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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 23, 2010

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Oklahoma players Tyler Ogle, Cameron Seitzer, Bobby Shore, and Coach Sunny Golloway. Opening statement, Coach.
COACH GOLLOWAY: I thought our guys came back and really played well today after our delay. We had quite a bit of rain delay since we've gotten to Omaha. But we're clearly not complaining.
I thought it was a tough night yesterday. What we told our guys immediately -- and I'm trying to put some of the -- yesterday, because it's all part of the ball game, of course, when we first had the lightning strike and delay, we met in the clubhouse and I told the guys that really great baseball players have a very short memory.
I think defensively it was probably pretty tough to sit there and watch 14 straight balls and the things that went on. And I think it had to be even more tough for Bobby, you know, who's trying his darnedest to get the ball in the zone and couldn't find it at that point. And we kept giving him a chance to pitch out of it, thinking if he could find it and locate a couple of things, he could work his way out of that thing.
But, again, I thought, you know, we minimized the damage at that point at. 4-1, we felt good, and there was a misplayed fly ball out there, and I don't know if the wind just caught it. Max has been really good for us defensively. He's an outstanding freshman and a big part of -- Bobby Shore and Max are a big part of why we're here.
So in the clubhouse, it was, hey, we wouldn't be here without everybody. We collectively have done an awful lot. We'll continue to. We're not a club that has ever blamed each other, and we're not going to start now. We're going to be positive. So mainly, let's have a short memory of what just happened. Let's have a hot dog and let's get ready to play, because clearly we're experienced at rain delays at Rosenblatt.
Then when we got back to the hotel and it was decided we would play today, the message was going to be, again, put a smile on your face and believe that you're going to come back and win. We've done it 27 times this year, and that I would not basically allow you to go into the hotel lobby unless you put on that happy face.
And I stood there at the door and I watched every player go by, and I saw a smile on every one of our players. We were not panicked. We believed we would come back and win the ball game. And with that being said, before the game, it was made very clear to our guys -- I thought the apparent things that hurt us yesterday, everybody saw those things.
The thing that was probably not as visual was the fact that we did not lay the bat down on three 3-2 counts. We should have laid the bat down instead of swinging or offering at a pitch that was out of the zone. And that's three base runners that would have been key yesterday. And there were two inside that we really felt if we hold our ground, we wear those pitches. One of them was with bases loaded.
We've been good at that all year. We can't go away from being who we are. We talked about those. Probably two out of the 3-2 counts would have been for-sure balls. The others borderline. Those were four base runners we needed. One of them would have been an RBI hit by pitch, and so we said let's make an point of emphasis today that we don't swing at balls out of the zone at any time in the count. I think twice there were 3-2 counts, we offered the ball to the zone. And an example, Buechele up swinging some balls up out of the zone. Cody Reine offering a ball at the dirt. It puts our power hitters at a negative count. We're not going to be as dangerous in those negative counts.
I really thought that was the game within the game for us, because had we laid the bat down, we're looking at a three-run home run instead of a solo and we're looking at a two-run home run instead of a single. And that clearly is what changed the game in our eyes.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Sunny, today you got some single runs in some innings, but you just couldn't really bunch a bunch of hits together, could you? Just talk about that. Was that what you were talking about, those at-bats?
COACH GOLLOWAY: That was the key. If you think about where we offered the ball out of the zone and ended the inning with Black, the next at-bat is Seitzer. You can always argue, hey, he's leading off the next inning, so they're pitching him different than they would with runs at first and second. But I think the knowledge of the game, it was ball one and ball two, they were going to have to come in the zone, and Cam looked pretty confident up there before he hit the home run.
So had it been a different count, it maybe in my mind wouldn't have been as big a point of emphasis. But the point fact that he was pitching behind, their guy was behind the count, I think Cam was probably was going to get the same type of pitches.
But it split the inning, and it took two potential left on base runners off there. Of course, one of them was at the plate swinging the ball out of the zone to end the inning.
But that's the discipline. Some people have called us free swingers. We don't like that. We clearly don't teach that and we don't want to be that. I make it a point of emphasis because we're really driving that home. If we're going to stay and win and compete for a national championship, we cannot offer balls out of the zone as often as we have.
You're always going to have it. We're talking about amateur hitters, we're talking the College World Series, and we're talking about power arms that we're facing. But it's too often with us. And I'm hoping that you'll print it, because it makes you great assistant coaches. So if you want us to win, print it -- I don't want to say that. Just print it, okay? They'll read it.

Q. Bobby, can you talk about what happened to you in the 4th inning?
BOBBY SHORE: Yeah. I could not throw a strike. I just went out there and I was trying to throw the ball right down the middle, especially on the bunt, just trying to force contact. I don't know, just one of those things where I couldn't throw a strike. And the game sped up for me. Ogle tried to slow me down, and it just didn't work you. And Coach got me out at the right time. I wasn't doing a good job.

Q. Coach, it's hard to overcome when your one through three hole hitters combine for I believe 14 at-bats. Can you just talk about that?
COACH GOLLOWAY: Again, trying to do too much. We always talk about more is less and less is more at this point. And we got guys trying to do too much. I think about Buechele is one of those three in the top of the lineup at Virginia. And they've got the report, so I'm not giving anything to help anybody that's competing against Oklahoma a scouting report. There were offers quite a few times up out.
And it's trying to do too much. Gerrit wants and he wills his team to win, and he's such a big part of what we are and why we're here. We're trying to calm him down like the rest of the guys. And Chris Ellison has done a pretty good job leading off. He got on four straight games, and we won in those games and continued to advance except for the one on the first game back to Charlottesville. But he's done a good job getting on.
But sometimes I think they just try to do too much. That's what happens 3-2. It's like, I'm hitting it, and it's ball four and you can't really hit it, but you're out.
So if we can just calm our guys down and make them understand that, hey, it's a collective effort. Everyone's done a great job to help us get to 50 wins, and I don't know exact math, but we're already talking about this. I think staying in the winner's bracket, you've got to win four games to advance, and that might be the math for Clemson at this point or UCLA. And we've got to win five. So it gives you an opportunity for us to win, what, 55 this year instead of 54. So that's not a bad thing.
So that's how we look at it. That's how we looked at it at Charlottesville. We lost 3-2, we said when we woke up, we have to win 2. When we wake up tomorrow, we've got to win two. Well, now we've got to win five. That's not a bad thing. More opportunity for everybody to be a hero.

Q. Sunny, between having to play on three straight days or for parts of three days and getting in your bullpen early, how are you for pitching for tomorrow and kind of what's your direction there?
COACH GOLLOWAY: Well, we feel pretty good. I thought J.R. coming in stabilizing was a real big key for us. Bobby's already come to me and said, Coach, I'll be ready to go. And Rocha came to me today and said, I feel great, I'm ready to go.
Erben is going to be able to bounce back. He's been that kind of guy for us all year. He can go out there and throw in the teens for three, four days in a row. He's got that kind of arm and that kind of strength to his body. Of course we haven't used Duke, but the short stint out of the pen.
So we like where we're at. We've got Zach Neil who pitched Friday night for us all year in the Big 12, ready to go. And I believe in our bullpen. I believe in our arms. We have depth. Jack Mayfield is not the Jack Mayfield that we know, the one that's been seen here at Rosenblatt. So he just got -- he didn't stay over the rubber. He got out front, led with his elbow and pitches were up. That's something we've already talked about and we feel we've corrected and he'll be ready to go.
So we're going to be okay. Our arms are going to be there for us, and we've got depth and we're going to be able to go three straight days. That is what we have to do.

Q. Have you decided concretely on a starter?
COACH GOLLOWAY: Yes.

Q. For tomorrow? That's Zach Neil?
COACH GOLLOWAY: Zach Neil.

Q. Talk about facing South Carolina again and the first step in that challenge to try to get to the series, what you learned the first time out against them and kind of what you guys -- and the players, too, what you think about South Carolina.
CAMERON SEITZER: South Carolina, they're a great ball club, as you saw yesterday. Put up a lot of runs against Arizona State. They're a good swinging ball club. They've got pitching. They've got depth. It's going to be a challenge. We just have to come out and compete and play to the best of our ability, and that's it.
TYLER OGLE: From what I know you can't make too many mistakes against them. We made two mistakes in the game, and they put it out of the yard. So hopefully the team with the least amount of mistakes will come out with the win.
BOBBY SHORE: Yeah, we played a good game against them. We played good against them, it's going to be a good game, fun.
COACH GOLLOWAY: Clearly in the College World Series, if you look at it, and I said this on the live shot with ESPN, if you can stay away from big innings, you give yourself a great chance at Omaha. There's been some big innings against some pretty good teams. Clearly South Carolina had one of those.
I'm a genius by saying if we stay away from the eight-run inning, it's going to be a good shot. But it's going to have to be much less than that. But that's what concerned me the most. They've got a lineup and they've got a club that can put up a pretty ugly number on our side, probably pretty for Tanner, but not so pretty for me. I don't want to see it.
And we've got that kind of club, too. And I think that's what both coaches, every coach here understands. You've got to stay away from the big number. We thought we did a good job of that yesterday by the 4-1. We honestly felt good when it was 4-1 because that could have gotten to be an ugly number and we've seen some early in the series.

Q. Tyler and Cameron, you've been in this spot before facing elimination, just talk about it. You've been a hot team at the end of the year, too? Just talk about the thought of needing to win three in a row?
CAMERON SEITZER: I mean, we've just got to go out and play like we have been all year. Facing elimination, not facing elimination. We've got to go out and play the same intensity every game and just go one pitch at a time and play to the best of our ability and win three straight.
TYLER OGLE: Obviously no one wants to stop playing right now. So we kind of have a sense of urgency since we got here to put up numbers. So as long as we stop trying to do too much and just play like we have been. Last year we caught a hot team, and this year we're hoping to be that hot team in Rosenblatt.
So we can just facing elimination, just come out and get three straight, hopefully take care of itself.

Q. Tyler, can you talk about the team's attitude in the dugout?
TYLER OGLE: When we got here, nobody was really, you know, down on themselves too much, because we hadn't lost yet. I mean, we were just down five runs. So we knew we were going to come out and score runs. We just fell a little short at the end.
So I think everyone would be up for the next couple of games. And we'll see some smiles.
THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you.

End of FastScripts

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