2021 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 21, 2021

Tim Corbin

Vanderbilt Commodores

Postgame Press Conference

NC State - 1, Vanderbilt - 0

COACH CORBIN: We lost, 1-0. It was a hell of a pitched game by both parties. Jack was outstanding. He was so good in so many different ways. He attacked. He threw strikes. He commanded the ball. He just did everything he could to put his team in a position to win.

Highfill was good. Have to give him a lot of credit. Just never got to the barrel. Just didn't have any base runners. That's it.

Q. Looking ahead, is Patrick Reilly the obvious choice for --

COACH CORBIN: There is not an obvious choice right now. I'm not looking ahead right now. We have a day to do that.

Q. Just talk about the pressure on your offense, when a guy's throwing so many pitches like that, where he's mixing velocities and pitches and locations and changing angles. It looked like from TV it would have been so hard for anybody to square him up tonight?

COACH CORBIN: It was. I mean, you've got to give him credit. He pitched a hell of a game -- fastball, two different breaking balls, change-up, drop down. When we did get to base he made it difficult. He had a good move over to first base.

Give him a lot of credit. He did a great job. That was a real well-pitched college baseball game, as good as you want to see. So if you're a pitching person, you like it. If you're an offensive person, you want to hit yourself over the head with a shovel.

Q. What did go so wrong for the offense tonight?

COACH CORBIN: We didn't have any base runners.

Q. Quite a few first-pitch strikes looking for the offense. To what extent was it maybe like a lack of aggression or is it just the other pitcher is hitting his spots and you just tip your cap?

COACH CORBIN: He was hitting his spots with different pitches. And when you get caught in between, if you're sitting on a pitch and you don't move to another pitch, it's because he's not throwing the pitch that you were ready for. And we were in between many times.

He got us around the ball when we did make contact. And he was just effective. I hate using the word "tip your cap" to anyone but that kid did a nice job. He really did. He pitched so well. They both did.

Q. Looking ahead, as you say you do, you look ahead to tomorrow, what's the message as far as rallying and rebounding with this group like you had to do a couple times earlier this year maybe at the end of the regular season but not yet in the postseason?

COACH CORBIN: That's all we can do. It's a one-game tournament anyway. It was North Carolina State today. It will be Stanford on Wednesday. We just got more free baseball. That's fine.

And what happens is more people get pulled into the fray, which is good. Brought 27 people. We're going to have to use them.

But what Jack did is he preserved a pitching staff. He was able to finish the game. So from that vantage point, it's good, because he kept the bullpen down and he kept other people down.

So, yeah, we're just going to have to use our roster. And that's fine. We've been in situations like this before. And we've played tough baseball and we do have a resilient group. And you need to be when you come here.

Everything's not going to go your way. And there's been a lot of people that have finished this tournament that didn't start the way they wanted to.

Q. Along those same lines, how confident are you in this still pretty young group given everything they've gone through in the last month that they'll be right on Wednesday night and give you what you expect?

COACH CORBIN: Yeah, I'm confident that way. I'm not guessing what's going to show up. They're going to be motivated, for sure. This is a tough one for them. It's not going to sit well with them. But it's part of the game and it's part of what you go through.

Q. There was a quick shot of Enrique in the dugout earlier in the game. Looked like maybe he was limping a little bit. Was it a cramp or was he dealing with something there?

COACH CORBIN: No, he's not hurt. I'm not sure what it was. But I didn't think he was hurt.

Q. You mentioned earlier that Jack preserved the pitching staff tonight. How proud are you of his night that he did tonight to help you guys to face Stanford with a full bullpen?

COACH CORBIN: Well, I'm not worried about Stanford right now. Just gotta absorb this particular game. But as far as Jack is concerned, that's a max competitor right there. He did everything he possibly could to put the team on his shoulders.

He got most of the outs himself. It is a team game, but he was on an island tonight. He did such a good job of just shutting down the bats and competing, just competing at a high-level. It's one of the best performances I've seen in the times that I've been to Omaha.

Important game, swing game, he did everything he could to put his team in great position. Just such an outstanding young man. One pitch, one pitch. You know? It sucks. But it's what it is.