2021 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 23, 2021

Brock Jones

Stanford Cardinal

Postgame Press Conference

Vanderbilt - 6, Stanford - 5

Q. Obviously not the ending you wanted. Just take us through the day and take us through your emotions right now.

BROCK JONES: Obviously it hurts. This isn't where we wanted to end. We were so close. But I'm so proud of this team, each and every one of them. We all worked for this. And we knew we were going to be here, and our coaching staff pushed us every step of the way.

And you know, we deserve to be here. We've earned it. Just a hell of a year for us.

Q. Have you had any time this year, with the loss being fresh it might be a tough question to answer, but have you given any thought to what getting to this stage means for Stanford baseball and getting it back to national prominence, a place it's been so many times before?

BROCK JONES: You know, I've noticed just even being here for two years is, we get stepped on a lot. So does the entire Pac-12. I think it was huge we were able to get two Pac-12 schools here. We were able to make it pretty far. And to put some respect back on the West Coast.

I don't doubt for a second that we won't be back here next year. I'm not really worried about next year right now because I've got brothers in there hurting right now. I'm just very happy, but I'm also very sad that we weren't able to go further.

Q. Obviously a tough ending there with Brendan to have it end that way when he had been so good for you guys. What was the message, coaches and teammates, for him coming off the mound with the game having ending the way it did?

BROCK JONES: This loss is not on him whatsoever. He's one of the biggest reasons why we were able to even get this far. We can't expect him to be perfect. We can't expect anybody to be perfect on this team.

And it's baseball. It happens. And I can't wait to see what he's going to do in the future because I know he's going to be a hell of a pitcher.

Q. Tremendous NCAA Tournament for you. How do you sum up some of the things you were able to accomplish throughout the course of this whole postseason and what this Omaha experience means to you personally?

BROCK JONES: It's every baseball kid's dream to come here. And I know every single one of us were so excited we were able to get here. We worked for it. And obviously I'm proud of some of the things that I did. I'm proud of a lot of things that this team did, obviously making it this far. But you know we can always do more. And there's more work to do.

And I think next year we're going to go even further. So it's just tough. It's not really about me in any way or my success, because we would not have been anywhere near this position without anybody on this team, even the guys supporting us from the stands that weren't able to be in the dugout. They were with us every step of the way. And I'm so thankful for each and every one of those guys and for the seniors that we were able to get this far for them.