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COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 21, 2017

Omaha, Nebraska

LSU - 7, Florida State - 4

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Florida State.

Coach, an opening statement.

COACH MARTIN: Oh, Jared was just rough on us. He pitched a beautiful ballgame. And we did everything we could to get him out of the ballgame, and he kept performing. And you tip your hat to him. He's a very good competitor.

And I can see why he set the records that he's set in the SEC, from innings pitched to appearances -- well, innings pitched for sure.

I don't know when I've ever been prouder of a baseball team. They did their job in the classroom. They did their job on the field. We had tremendous leadership. Guys wanted the top of the mountain very bad, but there's only one team that's going to leave here happy.

But I cannot tell you that I'm the least bit unhappy with this ballclub. This was a special, special team to do what they did. Very, very proud of them.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. The last I guess month, however long it's been, since that Louisville series, the run this team has gone on to get here, when you look back at that run, you know, the way this team came together, what sticks out most to you guys?
DYLAN BUSBY: They're just family. I mean, everybody came together, and we knew we wanted -- first it started, my biggest goal was to get 40 wins. And (indiscernible) he deserved it. That was a hard job to get 40 wins, and then from there it was to win the Regional and win the Super Regional and then win the World Series. It sucks to come up short.

ANDREW KARP: I think like Dylan said, it's basically family, everybody believed who we were and tough breaks early in the season, then everything came together. We knew we were never out of a game. We knew we always had the upper hand. At the end of the day we were a better ballclub, more prepared from a coaching standpoint, and something clicked and we just started believing in one another. And everyone on the team is a brother, and we started playing like it.

QUINCY NIEPORTE: I mean, they said it. Obviously we had our struggles the beginning of the year. We came out with unbelievable respect and rankings and we struggled early. And halfway through the year I think the team really had to look at themselves in the mirror and turn things around.

It took not only the older guys on the team, not the leaders, but it took the young guys, the guys that didn't even play, for everybody to step up, and the way we fought throughout every series and regionals and supers and tonight, it showed that everyone cared for each other, like these guys said. And we played with love and compassion for one another, and it showed.

To get back to Omaha, obviously we didn't have an easy road. A lot of people counted us out halfway through the year, and we proved a lot of people wrong and showed why we're Florida State and we kept the tradition going.

Q. Quincy, two questions. Number one, on your sac fly, did you think it was gone? Did you think it had a chance? And the second question, I know it didn't end the way you wanted to, but what was that like, your final at-bat to hit one like that in this venue?
QUINCY NIEPORTE: I think the first question, I knew I didn't get it very well. I knew there was a lot of wind up there, and a lot of times throughout the day it was kind of swirling.

But the majority of the day was helping carry it out to left. And I thought I was able maybe to get just enough of it and I didn't. I still was able to get a run in and knew that every run counts, that we're going to fight.

I thought there was a chance. Personally I didn't think I got it well enough, and obviously I didn't.

And the second question, I mean, individually it's nice to go out on top like that. But, I mean, we're all still hurting a little bit right now just because we really believed that this was the team and we're kind of shocked that someone was able to knock us out just because of how much fight we've shown.

It's nice to end a career like this, but, I mean, it's been special.

Q. Andrew, what's the mindset when you come out against a team like that already down 5-0. I assume it's just to keep putting up zeros and what was working for you out there?
ANDREW KARP: I think just like you said keep putting up zeros. We have in my opinion the best offense in the country. And I have to pitch against Malfall (phonetic) against the spring, and it's not very fun, and those guys battling. The mindset is to keep throwing up as many zeros as you can and let the guys chip away and do their work, which they did. Unfortunately it wasn't enough tonight.

In terms of what was working, Coach Bell has preached it all year, and every single one of our pitchers believes it, and that's jut three pitches for strikes. At the end of the day, if you can do that, you have a chance to be successful. That's just fastball command. The slider was working well today and the changeup was working well today. I tip my hat to their hitters. They fought off a lot of really good pitches and they just battled the whole entire way.

Q. Quincy, obviously you had some success tonight against PochÃ©. What was he doing out there that was so effective against you guys, and how did you approach it?
QUINCY NIEPORTE: Karp kind of just touched on it, he was able to throw all of his pitches with command. He was to locate and mix things up hit, which kept a lot of us off balance. That's all you need as a pitcher. And he had confidence as the game went on. And for every one run he gave up or zero he put up, he only gained more confidence.

I think he just showed why he's a dominant pitcher in this league right now. And he just had that it factor tonight. Our whole lineup, Karp said it, there's not a better lineup in the country than we are, and he was able to go out there and do his thing.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. I know you guys said yesterday it might be Karp or Sands, but was it always going to be Sands, and when did you realize in that second inning that it just wasn't his night?
COACH MARTIN: Well, to answer your first question, yes, we were going to give it to the guy that had been our Friday night guy the majority of the year.

He threw a pitch, threw a slider that was not a good pitch in about -- with probably ten pitches left, as it worked out. And that's when we said we gotta get Karp ready. So we got Karp ready as quickly as we could.

Things like that happen. I mean, he pitched as hard as he could. And he'll learn from it, because when you face a good ballclub like LSU, you can't leave pitches where they were left. But that's something that happens every single night in the Big Leagues. The best ones leave the ball where they don't want to, and it gets it out of the ballpark. And that's what exactly happened to us tonight.

Q. You just referenced a slider. Was that the one that was hit out of the ballpark?
COACH MARTIN: One slider was hit hard in the gap, or it was either back up the middle but it drove in a run, and, yes, there was another slider, I believe it was Slaughter, hit out of the ballpark.

Q. I know you're going to miss this group of veteran guys who are leaving, of course, and kind of a two-part question. First part, when you look at Walls and Busby and some of these guys, can you kind of reflect upon their careers? And secondly, you've got some pretty good young players coming back next year. How are you feeling about the future?
COACH MARTIN: I think that both of those guys have a great chance of playing in the Big Leagues. They both have the intangibles, the it factor. I could go on and on. You saw some pretty good fielding tonight by both of them.

Taylor is just a special guy. He just loves to compete. There's a couple of things I want to add to what you're saying, is at no time that those guys that were drafted act like, well, it doesn't matter what goes on now, I'm going into pro ball, let these college guys -- no. They were all in, as they say today. All of them. Every single young man that we had -- I think we had nine drafted. And they were just beautiful the way they played the entire postseason and after they were drafted. Another thing we could have folded it up. We had a tough ninth inning in which they scored two runs, and it hurt.

But what did we do? That wasn't me. That was those fighters. That's why I say that I don't think I've ever had a more competitive team than we just saw. They would -- they'd play 27 outs every time they went out there. Y'all know we were one strike away in the Super Regional. And I was sitting there saying it's going to happen. It's going to happen. And unfortunately it didn't.

Q. You referenced before the tournament how you have savored the experience or have learned to savor the experience instead of chasing the whale, so to speak. How did that play out over these three games and your time here and does it feel any different leaving this time than others as a result of that?
COACH MARTIN: Yeah, it feels like we gave it everything we had and it wasn't meant to be. And when you can walk out of this great city and the people that are here supporting this great tournament, that's all you can ask of yourself. We gave it our best shot. We never felt sorry for ourselves. We kept battling.

Like I said, there will be seven disappointed coaches to leave here. Am I disappointed? Well, if I'm not, I'm not much of a competitor. I mean, I'm going to play you guys on the golf course, we're going to compete. You ain't getting no strokes either. But when it's over we both gave our best shot. That's all you ask. And our guys did just that.

I know I need to probably get out of here so this old man to my left can go home. But I want to just tell you all how much I appreciate what you all do to this awesome tournament. This awesome experience for these young men. They'll never forget it. Just like I never forgot what happened to me a few years ago when I played -- when I coached first base.

But is Tom in here? Tom's not here from the World Herald. I wanted to say what a great piece that was about moving the Hall of Fame here. What a perfect spot for it. But I ain't got 2 million of the 10 that they're going to need to get it started.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 21, 2017

Mike Martin

Andrew Karp

Quincy Nieporte

Dylan Busby