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COLLEGE WORLD SERIES: LUBBOCK REGIONALJune 2, 2019Wil DaltonAustin LangworthyKevin O'SullivanLubbock, Texas Dallas Baptist-9, Florida-8 COACH KEVIN O'SULLIVAN: First of all, congratulate Dallas Baptist, they certainly earned it. They are a really good offensive club, and you know, so they earned moving on to tonight's game. Want to thank our three seniors, Nelly, Blake and Jonah. They have been to three Omahas, and obviously it's a tough way to end the season the way it did today, but not many people can say they have been to Omaha three years in a row, and they certainly set a standard here and certainly going to miss those guys. Got a couple guys here to my right. They are going to have opportunities to move on to professional baseball with other players, as well, and want to thank those guys as well. The way the game went, kind of a fitting ending to the way the season went. We have -- this is probably -- I was talking to Austin about this before. This is probably the most resilient offense I've had in 12 years. They continue to scratch and claw and do what they needed to do to get us back in the ballgame. Most teams down 9-2, it would be tough to come back, and you know we got one base hit away from tying up the ballgame there in the ninth. But the beginning just got us. Gave up seven runs with two outs and couldn't quite stop the bleeding. That's been our M.O. the entire year. The beginning has kind of got us, so we have got some work to do that way moving forward next year. But awfully proud of how we battled this season and how we battled this weekend and like we said, Dallas Baptist earned it and certainly wish them the best of luck moving forward. Q. Wil, what was that like, the nine-run inning, you're down seven, to claw back to where you're a hit away from tying it at the end. WIL DALTON: It's nothing new to us. Not the first time we have been deficit or something like that. Honestly, there's not really any panic in our offense. I mean, sometimes we'll press here and there, but really, when it comes down to it, we relax and go do what we do best. I had to keep myself in check after my second at-bat. I was a little fired up and a little mad at what our pitching staff had done, and we couldn't finish out the inning. You know, I had to remind myself, that, hey, we are one of the best offenses in the country and we can relax and do our thing. We just need somebody to go out and get us out and we'll be fine. Q. For either, where did that mental toughness for the offense, to always keep battling, you guys have clawed back in so many games this year. Where did you see that develop? Was it in the fall, before the season started some point during the year? AUSTIN LANGWORTHY: During the fall we knew we had a chance to be really go offensively. We had a bunch of guys swinging it really well, and even guys that didn't get a lot of opportunities this year did well in the fall and we just carried that over to the season, and you know, we battled our tails off all year. I'd go to war with any of these offensive players any day of the week. WIL DALTON: I think he's spot on, when it comes down to it, our offense as a unit, whoever is stepping in and replaces somebody that may be down or whatever happens, happens, we're very tight-knit and we work together really well and know our strengths and weaknesses and try to, you know, make sure everybody and the holes are all filled so we can do what we do. Q. You guys will both probably have the chance to play professional ball in the draft next week. If you don't come back, where does the team stand with the younger guys? What does the future of the program look like with the guys you've come to know this year? AUSTIN LANGWORTHY: Like I said before, this is a really good group of offensive players. We had a lot of players in the lineup, Jud, Acton, Jacob. We had many freshmen that just really stepped up for us this year and they are just going to grow and mature throughout the year, just like every college baseball player does and have a chance to be really good. WIL DALTON: Same thing for me. I think, you know, we were young this year, and to be as talented on the offensive side of the ball as we were, it goes to show that we've got some young guys that can really swing it and with some maturity and as they grow and have more at-bats, it's going to be impressive to watch these guys grow the next couple of years. Q. You said this is kind of a fitting end to the season. This team, is it just going to go back to not the arms, or not enough experience pitching like today, having to rely on freshmen in a game like this. COACH KEVIN O'SULLIVAN: Well, yeah, but you know, we don't make excuses. I mean, they are not freshmen anymore. I mean, I thought Nick threw the ball well, first three innings against a really good offense. I think the one pitch that probably got him off a little bit was the 0-2 home run by Sosa. But no one was rested. He was one of the only guys that had not thrown other than Tyler, and Tyler hasn't thrown very much, obviously, in a while. So you know, we just need to get one more out and the inning was over. I think that's the thing we've been preaching the entire year is you give up one, just battle like heck not to give up a second. You give up two, don't give up a third, because you never know which one is going to come back to hurt you or help you. Unfortunate that we weren't able to stop it. I haven't been involved in many innings like that. I think the three-run homer is probably the one that probably got us. You know, just kind of got us in a bad position there. But you know, it is what it is. Q. Every team is different. What do you take as a coach, learning from dealing with this team and the struggles you guys went through all year? COACH KEVIN O'SULLIVAN: Well, I don't know. I'll have to take some time to reflect but bottom line is we need to get -- we need to grow up on the mound in a hurry. I thought Nick grew up a lot there at the end of the year. I thought Ben spec was really, really good today. So there's a lot of bright spots. I mean, obviously we're all disappointed with the game today and how the season ended but Christian Scott has shown a lot of improvement. Got a bright future moving forward. Obviously get back Tommy and Jack and get those guys going and try to help them get better, and obviously Jack was great at the end of the year, too. And Tommy had a couple good starts there obviously at Missouri in the SEC Tournament against A&M. There's a lot of pieces, but I think the biggest takeaway, when you're really young in the bullpen with freshmen, it just makes it a little bit difficult. They have never really been in those types of leverage situations before. So you know, we'll get better moving forward. It's just unfortunate that we ended the game the way we did today. Q. Hindsight is 20/20, but did you just want to get him back out there? He hadn't thrown since I think April 20. Just give him another chance to throw before he might end up leaving? COACH KEVIN O'SULLIVAN: Yeah, sure, it's easy, I'm sitting here thinking, well, maybe would have brought him in there in the 4th. Just didn't know. He hasn't thrown in a while. He had not seen a live game in quite some time. So maybe it's me just trying to protect him, trying to put him in a position to where he would be successful. You know, the idea was for him, if we were able to win that ballgame -- but I still felt good about our offense, having car away warming up down there, I thought if we get the lead-off man on, we could make it interesting. But obviously hindsight is 20/20 but the idea is if we had won the game, we were going to start Tyler the second game tonight because there was only a 55-minute break in between. So probably start him, ease him into it. It's hard. I mean, when a guy has not thrown long time like that, it just make it hard to bring them in in the middle of an inning. They haven't been in a game situation before. So maybe I was a little bit too overprotective to make him start an inning. I just didn't -- at that point, you know, like I said, hindsight is 20/20, with just one out to go, you know, could I have brought him in? Yeah. But the idea was to hopefully start him an inning, so he could get comfortable, and the idea was to let him throw the ninth, and we were fortunate enough to score three runs and if we tied it, extend them a little bit. But you know, when a guy hasn't thrown in a live game that long, it's hard to bring him in in the middle of an inning, and like I said, hindsight is 20/20. Q. The last couple at-bat didn't go the way you wanted with Nelly, but would you rather have anybody at the plate there with the bases loaded situation? And can you speak to what he's meant to the program in four years? COACH KEVIN O'SULLIVAN: Well, speaking about Nelly, I mean, he's top five, Top 10 in a lot of different categories. He's been a really clutch hitter for us. You know, both him and Blake are part of a National Championship team, which, you know, no one will be able to take that away from them. I feel bad because it's never a good feeling when the season ends. As far as Nelly and Blake, they have meant a tremendous amount to us. Both really quality, obviously really good players, but you know, just really good human beings. You know, Blake's already got a job lined up. He's excited. We talked about that last week. They both got their degrees. And obviously Jonah, what a great story that is, too. Took a year off and worked and was MVP of the regional last year, and had a chance to go to Omaha. So all three of them, you know, are certainly going to be missed. You know, quite honestly, we don't have the opportunity to keep a lot of seniors because a lot of our juniors get a chance to play and a lot of them get drafted high enough to go. We should probably having a junior and a senior day to be honest with you. But no, to get back to your question about Nelly; what a great player. He's been a great player for us, and you know, of course, Blake, the same thing, and of course Jonah, it was good to see Jonah hit a home run yesterday, so he's got some memories he can obviously reflect back on. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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