	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 27, 2018

Omaha, Nebraska

Oregon State - 5, Arkansas - 3

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn, student-athletes Luke Bonfield, Carson Shaddy, and Grant Koch. Dave, give us an overview.

COACH VAN HORN: Well, I thought that it was a pretty good ballgame, obviously, for many innings there. And I felt like Murphy got off to a slow start, hitting a lot of balls hard, but he settled in. We wanted him to pitch up in the zone a little bit to a couple of guys. Got some fly balls, deep fly balls, that's what we were looking for a little bit.

He gave us four-plus innings. And then Kole Ramage came in and did a tremendous job getting us out of the bases-loaded jam, gave up one run. We lived on the edge a lot tonight obviously. Finally got us there with two outs. It was tough a play down the right field line, kind of that no-man's-land ball, stand's coming up, got a second shot and fouled off a couple of pitches and tried to get it inside and the ball ran back out over the plate. Really nice piece of hitting. And they tied it up obviously. And the big two-run homer.

But it was a tough loss. What do you do? You got a chance to play for a national championship going down the last day. Just gotta fight through it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Carson, the foul ball play, can you talk us through what you saw on that and y'all's reaction to what you have to face now?
CARSON SHADDY: You know, it's a tough play. I was running, and didn't hear anybody call it. So I just kept running trying to make the play and overran it. It's a tough break. Just have to get back out tomorrow and we're really confident in Isaiah and we're ready to go.

Q. Such a hard-fought series, nip and tuck the whole way, one game left to go. How do you shake that off and go into Game 3?
CARSON SHADDY: Yeah, just come out and play the game that we've been playing. We still haven't put together our best day with the bats. And I think that's coming.

We're very confident in Isaiah and his abilities and we're really confident as a team, and I think it's going to be a good day for us tomorrow.

GRANT KOCH: Yeah, I think just like he said, we're all ready to play. I think for a lot of us, a lot of us are local and some of the guys that aren't, but it's one more day for us to be a Razorback, and that's all you can ask.

One or two teams left standing in the last day of the College World Series. You can't ask for much more. We're still standing, alive and ready to go for sure.

LUKE BONFIELD: What both of them said, we get one last opportunity to put on the uniform. No matter what, win or lose, and just go to battle with my brothers out there.

So I think it's going to be a hard-fought battle tomorrow.

Q. Grant, could you talk about what you might expect out of Isaiah tomorrow and what he's done for you guys lately?
GRANT KOCH: Yeah, we're expecting the same stuff he's had for a little while now. And we have all the confidence in the world in him. He's got four pitches that, you know, at times will command all of them. And that's what we expect tomorrow.

He's going to battle out there for us. He's been really, really good of late. And he's been really good in big-time situations, when we need him. And that's exactly what's going to happen.

Yeah, and, you know, I think that's what we all expect, and that's what we're going to get. So we have all the confidence in the world, like Carson said, and our defense is going to be there to back him up.

Q. Carson, after your big hit in the two-run inning, which included a couple of balls that barely fell into the grass, you had Casey racing to the plate, a couple of pretty big escapes by your pitchers on the mound. Did you guys feel even going into the ninth that you were kind of destined to get it done in this game?
CARSON SHADDY: Yeah, I think that's what both teams are trying -- both teams think they need to win and think they're going to win. And that's really the only answer I can give you. We got that hit and then it went up and held them for three innings and looked like it was right there for us. And some tough breaks happened.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. The bullpen's been so good for you here. What did you see from those guys? And Cronin, could you use him tomorrow? Who would be available tomorrow?
COACH VAN HORN: I don't know. It's getting awful thin. And we're just going to -- we need a good start, obviously. Reindl didn't give us anything tonight, so he can go again. Scroggins can give us an inning or two. As far as Cronin and Loseke, that's maybe a hitter with Cronin, maybe with an inning with Loseke. We'll see, maybe nothing. It will be up to those guys when we see how they feel tomorrow.

And Ramage could go again a little bit. I thought he was effective tonight. But, you know, just off the top of my head those are a few of the guys.

Q. What do you expect out of your team tomorrow? You've got a good feel for the pulse of the team. What do you think is going to happen?
COACH VAN HORN: They've been tough all year. We've had some tough losses that some games that got away from us. And we just didn't play well.

So I think they're going to come out, give us a great effort. We've got to swing the bats a lot better. We haven't swung the bats good for two days. And we've been relying on pitching and they gave us another great effort today, the pitchers, and we just didn't score enough runs.

Q. Dave, what is your message to the team after the game tonight, just as far as overcoming a gut punch like that?
COACH VAN HORN: It was quick. It was just, hey, we get to play one more game. And what more could you ask for, you know? You gotta move on. You can't take it back, you know? It's over.

So get your head up and start getting your mind right because it's going to be tomorrow before you know it. And we need to come out here and give ourselves a chance.

Q. Dave, it happened pretty fast there from Grenier's hit to tie it and Larnach's homer. Was there anything you could do to slow it down? What was the mood in the dugout after the hit to tie it, and did you maybe feel something else coming?
COACH VAN HORN: Yeah, after the hit to tie it, we had a left on left. We weren't going to make a move there. He just probably ran out of gas. And the runner's hit, if you look back at the video, we had thrown a couple of pitches up and out and he fouled a couple off.

And he was going to try to bust him in. And if you look, your catcher set up in, has to go back right down the middle base hit to left. If he gets it in, who knows. But that's the way it works. I don't think there was really anything else we could do.

We pretty much put it in Cronin's hand there. Left on left, to get us in the dugout with a tie game and see if we can score a run and win it.

The mood in the dugout, yeah, there was disappointment. But I made a comment earlier in the game: Let's just get -- we get the last at-bats, let's tie it. Here we are. We would have taken it.

The way the game went, it didn't surprise me they would tie it. Really good at-bat by the lead-off man in the top of the ninth, fouled off a bunch of pitches and finally got walked.

And every time you walk somebody, walk comes back and gets you.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297