2021 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 21, 2021

Alex Williams

Stanford Cardinal

Postgame Press Conference

Stanford - 14, Arizona - 5

Q. What were some of the big differences obviously from a mental standpoint and from a pure baseball standpoint between game one and today?

ALEX WILLIAMS: The difference between game one and today, I think we just came out ready to roll. And game one we were just a little happy to be here. And we took it upon ourselves today to get back to what we were doing, hit the ball. It's what we've been doing all year, and our offense did a hell of a job. And just attacking and playing our game. We just had to get comfortable and we're ready to roll.

Q. The first three innings pretty smooth. Final two and a third, maybe some bumps in the road. How would you sum up your day and some of the things you could take going forward for the remainder of the event.

ALEX WILLIAMS: I think I just didn't have my best stuff today. Kind of showed. Got a little tired there. I think I just wasn't in the best state of mind. But at the end of the day very fortunate enough to have our offense pick me up today. We've been picking each other up all year. And Palisch did a hell of a job coming in after me.

And moving forward I'm going to get another chance to pitch in this thing and I'll be ready. I think I just need to get back after it and get back to what I do best and trust my stuff and attack.

Q. Can you talk to us about pitching with a big lead, what that third inning, with them scoring seven runs, how did that change your approach in the later inning?

ALEX WILLIAMS: Personally, I think I pitch best when it's a close game. I think it showed when we got a little bit of a big lead. I kind of got taken out of my competitive mentality a little bit, which ended up hurting me. So I started throwing a little slower, started being a little flatter.

Obviously, it's great to have our offense compete in the way they're doing it, helping me out. I just need to find a way to keep attacking, doing what I do when it is a big-lead game. So at the end of the day I think having a big lead hurt me pitching-wise but it helped the team out. I'm really happy with the way things worked out for us today.

Q. Big keys going forward now for the squad now that you've got a win in the column in Omaha? Big keys going forward for the team?

ALEX WILLIAMS: Big keys going forward, keep this momentum rolling. Keep the attack. Keep the camaraderie and just the approach we've had all year. Our offense clearly was able to put some things together. A lot of respect for what we've been able to do all year.

And Esque has been saying it all year; just play our game, just gotta stick with it and play our game and things will take care of themselves. I'm excited for what we've got coming up in the next few days.

Q. Could you talk about the difference between Saturday and today for the team?

ALEX WILLIAMS: The difference between Saturday and today? Man, I think Saturday we were just caught a little flat. I think we were still just getting our feet wet a little bit, a little star struck. I think just playing in this atmosphere is a lot different than we're used to -- back at Stanford we have 500 fans a game if that.

So just trying to get used to a different environment and knowing that this game is the same game no matter what field you're on. So today we were able to finally settle in and play our game and it showed both from offense and then from Palisch picking me up.