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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 17, 2013John CohenChad GirodoTrey PorterWes ReaOMAHA, NEBRASKA Mississippi State – 5 THE MODERATOR: John, give us an overview. COACH COHEN: I feel like just another one of those games where we had to just keep competing and kind of overcome some mistakes. We had two base running mistakes early in the ballgame that I thought cost us at least one run. Our kids were just a little amped up, trying to create something that really wasn't there. But I really felt like Trevor came out, just gave us a quality start. He knows what's coming in behind him. He absolutely knows that Girodo is going to come in behind him. But I thought he just did a masterful job of getting us off to a pretty good start, especially with their left‑handers. Indiana is a great offensive ballclub. Starting a right‑hander against their lineup is pretty frightening because they have such good left‑handed hitting. They have good right‑handed hitting, too, but the left‑handers are daunting, and you know they're going to take good swings down the stretch there. But I just saw Chad, story of the game is Chad‑‑ some clutch at‑bats we had in that stretch in the eighth, but also Chad just battling and battling and battling. I thought when he had second and third with one out there in the fifth‑‑ was that the fifth? ‑‑ and they didn't score, I thought that was the story of the ballgame as well. I thought it was a huge, huge inning to slam the door on a very good offensive ballclub. Everybody contributed. This guy digs a ball out of the dirt in the last play of the ballgame. Holder comes in, throws two pitches, two quality pitches, gets a save, No. 20, and then doesn't move his feet and throws the ball in the dirt to make everybody's heart stop. But we work on that a little bit, don't we, John? Every day. As we do at second base, reading the shortstop, the ground ball, we work on that a little bit, too. We overcome some things that we did wrong tonight. But proud of our kids, kept battling and competing and really having fun. We're down two, our kids are having fun. They believe we're going to win the baseball game and a lot of contributing factors happened there, one of which is the fact that a ball didn't leave the yard. It stayed in the yard. Their guy, the right‑handed kid absolutely crushed that ball. We hope it's going to stay in and it did. And I thought C.T. Bradford again, another piece of the puzzle, does a great job playing off the wall, getting in there early. Can they score the guy from third? Maybe. But it made it a very difficult decision for Indiana if you're going to score that guy. So again, a lot of little things went into that ballgame, but we just kind of held in there tough and found a way to win the game. Q. Chad, I think you had all ten strikeouts with the slider today. I know that's kind of your pitch. But is this as good of fuel as you feel you've have had for that pitch? CHAD GIRODO: Actually, at the beginning, they were taking my slider and taking it for balls, and I had to throw it in the zone, and I thought I was going to have to go a different path but I finally started getting over for a strike and getting their bats moving a little bit. It helped. Q. Trey, the 3‑1 count, were you sitting fastballs the whole way? TREY PORTER: For sure. If you see in the 2‑0 count, a swung for a fastball, another slider in the batters box. Was going to take my chances. I know Frazier is behind me so they're not going to throw to him. He's one of the best hitters in college baseball, so I knew I had a pretty good chance of getting a fastball, so I was just going to get the barrel out there and see what could happen. Q. Wes, I'll ask you about that big hit, but before that, it almost seemed like Chad's last pitch to get out of the seventh inning, seemed like after that, there's a little bit of a mood change maybe in the dugout. You guys really seemed pretty amped up going to the plate after that final out. WES REA: Yeah, when you've got a guy out there putting up goose eggs for you, there comes a time emotionally, physically, mentally, that you're saying, all right, we need to make something happen for this guy. He's dealing. We scored two runs, we're going to win this ballgame. I feel like that's been the deal this year. Our bullpen's just dealt, came in, whether it's Ross Mitchell, Chad Girodo, Jonathan Holder, just came in and just dealt every single time. That kind of gives the offense confidence all at the same time. And we thought, no, we've just got to score one or two runs to get the lead in this ballgame pretty much. So that's a big confidence factor for us. Q. John, Tracy said if you go righty there with Trey when they bring in the lefty, the lefty would never have thrown a pitch. Did you guys think about doing something with Trey there and what were the options? COACH COHEN: I liked the swing he took for the first at‑bat. Are you talking about the second or first at‑bat? After his first at‑bat, I thought he saw the baseball really well. I thought he was in the flow of the game. It was difficult to sit there for two hours and come up there and be in sync. And I don't know how close to the ball he hit earlier in the ballgame came to getting out, but he got good barrel to it. When I'm watching our guys hit, I'm not even watching the pitcher. I'm looking at the rhythm of the hitter and trying to decide if he's in rhythm and if he's going to take good swings. And I felt like he was going to take good swings because he was in a good rhythm. Q. Trey, I think you had seven at‑bats in the last month. You're sitting here. You heard that the crowd obviously chanting your name. What's that been like? Have you ever imagined yourself in that situation? TREY PORTER: Not really I guess, being a kid from a small hometown, kind of the story with most of the guys out here. You set out to play at the top level and being in the College World Series one day, but you never see it happening because so many baseball players out there, so much talent. But it's just a great feeling and you couldn't say more about the guys around me. I just happened to step in the box when the game was on the line, and anybody else could have stepped up on this team. That's how we are. We fight until the end. We never give up. Q. Trey, John talked about that previous swing, did you feel really good about that one? Of course it went to the track. Did that help you out for the second swing? TREY PORTER: I guess so. I got in the hitters count. I think if I get myself in good counts, I can maybe put myself and get a fastball. But I caught it just a little bit up on the barrel, but I thought it could have had a chance maybe hit the wall. I knew the way this park plays, it's almost impossible to get one to leave the yard. I was hoping it would get down, maybe bounce around for a double, because I'm not ever going to get a triple. But maybe we could score some of those runs. Q. Trey, you haven't played a lot lately, haven't been getting the hits to fall a lot lately, but just how do you kind of keep yourself kind of honed in at the plate when it's that kind of situation? TREY PORTER: I'll give 100percent of the credit to the bench mob. I know you all know about them. But every single pitch, we're seeing what the pitcher does, even on defense, we're in every single pitch, every single at‑bat. And it definitely helps keeping your head in the game. I know it sounds funny, but when you're up there watching every single pitch, seeing how the pitcher is feeling, what his tendencies are, just helps you out throughout the day to have an advantage when you get the opportunity. Q. Coach, it seemed like Demarcus Henderson has continued to give you a spark here, but I think Tracy Smith said his at‑bat there was what he considered the key to the game for you guys. How much of a lift has he given you? Can you talk about what you saw at that at‑bat? COACH COHEN: I think it was a seven pitch at‑bat and hit a laser in right field with two strikes. And I think that's one of the areas where our club really offensively thrives with two strikes. I think we take better swings with two strikes than we do earlier in the count. Today in the middle of the ballgame, we're getting a little heavy, in those middle innings, trying to do too much. When we get to two strikes, our kids do a nice job. And certainly Demarcus, that was just a huge at‑bat in the ballgame. Q. Jonathan and Chad, walk me through the ninth inning, because, Jonathan, you gotta be thinking: Are they going to put me in the ballgame? And Chad, you gotta be thinking: Aren't they going to put Holder in the ballgame? CHAD GIRODO: I really wanted to finish for myself, but I wanted to go up and fill up the zone. I knew if I got in any trouble, that Holder was right there behind me and would close it out. And he did. I gave up a couple of hard hit balls, and he comes in with a runner on third, two outs, and does his job. That's really hard to do, to come in with a tying run on third and get the job done. But that's why he's one of the best closers in college baseball. JONATHAN HOLDER: Yeah, Chad did a phenomenal job, pitched a long time, and I knew before Coach said anything that he was going back out in the ninth. There was some good lefties up, and he can get any lefty out that he wants to. And so I figured he deserved to finish the game, because he did such a great job. And when they decided to bring me in, I knew the tying run was on third. So I wasn't going to give up anything that somebody could just crush. Q. I guess this question's for Jonathan and Wes. So maybe it's two questions. Could you take me through the final throw from Jonathan and then, Wes, when you caught it? WES REA: I guess if you all go back to the Super Regional in the last inning, the perfect feed that I gave him right to the chest that he dropped, he thought it was behind him. So we kind of have been going back and forth, was it a good feed or bad feed? Either way he dropped it. Here we go again, bottom of the ninth, tough situation. And I guess you can say that my feed was definitely better than his that he gave me tonight to handle. We know the better athlete of the two is who caught the best ball is all I gotta say. JONATHAN HOLDER: I just was going to say‑‑ it was payback for the bad feed. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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