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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 24, 2019Mike MartinJC FowersCJ Van EykDurham, North Carolina THE MODERATOR: We'll start with Florida State head coach Mike Martin. Student athletes JC Flowers and CJ Van Eyk. Coach, when you're ready we'll take an opening comment from you, please. MIKE MARTIN: I think CJ just set the tone right off the get-go. He had three pitches going. I thought he kept his poise, he ran into a little bit of a problem, a couple of walks, but showed what kind of pitcher he is. He gathered himself and got a big strikeout. And it was certainly a very important win for us. We know that the game did not mean anything, so to speak, to North Carolina State, but it was a game in which we played extremely well and I'm very, very proud of our baseball team. Haven't seen this young man hit a ball that far to right field since he's been with us. But he's worked very hard to change his approach and he's certainly positioning himself very well for the future. Just very proud that these young men are sitting up here with me as Seminoles, because they're both outstanding young men. THE MODERATOR: Start with questions, please. Q. With how the last two games going into this game had gone, how important was it to come out and set the tone early and get those early runs? MIKE MARTIN: It's one of those situations that we really needed a couple of runs early to get our feet solidly on the ground. Wake Forest did an outstanding job of not allowing us to get much until the middle part of the ball game. I thought tonight when we went, I think we got two in the first and two in the second and certainly that gives you a good feeling, especially the way CJ was pitching. Q. How were you able to just dominate the whole game from the first inning through the 7th inning which ended up being the end of the game but how were you able to just dominate? MIKE MARTIN: It's funny, we made an error, but an inexcusable error, let's get that perfectly clear, but when you can play well defensively and you get a guy that goes out there and pitches six innings and strikes out 11, it's, I mean that means you got to make seven plays and we cotton picking missed one of them. Fly ball. But this guy didn't let anything bother him, he just kept on working. Q. CJ, seems like you pitched with a lot of emotion tonight. Just where did that come from an just how important was this game to you? CJ VAN EYK: I always try to pitch with emotion and keep my team in the ball game but today it meant an extra something for us to win this game and ultimately contend for a regional coming up. So I think that was definitely the motivation behind this team tonight. Q. On Tuesday you guys used a lot of people in the bullpen, CJ just pitched six innings. And to keep that bullpen fresh, you never know what's going on down in the future, like if you're in the NCAA tournaments and you have a fresh bullpen. MIKE MARTIN: Yeah, we had definite plans for JC. JC and CJ and my grandson's TJ, I mean I'm getting all these initial, always very confusing. Anyway, JC needed to throw. We knew we needed to get him out there. This guy pitched so well the last thing you wanted to do was to throw somebody else out there to maybe pitch the fifth or the sixth and he had not thrown, I don't think he had thrown 80 at that point. So CJ ended up with 99, which was right where we wanted him at a hundred. So it kind of developed, but we have got a lot of confidence in our bullpen. Yeah, we hit, we had a hiccup, but that's in the past, we got a lot of confidence in our bullpen and we would not have hesitated to go to our bullpen tonight. They were rested. But like I said, CJ wouldn't relinquish the ball and we definitely needed to get JC on the mound. Q. JC, CJ mentioned that you guys wanted to come out and play with emotion and play hard and get this win so you could get to a regional. Was that a driving force behind you guys tonight and how much have you guys discussed that? JC FLOWERS: Um, I think it was definitely a driving force, but we were just trying to go out there and just play the game of baseball like we know how to play it, we have been playing it since a young age, so we just tried to simplify it as much as we could. Q. If the committee does decide to exclude you from the NCAA tournament come Monday how would you describe your final season at Florida State? MIKE MARTIN: I've had as much fun with a young club as any club that I've ever been involved with. Just to see the improvement and to go through what we have been through to have it come to a game in which we felt like we got to win this ball game in order to have the opportunity that we want, and that's to keep the streak going. And I'm very pleased and proud of these young men and I would say it was one of the most satisfying seasons, but I sure hope come Monday I got a different answer. (Laughter.) Q. One thing for the players, and then one thing for you coach, for you two guys, how much did it mean to you to try to extend this guy's run a little bit here, I mean I imagine after a few years with him it's probably important to you to keep this thing going for that reason too. JC FLOWERS: Oh, yeah, it's definitely important. This man has the most wins in college baseball, what is it 40 straight regionals? MIKE MARTIN: Yeah, we already got 41, but... JC FLOWERS: Okay, yeah, well, you know, just trying to extend that streak just for this guy, just trying to -- we're trying to play for each other but we also play for this guy. CJ VAN EYK: I tell you it's definitely nice having the best coach in college baseball history behind us but I think we're a family and we play as a family for a family, so I think that's just that, but it's definitely nice to have a guy like that. Q. It's been a season full of lasts, you probably getting tired of talking about lasts, but this is your last ACC tournament game, you've been a larger than life presence in this league for a long time, has it hit you yet, you know, that this is the last one and what does it mean to you? MIKE MARTIN: Yeah, it really hasn't because I think these two young men said it best, we're just all in this together, battling and this college baseball, man, it's changed drastically in the last 10 years. This is a great commodity and I'm very proud that we're a part of it and it's one of those situations, you got to get out there and really work to compete on a yearly basis with what you see out there. I mean you got guys throwing in the mid 90s every series that you play in the conference and of course our out of conference schedule, we played University of Florida three times, so I mean it's a very challenging schedule and you better be ready to go and sometimes our freshmen had some growing up to do and I think tonight you saw some freshmen really get an opportunity to show what they can do and you could see we didn't make some mistakes that we have made this year as a result of experience. So it was really, really satisfying tonight for me as a coach to see these young men have success. Q. JC, can you talk about your productive night. You were 3-4 with three RBI's. JC FLOWERS: I was just up there trying to hit the fastball, always looking number one and not trying to do too much, just trying to put the ball in play. THE MODERATOR: All right, thanks very much. MIKE MARTIN: Let me just say to y'all too and I really mean this, y'all have done a tremendous job in promoting college baseball. There's some outstanding teams in this area and I mean this, I want to wish them the best of luck too, because I mean we're all on our own now, we don't compete against each other, we're competing against other leagues that are outstanding and you guys have done a great job of promoting college baseball and I appreciate the effort that you put forth, I appreciate what D-I does, I mean, when I retire I'm going to buy a computer. (Laughter.) Y'all think I'm lying, y'all go ahead and think that. CJ VAN EYK: You ain't lying. (Laughter.) FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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