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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 15, 2012Patrick CantwellTravis JankowkiTyler JohnsonMatt SenkOMAHA, NEBRASKA UCLA – 9 COACH SENK: I congratulate Coach Savage (Indiscernible). He played well, and they had a very convincing win. So I congratulate them for that as early as they did. It made it very, very difficult for us. (Indiscernible). It made going out there that much tougher. Even if they haven't scored as much as they did early, you go up against a team like that, and a pitcher like that, you're only going to get a couple of chances to score. We had some chances with people in scoring position with less than two outs, and we didn't take advantage of that. We have been taking advantage of that throughout the tournament and throughout the year. So I think when those people are on base, if we could have plated some people and perhaps shifted the momentum in our direction somewhat. Then on the defensive side, I don't think we've walked that many people in a month. For whatever reason that happened, that made it very difficult; and, again, UCLA offensively took advantage of the free bases by getting some timely hits. And there you have it. Q. Tyler, after the workload you've had the last few weeks, was that a factor today? Did you feel you were at a hundred percent or just not hitting your spot? TYLER JOHNSON: I think at this point of the year no one's really a hundred percent. We've got guys going out there with little bumps and bruises here and there. But fact of the matter is, I just wasn't on today. I thought I hit a few spots every once and a while down there, but even when I did, I would throw the ball a couple more inches outside. Like Coach said, just wasn't on today. No excuse over the workload. Had a good five days to rest, so as much as people may say it was overworking, it was just me being off today and a good UCLA team took advantage. Q. Tyler, you come in here with a lot of expectations that Stony Brook has never experienced before. Was that a factor at all? Was there any unusual level of nerves that you didn't really experience in the previous two tournaments? TYLER JOHNSON: Not necessarily. We played in front of 11,000 people in Baton Rouge, all people who were rooting against us and screaming at us and stuff like that. I think every once in a while you're going to have a bad game, and that's what happened today. We're a very good ballclub and we're here for a reason. But like I said, it didn't go our way today. That's going to happen. It's baseball. We'll get back after it on Sunday. Q. Travis, just talk about the job that Plutko did and what made him so effective from your standpoint. TRAVIS JANKOWSKI: Yeah, Plutko, I think what he did was just stuck with his routine. He pounded the strike zone and threw fastballs for the most part. He tried to get us to chase, and that was his main pitch. Fastball up in the zone, and we chased it. It was there all day. TYLER JOHNSON: Same thing Travis said. He attacked the zone and was throwing strikes early. That's always effective. We were behind in the count most of the day. We had a scouting report on him, and he was pretty on. But he was just better than us today. He beat us to the spots, and I don't know, it just didn't go our way today. Q. Tyler, how difficult was their lineup? I think they had seven guys end up with a hit, but 1 through 9 they were tough. TYLER JOHNSON: Yeah, that's a very good lineup. Lot of left‑handed guys too. Like I said, for most of the game in two and a third innings, I was trying to throw the ball outside, and it was just sailing a little on me. Very tough lineup. Got a few hitters. Got a few guys to ground out. They said sometimes the ball just doesn't roll your way. Like I said, they're here for a reason; and they've got a good lineup. I didn't do a very good job of throwing strikes today. It's mostly on me today, even though they've got a very good lineup. Q. Tyler, can you just talk about how good the lineup is? You were looking to go outside and control is a big thing you specialized in all season. Were you being anymore particular because of how potent this lineup is? TYLER JOHNSON: Yeah, even in the Super Regional, Regional walks have been up for me a little bit because I've been trying to pick the corners a little more. Like I said, when I did barely miss, I'd throw the next ball three inches more outside. It's just one of those things where you're just off and things just aren't rolling your way. When I needed to make a pitch, I didn't today, and that is the big reason why. Q. Travis, you had the chance there in the fifth when the first two guys got on. How upsetting was that, and how do you think it changed the game after your ground out when they called Courtney out at the plate and, the replay showed that the catcher's glove was still above‑‑ still in the air and that he got there safely? TRAVIS JANKOWSKI: The first baseman made a great play on that ball. He did everything right. He caught the ball, tagged first and threw home. I wasn't able to see the replay. I thought Kevin might have gotten his foot in there. Just tough how he reacted after the play. But I haven't seen the replay, but if you say the catcher's glove was up, I guess that was a big turning point in the game. Not being able to manufacture a run there kind of hurt us. Q. Coach, you talked about some missed chances that you had today. The second inning was a big one of those. How disappointing was that, and when that happened did you feel like things may not be going your way today? COACH SENK: We still had a lot of game left. So I felt that at any time we could perhaps get the game going our way. We did a lot of that in the Regional with some really solid comebacks. This is a strong offensive team, so I had total confidence that we'd be able to come back, especially if we didn't score early. However, like I said, Plutko was very, very tough and so you're going to have to take advantage of men in scoring position. Both innings, we had second and third with less than two outs, and it was there for us. He did a good job, but we needed to do a better job. Like I said in my opening statement, I thought it could have shifted momentum in our direction, but we were never able to gather any momentum at all. Q. Pat, can you tell us what kind of pitch you got on the home run and what you were looking for? Secondly, if you could just try to describe the attitude that you guys will have on Sunday? What kind of attitude do you try to take to bounce back from this? PATRICK CANTWELL: I believe the pitch was a fastball. Plutko went down on me 3‑0, came back with a fastball down the middle. I was sitting fastball. If he threw anything outside, I wasn't going to take it. At that point in the game, we needed a base runner, so I was fortunate to put a good swing on it. As far as coming back on Sunday, we've been in this position before in the Regional, the Super Regional. It's like that. We have to fight back from the bottom. So the team's got a lot of heart, and we'll come out on Sunday ready to play and we'll give it everything we've got. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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