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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 15, 2013Cody EgeDan McDonnellCole SturgeonOMAHA, NEBRASKA Indiana – 2 THE MODERATOR: Dan, a comment about the game. COACH McDONNELL: I'm proud of my guys. We fought hard. We couldn't get anything going offensively. They're trying. They're competing. They're going deep in counts. Just couldn't get anything offensively. I'm amazed we gave up ten free bases and seven hits. We only gave up two runs. So even though it's not a great night for our pitchers or our defense, those guys competed and gave us a chance to win. And we talk a lot about one and two‑run games in the postseason, and we just lost a two‑run game. And obviously the hitters are frustrated and we just gotta have a good practice tomorrow and come back out Monday and compete. And let me say congratulations to DeNato. The kid pitched unbelievable. I'll focus and talk about us but congratulations to that guy. He pitched his tail off. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Dan, Chad talked yesterday about not giving up the free passes and that really was kind of his undoing tonight. What did you see? Was he trying to be too fine? COACH McDONNELL: It wasn't like he was all over the place. I thought the game came down to there were 3‑2 counts in our favor and 3‑2 counts in their favor. And to their credit, their guy just kept making those pitches when he was behind, when he had to. And unfortunately Chad just couldn't, whether he walked the guy or whatever, and it's just not like Chad at all. But I went out there early to take the ball from him and just said, hey, we're going to need you. So get your rehab in and get right and hopefully we'll be using him here in a few days. Q. Dan and Cole, even though you had a couple of hits, what makes DeNato so good? He has 13 shutout innings against you guys this year. COACH McDONNELL: Yeah, I guess no matter what, I don't think we ever have to see him again, because we're in the same bracket. So that's the bright spot. Just very effective. If you notice, I think we hit one line drive out. It was Ty's line drive to second. Just didn't put balls in play hard. The emphasis was hit it on the ground. Stay on the ball, hit it backside, which the last couple of weekends we've done a very good job of staying on the ball and moving it. We just couldn't stay on the ball, whether we were thinking fastball and he threw some really good breaking balls or we were in breaking ball counts, he could jam you in. And obviously he's got great numbers on the year. But he's really handcuffed us twice. COLE STURGEON: Main thing about DeNato, he competes and never gives in. He outcompeted us. As hard as that is to say, he won pitches when he needed to and we didn't get the big hit when we needed it. Q. Dan, did you hope at any point that DeNato would reach that pitch count? He went 136. COACH McDONNELL: Everybody's goal is to knock out the starter, especially in the first game of a tournament. And he's their number one. So I don't police their pitch counts and know when they're going to take their guy out. But we were doing our best. Unfortunately, we didn't get enough guys on. I'm sure we'll figure it out, we'll count it up. There was a lot of three ball counts on our hitters.  And we just couldn't win those at‑bats. I think that's what was frustrating. It would be 3‑0. Go 3‑1, 3‑2, and he would win the at‑bat. Usually those are offensive counts. The advantage goes to the hitter. The batting average is in favor of the hitter. And we just couldn't win those counts. So if we would have got some more guys on base, then I felt like we definitely would have knocked him out. His pitch count would have been even higher but we just couldn't get enough guys on base tonight. Q. Coach, as locked in as I guess you guys were last week, did you feel like today, you know, maybe couple of the base running things and defense things, that the team just wasn't as crisp today? COACH McDONNELL: You know, were guys are ready to play. They were excited. At the end of the day, I give a lot of credit to their pitcher. And I know Cole and the hitters are upset that they just couldn't do enough offensively. We went one ball in the dirt. Lucas tried to get a ball in the dirt. And I'm trying to think. I don't know what our other play was. But credit our defense and our pitching, because, again, it could have been ugly. But they kept us in the game. Again, I know the pitchers aren't satisfied, but they competed, and defensively we made plays when we had to. So fortunate that we still had a chance, two runs down, when at times looked like they could put up a crooked number. We were able to get out of those jams. Q. Cody, given how early you came in, how long you stayed, what are your expectations about your ability to bounce back and possibly be available Monday? CODY EGE: I put a lot of trust in Jordan Poss, our trainer. I'll be seeing him quite a bit. Our weight trainer down here is Zach Ferrell. He does a really good job with us. I feel like I'll be able to bounce back. Like you said, tonight was my career long. But I just like to be in every situation to compete. I think I'll be bounced back, ready for Monday. Q. Dan, I was wondering, with Whiting and I think it was in the third inning, came for home, did he miss a signal? Was he waved in? COACH McDONNELL: No, it's two outs. 99percent of the time we're going to send the guy with two outs, and I think that was our first hit of the game. And having faced this guy already, didn't look like we'd get many opportunities to score. Obviously it's easy to second‑guess a third base coach and try to do it all over again. But we challenge our guys on second. It's their responsibility to get a good secondary. It's their responsibility to score and in a two‑out hit. In that case, Cole hit it a little too hard at him. That kid's got a good arm and didn't even risk a bounce. He threw it in the air. But I'm sure we'll watch the video just to see if Sutton was able to get a good secondary or not. And, again, we're trying to be aggressive and just didn't get a lot of opportunities to score tonight. Q. Dan, in '07 you lost the first game, came back and won the second game. Can you take anything from that experience to help this team get ready for Game 2? COACH McDONNELL: You know, I realize half the field is going to lose the first game, and it's just part of it. Like I told our guys in the outfield, it's a double elimination. There have been teams that have lost the first game and won a national championship. So not that we're going to get ahead of ourselves, but we just need to go out and have a good practice on Sunday and come out and compete like heck on Monday. Of course, it's a great Oregon State team, but everybody's great out here. So you just gotta fight. And like I said, we competed tonight. We just didn't have a lot to show for it. Q. Dan, DeNato threw 136 pitches. He wasn't drafted but he was so effective today. Was he changing speeds? Was it location? What made him so effective? COACH McDONNELL: Clearly we couldn't put a good swing on him, even in a couple of positive counts. And like I said, I think 3‑2 is a positive count for the hitter. We just couldn't put a good swing on them. Were we a little big, a little long, too many fly balls. Some of our lefties‑‑ I think Cole had a couple of knocks, but looked like they weren't picking up the ball real well. So he handcuffed us. And like Cole said, when he had to make pitches he made pitches. And like I said, tip my hat to him. Q. Cody, why was Oregon so out for you on the mound as far as facing the Indiana batters, as far as retiring them and not giving up a lead? CODY EGE: I think it was the same thing that he was doing, just compete in every pitch and just having the awareness that when you need to make a pitch, you really focus in and get that pitch. In and out, off speed was working. And I knew you have to keep a couple of their guys off base, and they're really the motors of their offense. But that's a good team. So for me tonight, I was just focused one through nine hitters. None were higher, none were lower. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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