2021 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 20, 2021

David Pierce

Texas Longhorns

Postgame Press Conference

Mississippi State - 2, Texas - 1

COACH PIERCE: Well, I thought both teams just pitched outstanding. I thought TY was really good early, attacked the strike zone.

Bednar, still haven't figured him out. He's a spin-rate guy. And the ball just doesn't lose plane. Just seemed like we were swinging underneath it the entire game.

And then Sims is Sims. We expected that. I thought we did a nice job of fighting there until the end.

I was really impressed with Zach Zubia and Silas defensively They played outstanding, made some big-time plays.

Tough game offensively, tough ball game, but all we can do is get ready to work tomorrow and get ready to play on Tuesday.

Q. Obviously these guys won't lack motivation. But how do you keep these guys confident after the night they had tonight in the batter's box?

COACH PIERCE: Tough night. It's a humbling game. And every player that has played this game for any length of time has gone through a tough game like that. Tough to see it happen to them on a big stage. But maybe some of our youth came out today and just tried to force some at-bats.

We just have to make some adjustments and understand our swing plane against two of the best guys in the country that maintain their plane without losing it. And you know, tip your hat to them. They were outstanding.

Q. And you typically don't address the team right after the game. But you had some words with them tonight. What was your overall message to them?

COACH PIERCE: Well, I know how emotional the game was. I understand that they're frustrated and feel like they let their teammates down. But my biggest message is that these guys have been together from day one. And 27 guys on the field just fighting every single day together, having fun together, listening to their coaches, working hard.

So my message is, you know, we'll continue to go to battle with guys that are preparing right. And we've just got to get better tomorrow and that's the game plan. Just don't listen to the noise. We know what happened. Don't listen to the distractions of what happened in the box and it will be tough enough to get over it.

Q. I assume it will be Tristan on Tuesday?

COACH PIERCE: Yes.

Q. And then obviously I don't know how much Ty's presser you caught, but he had that mentality we've been back against the wall before; I believe in this team. Did you see that with the dugout, or is it too early to gauge that from these guys?

COACH PIERCE: I didn't have to see that today. I've seen it all year. They've had each other's back. They're just awesome, the way they approach their day-to-day and how they have fun with each other as they're working hard. And that's just a tribute to their families. It's a tribute to their character, their integrity and the way the coaches have worked with them.

So, no, it wasn't anything surprising. I mean, I thought it was a hell of an at-bat by Ivan against really good stuff. We just have to have more of that grit going into Tuesday's game.

Q. I think Will had strikeout streaks of six and seven in tonight's game. When your guys go down (indiscernible), do you think it's kind of a snowball effect, maybe (indiscernible) prior at-bat is bleeding into the next at-bat and so forth?

COACH PIERCE: Could be. I mean, you like to think that guys are able to separate their at-bats and separate what just happened to the guy in front of them.

But for me it's just to understand the pitching issues as much as creating the hitting issues. If the ball is going to hold plane, then we've got to work above the ball. And I think we just made slow adjustments.

Q. I asked Ty about this earlier and he of course was proud of the way the guys rallied back in the ninth. What did you think (indiscernible)?

COACH PIERCE: You kind of broke up there.

Q. What did you think of your team battling back in the bottom of the ninth after having such a tough day at the plate? What's it say, I guess, about their mentality?

COACH PIERCE: I mean, hitting's tough. It's a 2-1 baseball game. They did a nice job with two strikes hitting the ball down the line that was fair by inches and scored on a tough play in the corner.

If we strike out however many times and we strike them out however many times, at the end of the day it's a 2-1 game. We didn't get a clutch hit and they got one more than us.

Q. You kind of mentioned a little bit about Silas' defensive play tonight. For him to be able to get two big outs, especially with runners in scoring position, what did that do for Ty and what do you think that did for the team, especially with that strikeout punchout to end the seventh inning?

COACH PIERCE: It put the momentum in our dugout to go in and feel like we did a nice job defensively. Si made two big-time throws, actually three. It just gives you a fresh breath, allows Ty to get back into the dugout catch his breath without going extra pitches. It just gives us an opportunity. And that's how good he was. He threw out some pretty good runners. Ty's not real quick to the plate. But at the same time he understands how to mix his timing. But I think one of them was a 3-2-1 and everybody in the ballpark knew he was running. And he does a nice job on the pitch, gets the strikeout and then just throws a rocket to second.

Q. Pete to be able to come in as a reliever, what does it say about adversity, and about his overall versatility as a player and pitcher?

COACH PIERCE: Pete wants to help this team win. He understands his role this week. It means a lot. It means a lot that -- he's not concerned about if he's going to start or if he's going to pitch at all. He just wants to help this team win. And it's pretty obvious and he goes out and continues to do that. That was more of his role his freshman year. So he hasn't lost that. And he wants to go compete and help us win.

Q. I was curious how you rated that performance by Bednar? Is it almost just impossible to break up the rhythm of a guy when he's in command like he was?

COACH PIERCE: Well, what was tough -- I don't know if it was the record for him; it was probably close to a record of strikeouts for us, if not a record, I don't know. But I do know that we never had real opportunity to force some action and get him out of his comfort zone. So credit him for creating that, and we just got to do a better job of finding ways to get to first base when we're not hitting a guy like that.

Q. How do you see your challenge? (Indiscernible) tough loss this weekend. How do you see the challenge ahead for you all?

COACH PIERCE: Eight best teams in the country going head to head. And you need to create your breaks. And so if you don't create your breaks, you're going to potentially have the same result.

So I think for us and how we've always approached it is that we're not going to be passive; we're going to be creative as possible. And we're going to go compete. That's one thing this young team has done, is they went out and competed every single day. So I don't expect them to do anything different against a very good Tennessee team.

Q. You coach a resilient team. You started 0-3 for the year. You struggled at the plate at the Big 12. But you still got to this point. How can those experiences coming through those fires, those challenges, benefit you guys moving forward?

COACH PIERCE: Well, we challenged this team from the time that we got beat out in the Big 12 Tournament going 2-2 of putting our work in. I felt like this week offensively as good of a job all year of just focusing on line drives in the middle of the field. So we'll continue to challenge them. We're not going to back off and feel sorry for them. And they're not going to feel sorry for themselves.

So it's kind of what we do. We're going to go out. We're going to talk about the results, what happened, and how we're going to approach it. We can feel sorry for ourselves or we can get to work. And I know that's what they're going to do is they're going to put the work in. I mean, they've got a lot of pride. I mean, they're young, most of them. But they're tough as nails. And they've got a lot of pride. But still Tuesday, there's no guarantees in this game. So it's our job to just get ready to play, get back here and compete.

Q. The outfielders on both sides were having trouble to catch the ball the way the wind was blowing out. For both sides. Was that just kind of worse case scenario tonight with adjusting to the park on top of the wind, on top of the shadows?

COACH PIERCE: I think the wind was even stronger above the stadium than any of us can imagine. It was a perfect night to hit some pop-ups, for sure. But in a very unusual score of a 2-1 game, the way the wind was howling and very unusual for here.

But you know, it was a completely different environment than probably both teams outfielders have played in of -- it's not just the wind blowing out, but different areas of the ballpark catch it and then allow it to take off. The first fly ball to Doug looked like it was going to be a ball that Mitch possibly catches, and then Doug comes in and has to basically sprint to get behind the ball and make the catch. So stuff you prepare for, you talk about, but you still have to go out and do it. Not to mention there's sun and wind and deep sky today, with shadows. The whole infield was shadows. So it was a tough day to play outfield, for sure. And I thought we did a nice job just hanging in there.