2021 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 18, 2021

Tim Tawa

Stanford Cardinal

Postgame Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome, everybody, to today's press conference. We are here with Stanford, joined today by Tim Tawa, then later by coach David Esquer.

Questions for Tim.

Q. Why don't you talk about what it means to you to be here in Omaha this year.

TIM TAWA: Sure. It's surreal for me. I started as a freshman. The culture in our program was kind of turning around. We made it to a regional, got eliminated by Fullerton. Then my sophomore year we were able to get out of the regional and get to a super regional against Mississippi State. Sort of take that next step this year to get to Omaha with this team, especially when nobody really believed in us to get here. It means a lot. It's a testament to the coaches, the guys on this team, and all the hard work we put in.

It's really exciting. This place is amazing. Can't wait to get going tomorrow.

Q. Talk about the unique challenges this year.

TIM TAWA: The biggest one was not having a fall. We had a good amount of guys, probably 20 that were able to come back, but not officially to practice in the fall. We didn't really get together as a full team until three weeks before the season even started.

So just dealing with that and COVID stuff was a challenge for us. Then we had a COVID week in the middle, a couple of our guys came down with it. We ended up missing a Washington series, which kind of took us in a little bit of a funk for maybe a week or two. We've dealt with a lot of COVID stuff.

I think we've really stuck together well. Again, it's a testament to being together as a team, the culture we built here, and the coaches really believing in us.

Q. In some senses, how good of a dress rehearsal was it playing in front of fans in Lubbock, as far as playing in an environment that you're going to find in Omaha?

TIM TAWA: It was definitely good. When we were playing at Sunken Diamond, the max we had was 600 fans, even for the regional. Getting to play in front of a couple thousand in Lubbock was nice.

I think there's no way to actually fully prepare our team for this atmosphere. I think we're just going to go out and play. We got a lot of mature guys, senior leaders on the field that will help us deal with that.

Esquie always says the team that's going to have success here is the one that's going to get comfortable first. I think once we get comfortable, once we settle in, we'll be perfectly fine.

Q. I'm curious for the fans that are going to come out and see you guys play, how would you describe your brand of baseball, what makes you guys go, what has made you successful?

TIM TAWA: Good pitching for sure, good solid defense behind them. Hit a lot of home runs this year. I think we're a team that plays together and plays solid all around. We're a team that no one here really expects to win this tournament, but we believe it.

I don't know how to describe our brand because it's a culture we've built over these last probably four or five years. It's something that I'm super happy to be a part of, super excited to continue playing, still being here.

Don't sleep on us (smiling).

Q. I cover Mississippi State. Obviously two years ago you were playing them in the regionals in Starkville. What do you remember about the atmosphere there and what does it mean to see them on the other side of the bracket?

TIM TAWA: I remember the atmosphere being amazing. I walked out on the field, reminded me of being in Starkville with the bleachers around the entire field. Congrats to Mississippi State for being here, they're a great team. Hopefully we get to play them if we get through our side of the bracket. I remember the atmosphere being amazing. The fans were amazing, just the environment was special for college baseball. Compared to the 600 fans we got there year, compared to there, however many it was for the super regional. It was one of my favorite college baseball experiences, for sure, playing there.

THE MODERATOR: Looks like that is it for questions. We will bring coach in next.