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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 19, 2011

Keith Werman

OMAHA, NEBRASKA

Virginia Â– 4
California - 1

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Brian. Give us an overview.
COACH O'CONNOR: Well, I thought that we played a very good fundamental baseball game from a pitching and defense standpoint.
Danny Hultzen grinded another start out. I thought he looked really good, but obviously after the middle part of the game started to tire a little bit. But was fortunate to still be able to clux him out.
Started to wonder there for a while. We had a lot of missed opportunities that we didn't capitalize. I think that speaks to the quality of the arms that Cal has, their ability to pitch out of some jams and they've had great pitching all year. And I just knew if we hung in there and we continued to battle and our pitching would hold us in there, that we'd have a chance to win it late. And fortunately we did.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. John, just as you guys are putting runners on base and not scoring them, just what's the thought in the dugout, and are you thinking we've got to break through at some point?
JOHN HICKS: We had confidence the whole time. Their pitchers did an unbelievable job of keeping us in the game until we could string a few hits together. We had plenty of opportunities early in the ballgame, and I personally had one.
And we just had to get a ball in the air or get a ball in the middle of the field and we'd score the run. But we didn't come up with the clutch hit.
But we knew that we'd come through eventually, that we'd eventually get on the board. And their pitchers did a great job of keeping us there.

Q. Keith, describe the feeling after your hit. I know you kind of had a tough go coming into this?
KEITH WERMAN: You know, I'm just trying to get on base, leading off the inning, get something going for the team. I was fortunate to just try to relax and make minor adjustment from the two at-bats before. But just go out there and get on base. And it was a great feeling.

Q. Danny, seemed like they were fouling you off, taking pitches, trying to wear you down, what was your day like out there?
DANNY HULTZEN: It was tough. They had some really competitive hitters up there. They refused to take those digs and swing and misses. They did a good job of battling two strikes.
When that happens, you just gotta let them do that. You can't try to strike them out because they're not going to. So you just gotta play into that.

Q. Coach, when did you make the decision that you were going to go to Tyler Wilson as a reliever, if you could talk about the effort your pitchers did today.
COACH O'CONNOR: Tyler and I had a conversation two days ago, and I told him what my game plan was, that if we had an opportunity to win the game in the back half of the game that I was going to use him out of our bullpen.
And then potentially start him Game 3. We have that luxury, because he pitched 35 games for us out of our pen last year, and he understands what that's about. And fortunately we have some really good depth from a starting pitching standpoint. And it allowed us to do that.
That doesn't mean that I don't have confidence in our bullpen. But I just felt like it was the right thing to do, and we're in this thing to win it. And fortunately it worked out.

Q. Tyler, that was a flashback to kind of the role you had your first three years. What was it like coming out of the pen again like that?
TYLER WILSON: It was great. Like I've always said, I think it's just a privilege to get the ball, whether it's out of the bullpen, as a starter. And I think that that's the mentality of a lot of the guys on our team have. They take advantage of every opportunity they have late in the game, early in the game. And they fulfill their role to the best of their ability. And that's what makes our pitching staff pretty good.

Q. On that same theme, you have come out of the bullpen recently, did that help?
TYLER WILSON: Sure. I've had a few appearances out of the bullpen late in the year. It's good to get that experience, kind of get back in that mindset.
But at the same time, no matter what position you're in, what role you're playing, your job is to put zeros up on that scoreboard and give your offense a chance to build some momentum and give our team the best chance to win.

Q. Tyler and Danny, can you just talk about the value of Keith, he doesn't always do it with his bat but he's always around making big plays.
DANNY HULTZEN: I feel like whenever a ball's to the right side Keith is going to get it. So it's a nice luxury to have out there. We don't take it for granted.
TYLER WILSON: I'll echo the same thing. Defensively, he's a pretty special player. At the same time, whether his numbers depict -- his numbers don't depict what he's done offensively all year long. He has a quality at-bat every time he steps in the box. He does his job whether it's moving a runner, laying down a bunt, whatever the position may be, he answers the call every time he steps in there.

Q. Keith and John, could you guys talk about the experience you've had so far in Omaha and the new park and what it's been like?
JOHN HICKS: It's been a blast. We got down here and had practice and got the lag out from under us. Had a great time with my teammates. We came to the game a little bit yesterday and got to watch a couple of innings and walk around and see what everything was like. And just playing at this stadium the first year that it's opened is a great privilege.
KEITH WERMAN: It's been very enjoyable. We've all been excited to come here again, and it's great for us as veterans to be able to talk to these new guys for their first experience and help them out on some things outside the game. And it's been a blast. And keep it going.

Q. Keith, just talk about what you changed in your batting stroke and was it hard to stay positive during the last two weeks at the plate?
KEITH WERMAN: Yeah, you know, that's probably one of the hardest things about this game is you're going to fail. And it's a matter of being able to stay positive every time. You still go up to the plate and clear out what happened. That's the biggest thing. Maybe you fail that one time, you come up the next time and you forget about it and start over and have that positive thought and visualize things.
And just trying to go out there and relax and just have fun with it and enjoy the experience and the next few for these guys.

Q. John and Keith, I want to follow up a little bit about the field. What was batter's eye -- could you get a pretty good look with the pitchers with the batter's eye here and any idiosyncrasies with the field you had to adjust with today, whether it's glare or condition of the infield, anything like that?
JOHN HICKS: I felt like everybody could see the ball pretty well as far as the hitter's eye goes. And, I mean, just practicing out here the other day and today, seemed like you could see the ball pretty well. I think one big difference is how much foul territory you have to the first base and third base line.
And I know at one point today it was kind of tough to read a ball that ended up in the seats down the first base line that I thought was going to stay fair.
And almost ran the first baseman into the wall but luckily he held up. But it's a beautiful field. From what I could tell it looked like the hops were true and the ball was carrying pretty well.
KEITH WERMAN: The surface is fantastic, one of my favorites definitely. And you know one of our advantages here is the dimensions on this field are the same as at home for us. So that helps out our outfielders. And like he said, the biggest difference is the foul territory. And anytime you see a ball go up in the air, you never want to give up on it because you have the opportunity to catch that ball.
But hitter's eye is great, and they did a great job with the field and I had no issues picking up the baseball.

Q. Danny, could you talk about the swinging bunt in the sixth where you made -- did you feel you were going to be able to make that play which is really big because the next guy I think got a double. So that play really loomed large?
DANNY HULTZEN: Yeah, it was. I think Pete was playing back, the guy who had two strikes. One of those tweeners. And I thought Chad was going to make a play anyway, but I decided to go after it. But it was good to get that first out to lead off that inning. So that definitely was pretty big for us.

Q. Coach, do you feel like with your club, even when you are failing to take advantage of opportunities early, that your team just has a tendency to wear people out with the pressure that you put on them and that you tend to get to them late, does that happen a lot?
COACH O'CONNOR: You know, the way that the game went today, it's happened that way quite a bit this year. Good observation. Where our hitters, after a time through, have figured out what they're trying to do to us, make an adjustment to what we need to do from an offensive standpoint.
I'll tell you, I mean, you gotta give a lot of credit to Cal. Their starter, obviously, pitched himself into jams, but he made some really big clutch pitches when he needed to to pitch himself out of them. I obviously can see why somebody drafted him in the second round. He's got a really good arm. He's got a bright future, as do their bullpen guys.
But we've been a team that really all year has kind of grinded it out offensively, and I think you're right, a pitcher can get very frustrated sometimes with our offensive approach that nobody gives in, they're going to continue to foul balls off and put up a quality at-bat.

Q. Danny, I think you threw 28 pitches in the first inning. How did you feel after that first inning and would you have ever thought you could get into the seventh after throwing that much?
DANNY HULTZEN: Yeah, that was pretty crazy. After that first inning, after a couple of walks, couple of ten pitches at-bats, I was kind of like this could be a long day. But once we got that third out, I settled down, got those butterflies out of your stomach, just playing in front of 20,000 people or whatever. Just after that first inning gotta get those nerves out but after that I settled down a little bit.

Q. Brian, in 2009 you had to play out of the loser's bracket; potentially, at least how big a deal is it to win the first one?
COACH O'CONNOR: I think that's a good question. But I don't think it's really that big of a difference. South Carolina, obviously, proved that last year where they lost the first game and ended up winning it all.
But it is nice to be in that 1-0 game, because then if you win it, the advantage is somebody's gotta beat you twice. So there's no question in any tournament that you play you would want to be in that position you have the advantage. That being said, you know, I certainly wouldn't count Cal out of this thing. That program has scratched and clawed and done everything they can possibly do to get themselves here to Omaha.
And I know whoever they play next they're going to continue to fight. I know I addressed this in the preconference, but I think Cal being here is one of the best things that could happen for college baseball, because I think it sends a message across the country that there's a lot of programs that really care about their baseball programs and there's a lot of good coaches out there and a lot of good players.
And I think it's really great the fact that everybody knows the story what they've been through and the fact that they could make it here to Omaha. And I'm just glad we had an opportunity to play them today and fortunately we won.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 19, 2011

John Hicks

Danny Hultzen

Keith Werman