2021 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 21, 2021

David Esquer

Stanford Cardinal

Postgame Press Conference

Stanford - 14, Arizona - 5

COACH ESQUER: Just a great effort by our team today. A team that didn't want to end their season, didn't want to go home and that wants to get some momentum and keep playing in the World Series here.

So, gotta really appreciate Brock and Alex. I thought they played great. And they point to a couple things -- they felt maybe they didn't have their best or gave some at-bats away. But that's the kind of competitors they are.

Alex did a great job getting us into the sixth inning. We could not have done it without him. And those are just valuable innings especially when we had a lead. And sometimes it's tough to pitch with a lead. Right? You've got a cushion and you might not have that edge that you count on when the game's close. But I thought he did a great job, took us as far as we needed to.

And then we hand it over to Jacob Palisch, and him going the rest of the way was huge for us.

If look up and down our lineup I think we had four or five guys who had three hits today. Offensively we were more comfortable at the plate. We talked about it, just about our comfort level and just being able to trust ourselves being out here and not worry about failure. And that we got support, the teammates are going to support them regardless.

We just need them to go for it and relax. That's what it looked like our offense was like today.

Q. What was the difference between Saturday and today, just with your team as a whole?

COACH ESQUER: It's real subtle. I didn't think we played like ourselves necessarily on Saturday. But it wasn't because they weren't trying. I thought they were trying hard. It was just getting comfortable. Sometimes you get in this atmosphere and although the game is the same and the bases are 90 feet and the mound is 60 feet, 6 inches. It's all the same baseball game.

Sometimes the atmosphere can change it a little bit. And maybe you try a little hard or you make it a little bit bigger than it really is. And I think once our guys found out that it's just the same baseball game and we've just got to trust ourselves and really play just no consequence baseball. We've just got to go for it and we'll take our chances. We've been doing that all year. We've had to do it by being loose and free. And we just maybe got a little bit away from that.

I think North Carolina State, scoring a couple runs in the first inning, kind of gets you back on your heels a little bit. Maybe you just try too hard.

But it was a different team today. And that's how we have been like most of the year. We're just kind of grind it out.

And I think Alex was the epitome of how we've been doing things. He may not have felt like he was just mowing right through them, but he gave us enough and was on top of them enough and had enough control of his fastball, was able to put them away early. And just kind of minimize any damage that could happen in order -- that would get them back into the game. So great team effort today.

Q. Facing the Arizona Wildcats, familiar opponent, clearly. How did that affect some things that we saw out there today?

COACH ESQUER: Well, obviously maybe the preparation wouldn't have taken as long because Coach Eager and Coach Rodriguez and Coach Nicholson were familiar with the faces. But that's a great team. It's probably the best offensive team in the country. That's what we were facing today, and one that you really, if you score some runs, you've got to keep tacking on runs is and not let your guard down.

At 10-0, I don't think that was a completely comfortable lead for us. We kept telling the guys in the dugout not to let our guard down because we're facing a team that can strike at will.

But our pitching staff just did a great job. And Alex handed it off to Jacob, and Jacob able to keep them at bay enough. And we made plays on defense. We take pride in our defense. We talk about suffocating them with defense, which means maybe they could square a baseball up and hit it well, but still not be rewarded for it because we play good defense behind them.

That's something we did not do on the opening game versus North Carolina State. We gave them too much and then whatever little they could do off of Brendan Beck cost them.

Q. After Saturday, you kind of touched on this, but do you say something to the team in terms of trying to get them to relax, or do you just assume it happens naturally? I don't know if there are any special coaching techniques that you can use to --

COACH ESQUER: I don't have many special coaching techniques, but I will share with you, I don't know if it's an analogy or a metaphor -- I talk to them about walking across the floor on a 2-by-4, where you're able to do it easily with very little, very little anxiety when it's laying on the floor. But if you put it 20 feet off the ground, it's the same action but there's a little more -- there's a little more tension to it. And I just want to tell them they're capable of walking on a two-by-4 20 feet off the ground.

They're not going to die because we've got 35 guys on our team that will be holding a net beneath them. Just go for it, make it as normal as we can and relax and they're capable of doing it.

It's just a matter of trusting that there's going to be no bad consequence if they risk courageously. And that's all I hope for is that they play free and courageous and we'll take the results.

Q. At this stage in the game obviously your celebrations have to be short-lived. How do you try to kind of change the mentality from celebrating this win in a big win to preparing for the next game in just two days?

COACH ESQUER: I told them that one of my wishes for today was that we had practice at 10.00 a.m. tomorrow. Right, get back to work. We'll see who we'll play tonight after the results of the Vanderbilt/North Carolina State game. And we'll go to work.

My coaching staff will do a great job preparing, and we'll have a game plan. And then we'll turn it over to the players. We'll practice tomorrow and keep them loose and prepared. And then we'll game plan for them offensively and defensively. And then we turn it over to the players to take it from there and hopefully guide them in the right direction.

Q. Could you talk a little bit more about how your strategy would change if you played NC State, who you've already played, or against a brand new opponent in Vanderbilt?

COACH ESQUER: No real huge strategy there. It's about Coach Eager coming up with a pitch plan to get the hitters out. Coach Rodriguez putting them in the right position, hopefully we're in front of them when they hit it. And Coach Nicholson and Coach Rodriguez scouting the pitchers out and giving us the best game plan to attack them in order to score runs. And my assistant coaches have done just a phenomenal job of preparing. And today was indicative of that. This was a win that my assistant coaches just put our guys in the right spot, prepared them with the right information. And Coach Eager did an unbelievable job of calling pitches and getting our pitchers through each inning.

Q. On Saturday you were hoping to be in this position having to have to think about a Game 3 starter. Any initial indications on where you might be leaning there at this point?

COACH ESQUER: Yeah, I think we're just going to kitchen sink it on the next game, throw everything at them try to match up for nine innings the best we can. Hopefully offensive enough to win and spin it right back around to Brendan Beck and that's probably our plan.

We'll use everybody. We'll match up, depending on who the opponent is, whether it's left or right. We have Drew Dowd and Quinn Mathews from the left side. And we can start Zach Grech on the right side. We'll do whatever it takes. There's nothing to save it for. And I trust Coach Eager will put in a good plan. And we'll talk about what's the best way to navigate nine innings will be. And hopefully our bats show up to give us some breathing room to pitch.

Q. You mentioned Brock maybe being self-critical despite having a really good day and really good NCAA Tournament. Is it the competitiveness that stands out about what he's done, what's led to this success? What have you seen from him that allows him to really flourish here over the last couple of weeks?

COACH ESQUER: We all benefit from it. I think they just feed off of each other. We just have such competitors on our team and they don't want to give up at-bats and they want to do what's best for the ballclub. And when you have a day like he has, he looks toward three at-bats that he maybe didn't perform, but it was the three that he did perform that helped us win the game.

That's what great competitors do. They're not satisfied. They can accept the results. And obviously I think he's happy about the team winning. He just wants to do more to help us more often. So that's just the great competitor in him. He's not in a bad mood; he just wants to figure out a way to maybe cut down those three strikeouts.