasn't worth it. He stretched and stretched. And I knew Drew called down there two or three times to make sure that basically unless the season was going to be completely over, would he come in and face one guy or whatever. But I'll be honest with you, I don't think I would have let it happen. We went into this knowing that the two guys that threw tonight, they had to get it done for us. And they did. And so we scored just enough runs and hung on just long enough to get a win out of it. And now we'll have to come back tomorrow and see if we can do it again. Q. Can you just talk a little bit about the resilience your team has shown throughout the playoffs? I mean, the whole Raleigh Regional when you're two runs down and the middle of the rally you have the rain delay. And you come back here, I think you've won three elimination games here -- four elimination games, and you go down early to Arizona, their formula is get ahead early and just ride it out. You guys battled through adversity the whole night and pulled out another win. COACH GILMORE: It wasn't a whole lot of pretty at-bats at times. Ginkel pretty much handled us pretty well the majority of the time. We got fortunate there towards the end of the game in that eighth inning and we were able to do some things. But I thought he was good. We were caught in between, like we were late on the fastball, early on their front foot on the breaking ball, and just some reason just weren't picking up the stuff that he did. But the kids just -- I mean, we held on to that lead, and then we surrendered it to a tie game there, 2-2, and it was frustrating trying to figure out what to do. And then we were fortunate to score those runs. But the resiliency of this team, it just comes from the combination of all the individuals that are doing stuff. It's not one guy. As much as Mike is on one end, Anthony Marks is that spark-plug guy on the other end. Heck, he got three huge hits for us today. I mean, he was on the base all the time. And Mikey Paez, that poor kid, he hammers that ball yesterday that I don't know how the park holds it, and then he hammered the ball to the left today. I mean, I don't know, right into wind or what it was, but I thought that ball was gone, too. I thought he hit the ball well. And G.K. Young, that was a big hit there with the infield drawn in there in the eighth inning and stuff. It's just been a combination of guys -- I don't know, they just keep believing that this is their destiny. Q. Coach, in less than 24 hours you'll play a win-or-take-all game for the national championship. What in your mind does it look like across the time between here and there? What do you say, what do you do to get this team ready for the biggest game of their life? COACH GILMORE: Try to make it not be that, to be honest with you. To try to keep that part. I already told them, I'm going to be the first one off the bus. I'm going to go to the hotel and tell parents and all these crazy people staying at our place that they're going to bed at a certain time and they're not going to watch replays of themselves and all that mess, because it is a big game. But, again, if you make it bigger than life -- we've not done that through this entire thing. It's just I keep telling them every time we meet: It's just another baseball game. It's just a baseball game. We have to play and execute. If we make it bigger than life -- I think Bobby got for the first time all year, or at least here in the last probably two months, I thought he got caught up there in the eighth inning, just he was out of sync, he wasn't taking any breaths, just slinging the ball all over the place. Thank goodness we got out of that. The bottom line is, honestly, if we can relax like we normally do and just make it be fun, I mean, they're going to have to throw it up there, and so are we. And we just have to see what happens. I don't want to -- it's kind of like you see how people play in the Super Bowl and they make it so bigger than life and you see people do dumb things and play out of character. I just want us to play in character. If we can do that, we'll be fine. Arizona is a great team. So it will be a really good baseball game. I truly believe that. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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