|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 17, 2019Mike MartinCJ Van EykMike SalvatoreOmaha, Nebraska Michigan - 2, Florida State - 0 MIKE MARTIN: I can see why Tommy Henry is a second-rounder. That was a beautiful -- that was a masterpiece. He just really, really made it tough on us. You look at the overall ballgame, and you've got to say, gosh, Christian Bullock just killed us with a couple of those plays out there. They played beautiful baseball. They got tremendous pitching from Henry. It's something that you as a coach or a player, you don't look at anything except, hey, be ready to play when your time comes. And that's what we intend to do. Q. CJ, tonight I think somebody had a count, it was like 15 times with two strikes they fouled the ball off. It seemed like they just kept doing that to you, kept fouling off pitches and running your pitch count up. How frustrating was that? CJ VAN EYK: I mean, it's always frustrating when they're going to do something like that, but you have to trust yourself and trust your team behind you and keep making that pitch, and whatever pitch is called, just execute it. Q. Mike, two games, scored one run combined. Granted, against very good pitching, but you guys hit really good pitchers the last three weeks. What's missing offensively these two games? MIKE SALVATORE: I guess, like I said, it's that time of the year we're going to be facing -- a lot of these games are pitching and defense, and it can come down to that this time of the year, and I think we've just got to keep pushing. I don't necessarily think something is missing. I think it's just keep battling and hope that it turns around for us. Q. Mike, Coach said that Tommy Henry pitched a masterpiece. What was he doing that made him so successful? MIKE SALVATORE: I think he just was hitting his spots well, mixing speeds, and yeah, I mean, I didn't think he missed too many spots, and wasn't really giving us too much, and if we did square it up, it seemed to go right at other people. That's a tough park to hit one out to. It's just kind of how the day went for us. He threw well, and when we did square it up, it just kind of found a glove. Q. Mike, touching on that a little bit, it seemed like every time you guys did hit a ball hard, they caught it. Every time they hit a ball, and they didn't hit many, but the ones they hit hard seemed to find holes or go into the stands. Did it seem a little bit unlucky the way you guys hit the ball a little bit and you couldn't find spots? MIKE SALVATORE: Yeah, I think that's just sometimes how this game goes, and that's why it could be the best game in the world, and some days you think it's the worst game in the world. Today I think it was just one of those days for us, and the ball fell good for them. Like I said, you can turn it around and anything can happen in each game. Q. Mike, to follow up on that, CJ was really good on the mound. Bullpen was phenomenal. Can you speak to how well the pitching was to keep you guys in it. MIKE SALVATORE: Yeah, every inning we came up to the plate I think we were in the game the entire game, and there was -- at any moment we can get a couple guys on and maybe move some runs across. They kept us in it the entire time, and yeah, it just didn't turn out that way for us, but we were in it the whole game. Q. Coach, I don't know how many left-handers you've faced this year, but was that a factor in this? I think you maybe have five left-handed batters, but the fact you were going up against a lefty... MIKE MARTIN: We've done obviously a lot better than we did tonight. But there's no way that I'm going to insinuate anything to take away from what those young men from Michigan did. They played beautiful baseball. They got it done. Tommy Henry deserves a lot of credit. The left fielder, Christian, made beautiful plays. They didn't make an error. They played solid baseball. I would never even think to say -- come up with an excuse. There are no excuses with Florida State baseball. They kicked our fanny, and Tommy Henry, if I was playing Michigan next year, I'd be real glad because I'd know he's gone. (Laughter). Q. Coach, the one run scored in the first game, had to manufacture it, sacrifice fly; none in this one. Is it safe to say your guys have to hit or you're not going to go beyond this next game? MIKE MARTIN: Well, I think that's kind of status quo. If you don't hit, it's very difficult to score. I don't see that we didn't hit tonight. Tommy Henry made clutch pitches when he needed to make pitches, and they made outstanding defensive plays, whether they needed to make them or not. They were very impressive all the way around this great game of baseball. Q. Have you settled any pitching plans for Wednesday, or is that still kind of a matter of discussion? MIKE MARTIN: Conor Grady, freshman from Tampa, will pitch against the Texas Tech team. Q. Coach, can you talk about your first baseman Carter Smith. My understanding was he was a catcher at the start of the season and converted to first base. How hard is that to do? MIKE MARTIN: He's done very well. I was very pleased with his maturation process, playing on an everyday basis. He is a guy that could play second. We used him all over the field trying to find out how we could get him in the lineup. First base just was the best spot for him. But I think he's going to be a very good addition, and we just hope that he continues to improve. He's a junior is what I'm talking about. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|