2021 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 26, 2021

Coach David Pierce

Texas Longhorns

Postgame Press Conference

Mississippi State - 4, Texas - 3

COACH DAVID PIERCE: Well, well, well. I mean, we'll look at today and what an incredible baseball game that was. We talk about it every single day, and there's not one thing -- you look at this game, there's not one thing you say if we would have done this or if we would have done that. We hit four balls to the wall that any of them could have been out or all four of them could have been out. We played impeccable defense the entire series, and big-time pitches in big-time moments, and the defense played their tails off. And so I always look at every single day as no regrets, and there's zero regrets.

The only thing that I'm disappointed in is this team will no longer be this team anymore, and it's the most incredible team I've ever been a part of, and I've won a National Championship and been here now six times. But just when you talk about culture and you talk about standard, and you talk about all those buzzwords and then you go out and watch it happen and just get inspired by young people; young people are constantly being talked about of how they weren't like us back in the day. This group is incredible.

You know, it's that good of a team. A lot of fun. 50 games we won this year; that close to winning a National Championship, pretty impressive.

Q. When people reflect on this team and think about it in the next weeks, months and over the next few years, what do you hope to remember most about this group that you can take away from this team?

COACH DAVID PIERCE: The grit, the toughness, the never-give-up mentality, the energy. Just the talent. There's just so many words that you describe this group, and they are all positive.

I mean, did a great job of dealing with COVID. Did a great job of staying in the classroom taking care of business. We had zero issues. I mean, it's just a team that has really set the standard of what we expect at the University of Texas.

Q. Just wanted to get your thoughts on Cole. Overall, great outing, one of the better performances, one mistake. What was your overall take and to get out of that inning with bases loaded, how important was that to you guys?

COACH DAVID PIERCE: Sometimes Cole has a low motor, and we talk a lot during BP because he catches for me 50 percent of the time. And we just talk about little things and talk about probably 50 percent of the people in the stadium aren't even paying attention to the game. We're not that big of a deal, and just go be yourself and go out there and compete.

And man, when you get in that kind of jam, and he threw his pitches with conviction, I think you just watched another young person just grow up right there on the mound. I mean, we've all seen his stuff. We've all seen some tremendous outings, but you just watched him grow up to basically feel like he can do pretty much anything on that mound if he just puts his mind to it.

I think it's tremendous.

Q. Can you take us through, you get Cole up in the bullpen in the 5th and then Tristan comes back out for the 6th. Can you take us through what your thinking was about when to bring Cole in?

COACH DAVID PIERCE: I don't have like anybody coming in in that big of a mess. But every time Tristan is in the game, he's a guy that has a history of handling that stuff. And so you've got a quick 5th and it was a no-brainer that we were bringing him back out with Cole being one of two potential guys that would come on if we had runners in the inning.

So Sean and I planned it this morning, how we wanted to approach it with guys that would come in clean, guys that would come in in situations, guys that would deal with the top of the order versus the bottom of the order and for Tristan to give us six. I think -- what did he go, five? I mean, probably after pitching on Tuesday, we were looking at three to five, and he got us into the sixth.

Yeah, there's a lot that we talked about, but that's kind of how it evolved.

Q. You guys lost the first game and were behind the 8-ball. How draining was that for this team to play under that kind of pressure with four elimination games?

COACH DAVID PIERCE: I don't think anybody ever really felt this pressure that we've got to win this game. I think everybody felt like there was a comfort about just competing and trying to do it the tough way and fighting every single day and getting into the flow of the tournament. I mean, what did we play, five games in the tournament? That's something that they have got very comfortable playing here.

And like I said, I don't think we ever -- at times, of course, the game speeds up and they have some really quality arms. But I don't think that piece really affected us other than, you know, realizing that there is no next day if we don't win. But we never went there, really. We just kind of kept it positive.

I believe the last two nights of 3:40 and 2-hour rain delays probably drained us as much as anything, and we didn't discuss that. Other than next game, get ready to go. You know, whether it wore on us or not, our play was tremendous.

So I mean, it's unfortunate we had to hang around so long, but I didn't think that was the reason why we lost.

Q. And could you speak to the nucleus of the team coming back after the high of this season, everything it accomplished?

COACH DAVID PIERCE: What do you mean?

Q. You have a lot of freshmen and some really great young pitchers.

COACH DAVID PIERCE: I see. Okay. Yeah, I mean, the future's bright. A great recruiting class, and we have -- look around the Horn. Ivan is going to insert probably at first base, potentially third base. You've got a guy like Payton Kyle who might have options to do more in there. You have Silas, Trey, Mitch, Hodo, TC, you can go on and on on the staff. The two big freshmen in Witt and Nixon, and you look at Gordon, he's right there close at being the next weekend guy. Just a lot of positive things.

I think more than anything that I've been so pleased with is just the leadership from Ty and Tristan and DJ and all the older guys, Zach, they have just been tremendous. They set the standard. It's crazy we got here in 2017 and we absorbed a team that was 24-31 and didn't really know how to win.

This group, starting last spring, started really creating that attitude that we were looking for. Our 2018 team was good, but this group has started that true standard that we're looking for.

Q. Did you feel Cole was tired, or did you feel you could ride him as long as he wanted to go out there?

COACH DAVID PIERCE: I don't know about as long as he wanted to go but I thought he was sharp. When the 8th was over, he was strong and I thought we're sticking right there. I liked everything about it.

Q. This group, one of your favorite groups of all time, how do you say good-bye to a group like this?

COACH DAVID PIERCE: Those guys will be a part of my life the rest of my life. So other than saying good-bye from a team of 27 to whatever we have total, that's the tough part. You just want to keep doing it. You really do. You want to just keep doing it with these guys. But I think those guys will always be a part of the rest of my life. I hope so. I hope they feel the same.

There's a lot of local media here that have spent a lot of time with me and this team. I think you guys have been tremendous. I really do appreciate that. You've got a tough job to do as well as I do, but I really appreciate you guys. Thank you.