2021 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 23, 2021

Enrique Bradfield Jr.

Vanderbilt Commodores

Postgame Press Conference

Vanderbilt - 6, Stanford - 5

THE MODERATOR: We'll begin with questions for Enrique Bradfield Jr.

Q. Enrique, I think you were on second base at the end there. Could you tell right when the ball was out of his hands that something had gone wrong? What's the feeling of the wild excitement like in a situation like that where you guys were down to your last strike?

ENRIQUE BRADFIELD JR.: Once the game was tied it was basically a reset. And when I was on second base, I was just waiting for Carter to get a pitch he could do something with and work with.

I saw the curveball break out of his hand, and I knew curveball -- I know curveballs like that for a catcher, any catcher, doesn't matter elite, whatever level, are hard to catch. When I saw that I knew it was going to give us a chance. It hit his glove, hit the back stop, got caught in the net and we scored the run.

Q. What were you looking for in the at-bat? And what was it like in the dugout as you're going through the ninth inning trying to digest, the gravity of what's ahead for you there?

ENRIQUE BRADFIELD JR.: Going into the ninth, we all knew we could do it. We've done some crazy things this year, down in the last inning, two outs. A lot of the runs we scored are two-out runs. Nobody's on to start the inning. We get to two outs, we get a baserunner, another base hit follows. So we knew it was always possible.

Going through my at-bat, it all went back to, I think, my bat in the seventh inning when I faced Beck the first time, I chased a curveball in the dirt. I was, of course, frustrated because nobody wants to do that. But I knew I had to see it pop out of his hand. I was looking for a fastball and just saw it and reacted to it.

Q. Javier and Spencer both had to get on base for you to even have a chance to do what you did. What can you say about those two guys -- and I mean those are role players that came up big in the ninth?

ENRIQUE BRADFIELD JR.: Javi, he's somebody who hasn't played. He hadn't played a whole lot to start the year and through a large amount of the season. And he's always stayed focused and always stayed ready. Works as hard as anybody else. He got inserted. His at-bats are great. He's a great fire spark for the order. So I'm happy that he's in there. And he had a great AB to get on base to start us off.

And Spence coming off the bench, just wanting to pass it over. He told me I'm just going to do to do my job and get it to you. And he did great. He hit a ball, basically he ran it out. And just great job by those two.

Q. After especially getting picked off first base in the first inning, mentally how did you kind of recover from that in order to have the at-bat clutch hit at the end?

ENRIQUE BRADFIELD JR.: That doesn't change anything for me mentally.

Q. How would you characterize the entire night? Just brought up a getting picked off, some errors early in the game, you guys made some mistakes in this game, ups and downs? How would you characterize this compared to some of the wildest games you've been a part of in your young college career?

ENRIQUE BRADFIELD JR.: It's definitely up there because the spot -- elimination game in the CWS. We know we played pretty much the worst baseball in four innings both sides of the ball, defense and offensively. It was just about regrouping, getting back to what we know we could do. And it's put together good ABs, start putting the ball in play and getting runs.

Q. Can you speak to the range of emotions that went through the dugout, especially after you guys fell behind? And looks like Corbs was saying some interesting things in the dugout to get you guys fired up. And what all transpired there?

ENRIQUE BRADFIELD JR.: He was just trying to get us back in our right mindset. We had some key mistakes early in the game. And Corbs talked after that, we got back to what we know what to do.

Q. What happened to Spencer Jones' shirt there at the end?

ENRIQUE BRADFIELD JR.: Somebody got a hold of it, took it off him. Spence is a big figure, so maybe not the worst thing.

Q. What was said, at least that you can repeat, in that pep talk you got after the third inning from your coach? And just what was the issue early because that wasn't the baseball we've seen you guys play?

ENRIQUE BRADFIELD JR.: I'm not sure what the issue was. Just a couple of mistakes here and there. It happens. It happens to everybody. And Corbs wanted to rally us, get us together, get us going.