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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 21, 2010

Geoff Parker

OMAHA, NEBRASKA

Florida State Â– 8
Florida - 5

THE MODERATOR: Joined by Florida State, Tyler Holt, Brian Busch, Mike McGee, and Coach Mike Martin. Opening statement, Coach.
COACH MARTIN: Well, I couldn't think of four more important guys to come up here today, although I had nothing to do with it. But at the same time, it was a great team win for our ball club.
It shows a lot of perseverance, and you've got to take your hat off to the University of Florida for the outstanding fight that they displayed. It was obviously a good win for our program, and got a great quality start out of Brian Busch, and excellent relief from Jeffrey.
And these two guys that play every day have been the backbone, you might say, of our ball club all year. Tyler got us off to a big start, and then of course Michael did such a good job, not only of hitting the home run, but of executing a very good safety squeeze to get us another run. A good win for us. We're excited, and looking forward to continuing to compete.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Mike, what's the most difficult thing of making a transition from being in the field to coming in to save in a situation like today? And what brings you greater satisfaction, hitting one out of the park or being able to close the game like you did today?
MIKE McGEE: As far as the most difficult thing, it's probably -- it's got to be a mental thing, the mental aspect of it. And in the field you're kind of -- I don't know, you're somewhat tense. You're facing everything going on. Worrying about all this other stuff. Get on the mound after being in the field, you've got to calm yourself down and really focus in on the job that you have to do now. Every now and then I'll catch myself on the mound thinking, like, base hit, throw it to third or something like that.
But you've got to get on the mound and really focus in on what you have to do and just focus on throwing strikes and getting people out.
As far as the most fun? Definitely the home run. I just like to hit.
Pitching, you know, it's great to end the game, it's great when you get the save. I like to be in control at the end, but hitting the home run, it's the best feeling there is.

Q. Mike, another question for you. Against TCU, you guys had four singles, no extra base hits, and only two left infield. How big was it to see your lead-off hitter put one over the fence to start the game?
MIKE McGEE: Big. Starting with a run, especially since they scored in the opening inning. And to come back and then first Tyler, our first bat we have, get that run back, put it back to a tie game, that was huge. That put the momentum back on our side. And like you said, to have some power, which we didn't show too much of the other day, that will get the team going, get a little confidence in them.

Q. Mike, can you just describe that home run for us, from your perspective?
MIKE McGEE: Yeah. I got down -- he threw me a first pitch slider that I could have hit. I took -- I was kind of, that was the pitch. He pitched well after that. That 1-2 slider, he just left hanging, just a mistake pitch. He made a mistake, and I was able to take advantage of it. I was kind of sitting on the slider, holding the bat, and I was lucky enough to get another one.

Q. Brian, you really had it going from the first inning to the third. I think you retired nine guys in a row. How were you able to do that?
BRIAN BUSCH: Just working ahead. In the first inning, I could not control anything, basically. And I mean, anytime you walk four guys in a game and only give up two runs, you're pretty fortunate.
But just letting my defense work, and just getting ahead.

Q. Tyler, obviously you guys' priority was getting the win and extending your season. Is there any kind of extra significance doing it at the expense of your rivals?
TYLER HOLT: A win is a win, whether it was Florida or if we were playing UCLA. Either one of us are going home. So I'm kind of glad we're staying around.
But we got pushed out my freshman year by a rival, and it feels really good to be on the other side this time.

Q. To follow up on his question, though, I'm sure you didn't want to be the first team to be eliminated from the very last College World Series at Rosenblatt, especially by Florida. So was there any talk before the game at all about, look, we're not going to be the first to go and certainly not by these guys?
TYLER HOLT: I don't think the talk was like that. But upper classmen that were here, freshman year, we went 0-2. It was kind of like, hey, whether the guys that are draft-eligible that leave or come back, you know, and they don't make it next year, we didn't want to say our tenure Rosenblatt was 0-4. That was mainly, hey, we're going to stick around this time. We know what it's about. And we have a tough road ahead of us, but we're taking one game at a time.

Q. Mike, another one for you. The last out there, the double play, what was the pitch? When he hit it, were you like: Oh, no?
MIKE McGEE: I was. It was supposed to be a slider down off the plate and dirt, completely unhittable. And it slipped out of my hand a little bit. As soon as I let go of it, I felt it come up out of my hand, and I was like: Oh, no. And he hit it well, like he did three times today, I guess. That kid was hitting the ball hard. He sat on it, hit it well. I didn't turn around at first, I just went: Oh, no. And I heard a pop. So that was a good way to get out of a game on a mistake pitch.

Q. Tyler, talk a little bit about setting the tone, not just with the home run, but with the rest of the game and your offensive game, if you could.
TYLER HOLT: I was feeling it well today. I got some good swings, got some good pitches. My first at-bat, I just wanted to get him deep in the count, kind of set the tone to where if they were going to beat us, they're going to have to use their pen. And that's kind of the approach that we had today.
We had got in some deep counts. And we got him out in a hurry, whether it was the pitch count or just us staying deep in the counts, it helped. It helps to have guys that can hit 1 through 9, and we showed that today. We played all-around good baseball. We put the bunts down when we needed to. We put sacrifices, and we ran the bases well.
So it also helps with the pitching to throw strikes and get guys out, like Busch said. You're fortunate to have four walks and two hits and only two runs. So it's just an overall good baseball game today.

Q. Coach Martin, could you talk a little bit about the leadership you got from Tyler, Stephen and Mike, guys that have already been out here, to come out here and get a win out here?
COACH MARTIN: We wouldn't be here without these men, no question about it. They do have the experience. They're captains of the team, along with Stephen Cardullo. It was clearly evident in the dugout that they knew the game wasn't over, because they kept saying to the rest of the guys: This thing's not over. Stay tough. Clear indication that they have a good grasp of the game of baseball.
These two guys have been tremendous contributors to the success of our team this year. And I'm just hoping both of them come back.

Q. Geoff, talk about your performance a little bit. It was a hairy situation to come into without a run scoring, I believe. What was working for you and how big was that?
GEOFF PARKER: Real big. I mean, we had, I believe, it was first and second, or just second. And curveball was working well for me. I believe it was a first pitch curveball, the guy popped it straight up.
And then I believe three curveballs to the next guy for a strikeout. And you know, that really got the team going because, you know, hairy situation, like you said, two guys on, one guy on, whatever, one out. And just to get both those out without that guy advancing is just big.

Q. Mike, how anxious were you in the 9th inning in reality, in the dugout?
COACH MARTIN: Do I really have to tell you? (Laughter) I guess when you've been doing this for a while, you can't get out of yourself. But we had a guy on the mound, with Parker, that was just cool the whole time he was out there. Bennett did a good job.
Michael comes in the game. We've got the man in the game that we want in the game at that moment, because he's been there so many times. Certainly there was a concern of the lead that we had in seeing it dwindle. But Mike was in control.
He made the pitches, other than the last one, he made the pitches that he wanted to. And I'm glad he mentioned that it was supposed to have been a slider in the dirt. (Laughter) But that's the game of baseball. It's so unpredictable. If guys threw the ball every time where they wanted to, you all wouldn't have anything to write about during these games. And certainly the Major League writers wouldn't have anything to write about.
This guy's done it all year long. Yeah, I was a little anxious, and I was glad when it was over.

Q. Coach, can you talk about that first mound visit? And I would imagine that throwing strikes was somewhere in that conversation, and the way that Brian settled down after that first inning.
COACH MARTIN: Boomer has a way of taking total control of a situation. And it was good that we had an experienced guy out there when the first two guys get on base, he struggled with his composure.
I went out just to be sure that he knew that if a bunt occurred here, what bunt defense we were in. If the guy swung the bat, who the guy was covering at second, just being sure that he was in the right frame of mind.
I looked into his eyes. I could see everything was fine. And I said a prayer as I walked back to the bench. (Laughter).
THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, congratulations.

End of FastScripts

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