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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 19, 2011Austin BookerChad BuntingDavid EsquerChadd KristOMAHA, NEBRASKA Virginia – 4 THE MODERATOR: Can you give us a brief overview? COACH ESQUER: You know, Danny Hultzen, as advertised, second pick in the draft. He was tough. A little bend but no break. And I gotta give him a lot of credit. He was tough on our guys and got the big out when he had to. You know, it was a great ballgame into the seventh in, and you knew it was going to come down to I think at times both teams were given some base runners and maybe given some opportunities who was going to come up with the big hit. That's kind of like the way the games have been going all year long. The three-run homer and coming back from by being able to outmuscle someone doesn't happen as often. It's about putting guys in position and winning the big spot. That's the way it's been all year long. And Virginia did a great job of that. They're tough with two strikes. I thought they had a good offensive plan. They dropped some hits in there that a lot of people don't think are pretty hits but the people who know those are hitter's hits and to fight the ball the other way and drop those in that's good hitting especially deep in the count they do a good job of that. They use the middle of the field well. And they got some big hits when they had to. And the sacrifice fly down two strikes and the guy was able to lift that ball to right field. That's great situational hitting. So they won the big spot today. And I thought Hultzen did a great job. He's obviously the cream of the crop as far as left-handers go in the nation. I thought we battled them pretty good and got runners on base, but you gotta get the big hit with runners in scoring position. We didn't do it today and hopefully we can stay in the tournament long enough to kind of catch a groove while we're here. So my hat's off to Virginia. They played a great ballgame. THE MODERATOR: Questions from the floor. Q. David, how do you feel about coming back through the losers bracket? You did that in Houston, how do you feel about coming back here and who will pitch in your next game? COACH ESQUER: You know, I think we got them right where we want them. I think from here on out everyone's going to be coming off a loss and we'll be coming off a win. I think that's where we were at our best. So we might as well go with that. At least that's what I'm trying to convince our guys. And you know, we're going to look at the matchup a little bit and see how that works out. Dixon Anderson and Kyle Porter, right and left. And we'll figure out what matches up best in Game 2. So like we've done it all year. And like you said, we're kind of used to backs up against the wall and we'll see. I know you don't always hit the ground running when you get into big tournaments and just tournament atmosphere, and you hope you can stay in the tournament long enough to kind of get comfortable and some guys to get moving a little bit. So hopefully we can do that. Q. Austin, seemed like -- well, the question is: Were you all interested in running up Hultzen's pitch count? It seemed like you in particular battled him up to about seven or eight pitches? AUSTIN BOOKER: Basically I was just trying to see some pitches, get a good pitch to hit. He was making good pitches that kept me off balance. I couldn't really get anything that I wanted to square up. He was making the pitches. So I was just trying to see pitches and he did a good job of staying around the plate to keep in the battle. And I was lucky enough to be able to see the pitches the way I drew some walks. Q. Austin, can you talk about the diving catch you had in the fifth inning to snuff that rally. What was it like being in the field while 0s after 0s were being put up on the scoreboard? AUSTIN BOOKER: It was tough, because you want to put some runs up. But the pitchers were doing well limiting us to few runners and making the pitches to get us out. And just keeping the game close is what we're trying to do. Luckily I was able to make that catch down the line to help stop that rally. Q. Coach, Eric seemed to not have the command over his fastball he did maybe in the first three-quarters he did in the first of the season. COACH ESQUER: You know, Eric had some base runners but not necessarily break. He makes it tough on himself sometimes because he does give some base runners and puts himself in a tough position. He pitches out of it quite often. His batting average again is not high. So if he makes them swing the bat he is tough to hit. He's battled himself a little bit the last four, five outings, and he can run through hitters and get a big strikeout when he gets himself in trouble. But putting those opportunities on base we probably had to go to the pen a little earlier than we would have liked. Q. Chadd, can you summarize how the team's feeling right now? CHADD KRIST: I think that we're obviously a little bit disappointed on the outcome of today's game. But it's our first game getting our feet under ourselves in this big stadium. I think we're ready to go tomorrow and give it another shot. Q. Coach, your team had a lot of great defensive plays early on got out of a lot of jams, were you pleased with at least the way they didn't come out with like wide-eyed and scared at all, just talk about your mindset coming into the game? COACH ESQUER: I was happy about that. I felt we came out defensively and battled them pretty good. You're into the seventh inning 0-0 ballgame. That's what we felt the way the game was going to go with Hultzen pitching and then Eric Johnson with our bullpen. We thought that we needed to keep the game close, and then hopefully we would make them crack late and the opposite happened today where they got a couple of runs in the seventh inning. And you know, the key was if we could have held them off in the eighth the two runs I knew we would give ourselves some opportunity but the two runs they put up in the eighth is, they were big runs. Bigger than they looked at the time. I think some people thought they were just putting four on the board. But I knew the way our team was, we'd make some noise there towards the end. Q. Chad Bunting, could you describe how close you came to that drive out in right field, and also if I may what did you think of Hultzen and how does he compare with some of the other top pitchers that you have faced this year? CHAD BUNTING: I believe it tipped the very end of my glove. I was playing maybe two or three steps in two strike count, righty up with a man in scoring position trying to look to take away the shallower hit and throw the guy out on a hard base hit to right field. So it got over me, and I tried to make good play on it. Just tipped my glove and couldn't quite get full extension. And as for Hultzen, he was good. Quality through all of his pitches for strikes. He kept the ball down. Knew when to elevate. He's up there among the pitchers we've seen. He's good. Q. Coach, early Eric walked Hultzen twice, were you guys pitching around him, or was that just him not being able to establish the zone? COACH ESQUER: No, not pitching around him. Especially I think leading off in the game and Hultzen's a good offensive player, but Eric's best when he makes people swing the bat. He just wasn't able to locate in the zone and walked him a couple times. But, no, we were going right at him trying to challenge and get him out. Q. What did you think of the second pitcher they threw in there? Were you looking forward to seeing somebody other than Hultzen, and what did he show you? COACH ESQUER: I thought he was solid. Definitely I think he was their Saturday starter on the weekends for most of the year. He's a quality pitcher, fastball with a good down breaking slider. Obviously when you go from Danny Hultzen, it's hard to stay at that level. So it wasn't that it dropped off all that much. He was just a different type of pitcher, gave us a different look, right-hander with a little bit of a down-breaking slider. But I thought he was pretty solid. Q. Coach, given the season your team's already had coming back from being cut and now getting here to Omaha, do you feel like the team has anything left to prove? COACH ESQUER: Yeah, you know, I think we're here to prove something. I don't think we're -- I think our team in general is not here just to participate. I think we made that clear that if you're just happy to be here, then you'll be going home fairly soon. And they're here to win ballgames. And I think they want to show well and give themselves the best chance to win. I told them if you don't come to win we might as well not go. We get a participant's badge or trophy whether we win or not. Let's come here to win. I thought my experience, I know in the World Series, I said the biggest difference of the two years I came here in '85 we were the number one team in the nation. Thought we came just to play well. If we play well, we win, we're the number one ranked team. I thought the last year, '87, our mindset, doesn't matter how we play, just win. If you have to grind one out playing average, that's fine. If you have to grind one out playing poorly, that's fine. Maybe you can play long enough to get a chance to play well. But winning was what we came to do. And I tried to relay that to them; you've got to play to win because that's what you're here for. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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