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COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 19, 2017

Omaha, Nebraska

Florida State - 6, Cal State Fullerton - 4

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Cal State Fullerton. Rick, an overview.

COACH VANDERHOOK: We didn't throw strikes again. We didn't do it for the last couple of days. A lot of pitches. We definitely got to know the field here at TD Ameritrade because the last two games I think these guys stood out in every inch of their position for longer than anybody in the history of the two games that we played. Because it was a nice, beautiful day, but it was warm. And they're ready to go back to California with their suntan, that's for sure.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the players.

Q. Timmy, obviously the results weren't what you wanted. But looking at the performance that you had in these two games, the big home runs, the big defensive plays, what does it mean to finish out your Fullerton career the way you did in this World Series?
TIMMY RICHARDS: Yeah, it's a tough team loss. But making a decision to come back for my senior year, something I'll never regret. I'm always going to be proud to have won this jersey and play for Cal State Fullerton, be a Titan. The success I had this weekend, it's just trying to do the best for my team. And a lot of that success doesn't come without Pers and the guys in front of me getting on base and the guys at the bottom of the lineup turning it over. I can't say enough how proud I am to wear this jersey.

Q. Dillon, the ball that you hit in the sixth inning for I think it was a double, knocked in a run, it was a really close play, whether the centerfielder was going to catch that. Did you see it go down? Were you able to track that ball, and did you know whether it was going to be down or not?
DILLON PERSINGER: I know I hit it well. I really wasn't paying attention whether he was going to dive for it or not. I was going to run hard; if he misses it, he misses it. If it went further, I would have got a triple. I was running hard no matter what. You don't know -- a lot can happen in this game. And you just gotta play 110 percent, no matter what.

Q. You guys, your double and Richard's home run was within a matter of like three pitches. And then obviously Florida State came back in the top half of the next inning. Can you describe that range of emotion from going -- taking the lead back quickly to losing it that quickly?
DILLON PERSINGER: It's tough, obviously. You get three runs. You get up. I think we were up by one. Up by one or two? One. It's tough. We wanted a shut-down inning to get the momentum on our side. And I think a double or a walk -- walk and a double. And put us in a pressure situation.

So it was tough right off the bat. And then we had a walk to get the bases loaded. It was a walk and bases loaded. A pressure situation. We'd like to have the momentum on our side, but it didn't work out.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Questions for Coach.

Q. Rick, a few days ago you talked about wanting this team to play a little looser here in Omaha. What did you see from your pitching here? Did you feel they were pressing or more so FSU than Oregon State's at-bats, what do you think?
COACH VANDERHOOK: Oregon State at-bats, I thought they had a super good game plan against Colton. I mean, they grinded him. He faced a lot of good teams. You have to be extremely difficult to have discipline like they had. And they did it.

And I thought Florida State was similar today. If I'm not mistaken, and I'm pretty sure I'm not, John didn't throw one off-speed first strike.

He asked the question about momentum. We tied it up 1-1. Hitting into a double play, throw a 1-0 hanging changeup double, and it's like, oh, man, here it goes again. And they were loose.

But when you set under pressure, and we were under pressure all the time, we scored -- we didn't hit. At one point we had hit into as many double plays as hits we had in the tournament so far, which was difficult, because we didn't keep things going. Everything we did was three-run homer, two-run homer.

They're great. And I'll take two hits, five runs, I'll take that a lot. But you can't live and die by that forever. And we had done that a few times coming in.

And it caught up. It caught up with us.

Q. You told me I guess it was two years ago when you guys were here last that you guys weren't -- I guess like you were saying you weren't physical enough to handle playing against -- you had Vanderbilt and SEC and LSU, SEC, losing to those teams. Do you think that changed now, just the state of the program and the players you brought here this week?
COACH VANDERHOOK: We had some homers. We had some homers. Timmy hit a couple. Doesn't matter who hit them. The park is playing way different than it played before.

This looks like an unusual year to me. I've only been here twice. But we have some physicalness. Oregon State does too, but they also have three guys that start their lineup at 5'5", 5'6", 5'7'' that bat one, two, three, and not one of them is here.

But it's about building a lineup. I thought the bottom of our order at times did a good job rolling over to Scott Hurst. I don't think he had the best weekend. I think we're physical enough. I think in this park if you can hit gaps and close gaps, off you've got a chance to be good enough to be physical. Because who knows what it will do the next time. Could blow straight in.

So we don't know what the weather in Omaha is going to be like.

Q. Rick, to me it was just talking about what it meant to him coming back for his senior year and wearing the Fullerton uniform. What did it mean to this team and you as well the leadership and what he's brought to Titan's baseball?
COACH VANDERHOOK: He's done a great job. He's graduated with a geology degree. So he likes rocks. But he's done everything.

I mean, he's played a bunch of positions this year for us. He has played the whole year or half the year with a sports hernia. So when he's not running to first base that last at-bat, it's not that he's not pouting, that means he's had a sports hernia for half the season and chose that he's going to play. As long it wasn't going to hurt him anymore and he had to do stuff easily, but to have a guy do that, and all the guys know it, that he grinds it out every day and does that in a day-to-day manner, that's just going to teach somebody else what they need to know in the years to come.

Q. You brought in Workman there and had him intentionally walk that guy. Did you feel that kind of kept him from getting zoned in a little bit?
COACH VANDERHOOK: I said it to Hawk, Jack's done pretty good. Jack doesn't have a lot of experience, and I was afraid that Jack would intentionally walk and balk. And it was, dude, I can't do it. I knew Workman could do it. So I went with that.

I called the 3-2 curveball. I called it. He didn't mind me calling it because he probably had it on his mind. I said go ahead, throw a 3-2 hammer. Because if he throws it for a strike, strike three, and Conine is in the game, makes the game a little different. We don't walk the next guy and the next guy. And we'll learn. I mean, you get mistakes and learn.

It's like, as I was going to say if you would have asked me, I know I'm 0-4 I, knew how difficult it was to get here. But it's even more difficult to get here and win. I mean, that goes with it. Teams that come get experience. I don't know who wrote something, I didn't know we'd lost as many games in a row here as we've lost. It's been a lot, from what I understand. How many, Aaron? You know. Nine in a row.

Well, I can say at least we're here to lose nine in a row.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

Fastscripts by ASAP Sports

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 19, 2017

Rick Vanderhook

Dillon Persinger

Timmy Richards