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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 18, 2013David BergKevin KramerJohn SavageNick Vander TuigOMAHA, NEBRASKA UCLA – 2 THE MODERATOR: John, give us an overview, please. COACH SAVAGE: Well, I mean, what can you say? Right now I guess that's who we are. I mean, it's Bruin baseball. Sometimes it's grueling, it's tough to watch, I'm sure, from outside the dugout. But our kids hung in there and they persevered. We really didn't do much offensively. You have to give their pitchers a ton of credit. They pounded the zone. And we were opportunistic, would be the right word, I guess. And pitching and defense, I think, is clearly our strength. Our guys know our strength, and sometimes it's walking a tightrope. That's for sure. And tonight was one of those nights. So we feel very fortunate to beat a very good North Carolina State team. They're offensive. They can run. Turner hit the ball in the eighth. That was driven on the line. And then our defense replacement Christoph Bono went up and got it. Great play, and we pitched out of problems. So I tip my hat to our guys. We hung in there, and at the end of the day we're moving on. Q. Coach and Nick, Trea Turner talked about the fact that Nick, when he missed a spot it was because he wanted to miss a spot. It wasn't because he just missed it in general. I guess could you talk about Nick's performance, and Nick talk about your performance as well. COACH SAVAGE: That's I think a really different level of pitching. When you're talking about pitching out of the zone when you want to, and then pitching in the zone when you want to, that's another level of pitching. And I think Nick showed that ability. And I think Turner, shows you how special he is to be able to recognize that.  Because not many players can recognize that when it's being done to them. And you got a‑‑ wow, that's impressive that he said that. You hear coaches sometimes say that or scouts or whatever, but coming from a player, that makes me think he's pretty sharp. But he's right. He pitches in the zone. He pitches elevated, out of the zone. He pitches in very well. We pitch with a fastball. And the change and certainly the breaking balls. But at the same time, our foundation is a fastball, and Nick has as good a command as we've had in a long time. NICK VANDER TUIG: I just try to make pitches, stick to the same approach I've had all year. And just like Coach said, pitch in the zone, pitch out of the zone, and try to make the hitter swing in my pitches instead of swinging at his pitches. Just try to change speeds, move the fastball around. And Shane in our defense played really good defense behind me. Q. David, when Turner hit that ball, what was your initial reaction? He said he was dumb enough to think that it was actually out. What did you think? DAVID BERG: I knew he got a good swing off on it. I wasn't quite sure how well he hit it. I kind of watched it. My heart sunk a little bit. I made a bad pitch and I knew he's a great hitter. So a lot of times, those combinations, not very many good things happen. Luckily Christoph went out and made a great play for me, and I was able to get out of that inning. Q. Kevin, I guess from an offensive standpoint, Coach talked about it a little bit, but just talk about the offense and the ability to kind of get a key hit even though things might look a little ugly at times. KEVIN KRAMER: It's more of a mentality with us. We try to grind out runs, and like Coach says, take advantage of opportunities. We're not going to put up any gaudy numbers. It's just more so a team effort. There's guys off the bench. Brett Urabe had a key walk. Chris Keck came off the bench. And we need everyone. And from the offense, it does get a little frustrating at times, but when you have great pitchers like this, we know that we can put up a couple of runs and play defense because we know these guys will take us a long way. Q. Coach, talk about David over here, another outstanding performance from him. 23 saves, I believe. COACH SAVAGE: This one is difficult. He has thrown some 2‑three‑inning saves. We don't really like to do that. But with a couple of days off, we went to him a little earlier. We tried to sneak another out or two without using him. And hit the first pitch for a base hit in the eighth. So what can you say? I mean, we would never be here without him. So we're going to go down with him. He's one of those guys that he works extremely hard at what he does. He's a great teammate. All these guys are. I mean, these guys are team guys. We would never be in the position we are without having great teammates. And David has learned a lot in our program over two years, played for Team U.S.A. He's starting to become a pretty experienced guy for how young he is. So he can handle big moments. And I think tonight was as big a moment as you're going to see in Omaha. So we're excited he's on our team. And the guys trust giving the ball over to him. Nick, Adam, Grant and Cody and even our other guys, James, Zach and Ryan. We have a strong belief in our bullpen. And that is one of our strengths. So David did his job. That's the bottom line. Q. Coach, just kind of a crazy stat for you guys. Your first run tonight was the only RBI hit you've had in the two games, but you got two great starters, each given you the starts. And obviously you had something similar a few years ago. If you could speak to having that 1‑2 punch and the format here. And then, Nick, a follow‑up, if you could talk about all you're going‑‑ following Adam, the relationship you guys have, what you learned from him, how he helped you with your outings, the tandem you guys have, if you could talk about that after Coach. COACH SAVAGE: Well, I really think they're two of the most underrated players in the country. And I think they're showing that right now. Adam and Nick. And if you look at what they've done, specifically Adam over three years as a starter, Nick was our closer as a freshman. I mean, I don't know if you can find two guys that have had those types of careers in the Pac‑12. Adam, major DivisionI program against major competition. To put up the type of numbers they have‑‑ one's a sixth rounder and one is an 11th rounder, they're getting some great guys. They know how to compete. They know how to make pitches. I really kind of look at them almost like professionals right now in the sense that their work habits in between starts, their conditioning, their throwing programs, their bullpens, they're well schooled. But I mean a lot of people are well schooled. It's a matter of them finishing up their work and being resilient and trustworthy of what they do. And I can't say enough about those two guys. We would never, ever be in the position without those two guys. And to go through regionals, to win the Pac‑12 two years, to go to Fullerton and beat them and beat LSU and NC State, the way we've done it, what can you say? I think those two guys have pitched masterfully. NICK VANDER TUIG: I think going back to my freshman year, seeing Garrett and Trevor kind of having that Friday/Saturday, the rotation there. And you see them how they act kind of throughout the year and they're different guys. They're great teammates with each other. And I think me and Adam just saw that and we kind of built off each other. He's an outstanding pitcher, and we pitched very similar. So I get to see the hitters Friday and then see Adam, how he pitches to them, and I try to do the same thing on Saturday. So I think our whole pitching staff is very close. Our whole team is very close. So I don't think it's just me and Adam, but the whole team's just‑‑ our bond's really grown throughout the year, and we'll see if we can finish this thing out. Q. Coach, Jernigan came into this game with some walks on the season. For four innings there, I guess he only walked one. But were you guys kind of biding your time and thought maybe he would open a door for you, and when he did, you were able to take advantage again? COACH SAVAGE: Yeah. I mean he looked like a legitimate starter. I mean, the guy threw three pitches for strikes. And I think he only has 30 innings of work. I could be wrong on that. But he was good. I mean, I guess he slipped up a little bit in the fifth inning, but to give him credit, you got to, because I don't know if he expected to start. I don't know when he was told to start. But he pitched his tail off. And he was competitive. He did his job. I mean, to get four and a third innings out of him, I'm not sure what they thought they were going to get out of him, but I was impressed. It was a good fastball and a good breaking ball and a good change. And I really got to tip my hat to him because he competed. So I didn't think he cracked at all. He did his job, and. I mean to give up the two runs, like he said, give one RBI in two games and win two games is probably a first in Omaha. So I think you gotta give them a lot of credit. Q. Coach, I think just kind of piggybacking off what you just said, I think you had a guy the other day touch on the fact that your style, your approach fits so well in this ballpark. And I wonder, is it coincidence that your philosophy matches that, or have you geared this team, this program to fit well with the way this ballpark plays, the way the game has changed over the last couple of years? COACH SAVAGE: I think to come out of the west, I think you have to be very detailed. You have to really pitch. You have to play a very good defense and you've got to execute on offense. We've had good offensive teams. We're a very capable offensive team. I know you look at 250 and the home runs and the run production and batting averages and so forth. But it's not all about that a lot of times. I mean, we scored eight runs against Fullerton. I don't know who has done that against Eshleman and Garza. Don't ask me how we did it all the time, but we did it. That's all that matters is putting pressure on people and grinding out at‑bats, like Kevin said. But our style has worked, I think, with the bats, with the bats changing. I think you would have to say that's benefited us in some way. And then happens, this ballpark is‑‑ it's a bigger ballpark clearly. So that plays into our hands. But we're still playing good baseball. You gotta play good baseball. You can talk about pitching and defense all you want, but these guys are executing things. Give up two runs in 18 innings, there's a lot going on there, other than just saying, well‑‑ I mean, there's guys making plays off the bench and Bono is going to go get the ball in left field. And Carroll's going to get some balls and Filia's getting some balls, and we think we have as good a left side in the country with Pat and Kevin, and Shane Zeile is a converted catcher who looks I think as good as anybody. So we have good players. And we're just not scoring a bunch of runs. But I don't know who he is. So we're winning a lot of different ways. And right now we're winning our way. So right now we're in a good position. And we gotta get ready for Friday. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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