|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 17, 2017Mike MartinTyler HotlonDylan BusbyOmaha, Nebraska LSU - 5, Florida State - 4 COACH MARTIN: . THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Florida State head Coach Mike Martin and student-athletes Dylan Busby and Tyler Holton. COACH MARTIN: Well, just y'all saw what I did. A heck of a baseball game. It was obviously one that you've got to tip your hat to LSU. They took advantage of every opportunity that they had and took the game to us. Sometimes you just have to admit the fact that the other club did a very, very good job. So obviously we're disappointed, but there's one thing that we all in this room know: We're not eliminated. So we will play again Monday, and hopefully play a little better. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Tyler, how did you kind of feel out there tonight? Seemed like you really kind of had your stuff going there earlier but was able to keep their offense off balance for much of the night? TYLER HOLTON: I'm going to be the first one to tell you I didn't have my best game. And they were doing a really good job of taking advantage of mistake pitches. I was leaving a lot of stuff up and couldn't really get in the rhythm. But there's one inning, I don't know exactly what inning it was, I was feeling pretty good with my downward angle and whatnot. And maybe my only three up, three down inning was what it felt like. But a really good offensive team. They took advantage of mistake pitches. And just tough to win games like that. But, I mean... Q. Dylan, can you take us through the play in the eighth inning where you got the ball and threw home, from your vantage point, what did you see? What happened? DYLAN BUSBY: The ball came in, just making the play, instincts. Tito is playing at home and I picked up the ball and threw it home. That's what we were doing. Right now just picked it up threw it at home. Hopefully we had a play; didn't know if the catcher or pitcher was there, but threw it at home where it's been forever and he was safe. Q. Dylan, your team has been getting things done with, patience and power this year, and that's kind of how you got to Lange a little bit especially in the first inning. Was that the game plan against him today, especially? DYLAN BUSBY: Game plan, definitely. Just make him throw strikes. And we did a good job of that early. And pitched well. I mean, made some good pitches. I mean, he pitched well. We've got to give credit to him. But I think we had good at-bats until probably later in the game we started to get a little more anxious and degraded from our approach. But other than that, I think we did exactly what we were looking to do. Q. Dylan, following up on that, what happened at the end, your defense gets a lot of attention, but what they did defensively after you guys got the runs, I think three double plays in three innings kept Lange in the game. How demoralizing was it when you couldn't get something done in those three spots? DYLAN BUSBY: It was tough. But it's baseball. A couple of those balls were hit pretty hard. Right now you've got to give them credit to them, play good defense. And like I said, we hit the ball hard and they played plays. Can't do nothing about it. Just gotta keep hitting it hard. Q. Tyler, I assume you've never been involved in a play where kid scores from first on a strikeout. Just what happened on that play? You don't even maybe think to cover home in a play like that? TYLER HOLTON: I probably should have, because I had a feeling that he was stealing. I didn't see him go whenever I was pitching. But, yeah, I mean, that's really a tough play or pitch for Cal to block. I'm not blaming it on him at all. I don't even know how far I threw it. Probably 50 feet. But it's a tough play. And I was just having to get the force out at 1. And as soon as he picked it up and he bobbled it, I kind of heard the crowd roar, and I was like: Where is the runner? By that time he was already three steps from home plate. But I don't know, if I'm covering home plate, we might have a play. I don't know. But it's just one of those freak plays I've never seen in baseball, honestly. But that's what happened today. Kind of scratched tonight. Q. Dylan, coming back to you, how different was Hess in the 9th compared to what you saw from Lange and Poché in your previous at-bats? DYLAN BUSBY: I think settled more on getty-up fastball, kind of throws you a bit. Managed his pitches, I thought commanded really well I think. We did a really good job against him. The last at-bat gave a little bit away. But his job, he pitched well. Q. Dylan, the home run, describe the home run of the first at-bat, I think it was the first pitch, wasn't it? DYLAN BUSBY: I'm pretty sure second pitch, yep. Slider away, took it. Just trying to calm it down. Slow the game down. I knew it was going to be a big stage. That first at-bat is going to be a tough one. I was telling everyone biggest crowd we've ever played in front of. But just now did really good slowing the game down, being short and quick, and it still happened that it went out to centerfield. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Coach, it's already been talked about here, but you probably haven't -- there's probably nothing you haven't seen in all your time in baseball, but the guy scoring from first on strike three, couldn't have seen that too many times. Describe what that play was like and just knowing that without two very bizarre plays you probably win this game? COACH MARTIN: Well, I don't know if I can say anything in that regard, because this game is so unpredictable. But I must admit I don't think I can recall a man scoring from first base on strike three. Even when we used to play a long time ago in Little League, the backstop was a long way, way away. When I grew up, and I've seen some things crazy, but I never saw a guy score from first base on a strikeout. Tip your hat to them. The guy never stopped. And you just have to know as a coach that it's hard to cover that in practice. What are we going to work on? Covering home when we strike a guy out with two outs. (Laughter). Q. When you lose a game like that where you led the whole game, really, then a three-error debacle with the play there in the 8th inning, how does this team bounce back from something like this? Are you confident that they can and will? COACH MARTIN: Anything can happen in this great sport. Tonight, we were beaten by a club that deserved to win. They did the things they needed to do and they came out with a win. We made mistakes. We pay for them. We know it's going to be a tough uphill battle. But I'll tell you, and I mean this, I'll take this bunch and go to battle. We know it's going to be, like I said, an uphill battle. It's going to be tough. Trust me. That's a good ballclub we just played. And there are two others in our bracket. And you can look at a number of things that have to happen in order for us to get to the final two. And it's challenging, to say the least. Q. Your team's backs have been against the wall in the last entire half of the season. Going into the final regular season weekend, you didn't know if you were going to be in the field, rattle off six straight wins, lose the first game of the Regional, come back and win the Regional, go down 4-0 in the first game of the Super in the first two innings. How confident are you that this team can make their way out of the losers bracket with the way they played this year with their backs against the wall? COACH MARTIN: I'm confident that we're going to play hard. I'm confident that we're going to go out and represent Florida State University in a way that people will say: Win or lose, that ballclub is really competitive. That ballclub will battle you for 27 outs. They will not feel sorry for themselves. They won't go pointing fingers. They will battle. That's -- it's an awful lot of athletes in this room. That's what life is about, man. Whether you miss out on a sale or whether things don't go right for you, you battle. You line up every day and you battle, whether it's here, which is what many of us do on a daily basis. We battle with ourselves. We have to understand that as a leader our young men are going to play hard. I want to use the word this is fun, but then you all would know I'm really lying. (laughter). But it's challenging. And everybody in here likes a challenge. Unless it's trying to get a lawn mower cranked up sometimes. (Laughter). Q. Just how much pressure does LSU put on to you on the base paths, and how can you deal with that knowing they have the speed and the base running acumen to do that to teams? COACH MARTIN: Yeah, they did put a lot of pressure on us on the bases. I think they had a couple of stolen bases. Or was it more than that? Anyway, you all look on your dadgum score sheet. I can't find it. (Laughter). THE MODERATOR: They had two. COACH MARTIN: That's what I said. (Laughter) no, these guys, they're baseball players. Those guys, LSU are baseball players. Florida State has baseball players. They did a good job. They had those two guys with 18 stolen bases, and I think both of them got an SB. And another -- the catcher tried to go to second on a dirt ball read. Cal made a very good play. Our guy tried to go to second on a dirt ball, read and Papierski was heads up and threw the guy out. It was smart on our part and what ability he showed that is really difficult. In fact, we had an attempted stolen base in the first or second inning in which Papi back-handed the ball, short hopped it and made a great throw to second. Beautiful baseball team. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|