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NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: BLOOMINGTON REGIONALJune 2, 2014Dustin DeMuthKyle SchwarberTracy SmithSam TravisBLOOMINGTON, INDIANA STANFORD – 5 TRACY SMITH: Well, you know, for me, it's tough for me to be somber. The only piece that I'm somber about is that our season is not extended and that we lost. I sit here tonight, it's hard for me to be disappointed when I've had the opportunity to work with the group of guys and the team that we had, and again, the toughest piece is not going to be seeing some of those faces in the locker room. So for me, it not going to be defined by the loss at the end of the season. I kind of refuse to go there because there were too many good things. And as far as the game went, I don't think you could ask for a better game. Stanford was a gritty team, played with a lot of passion and toughness and got it done in a tough environment. Q. Can you put this feeling into words? KYLE SCHWARBER: I'll speak for all of us. It's tough. I mean, this group of guys, these guys up here, everyone in the locker room, they are like‑‑ they are all brothers to us. I'm not going to lie; this is my favorite team to be on, out of all my years here, even last year. These guys battled their butts off all year. We had high expectations for the year. We stumbled in the beginning of the year; we picked ourselves up; we got to this point, and we ran into a good team and one swing of the bat beat us. That's all you can really say. This group of players are awesome, they are talented, and there should be no doubt that this was one of the better Indiana Hoosier teams to play here. Q. Kyle, did you know where you were when the ball was off the bat‑‑ in that moment, when everyone realized it was a walk‑off you and guys are not even the home team, can you describe how you processed that? KYLE SCHWARBER: You don't really process it. You're just in a state of awe about what happened and what could have happened and what this team was and what we could have done. But we are going to have a lot of time to think and process what happened. But we can't hang our heads on what we did through the season. We did a lot of great things through the season. You know, we were the first Big Ten national seed ever. But we are going to hold our heads high. We are going to embrace this loss for a little while, but we'll need to pick our heads up. Q. Sam, I know it's hard to think about right now, but ten, 15 years from now, what are you going to remember most about this team? SAM TRAVIS: Definitely the group of guys. You know, like Kyle was saying, we're all brothers. Worst part about your season being over is having fun‑‑ obviously you love to go out and win the College World Series, win the National Championship, but it's going to be tough not being around these guys every day. Yeah, it's a lot of fun being around them every day. Q. Seemed like they got a little sharper when runners were on base tonight. I think you left ten on. Did anything change with them? What was not letting you guys bring those guys in? SAM TRAVIS: I don't think anything changed. We were going up there with the same approach, trying to put the ball in play, put a good at‑bat on it, hit it hard. But yeah, like you said, they play good defense. Sometimes we hit it right at them. Sometimes we just swing and miss. You know, it's baseball. Just didn't go our way tonight. Q. What made Quantrill so difficult? DUSTIN DeMUTH: He was locating. He had a good changeup. He was keeping his off‑speed down. You know when you're seeing lefties all weekend, it's obviously going to be hard to hit just a righty, but post‑season you've got to be able to make adjustments. Yeah, he did really well. All you can do is tip your hat to him. Q. You and Quantrill had words later in the game. What was said that sparked that? SAM TRAVIS: Nothing really. Don't really have anything to say about it. Q. The question was asked before, from your standpoint, can you put into words what this season has meant to you guys? DUSTIN DeMUTH: You know, like they were saying, the group of guys you play for, you love them. We had a good season, a great season. Didn't turn out the way we wanted, but sooner or later, we'll have to hold our heads high and realize what we accomplished. Q. On the technical stuff, how much did the rain delay hurt in the sense that it felt like ‑‑ inaudible ‑‑ was really sharp early and once it was over, he kind of‑‑ TRACY SMITH: Yeah, perfect scenario we didn't want it to rain because he had settled in there a little bit with his change‑up and his breaking ball. During the rain delay, I sat and watched several other rain delays and observed that. It's just something that you have to deal with. To borrow Sam's term, that's baseball. The decision to stay with him, we thought we would try because we thought the change‑up worked against them. We thought we would run him back out there just to see, even if his velocity dropped a little bit. He just was not as effective after that, and I credit him for trying. Q. What goes through your mind when you see that ball up in the air? TRACY SMITH: You know, been around here a long time. I mean sometimes‑‑ last year we were on the other end of it. But just watching what happened‑‑ the disappointing‑‑ I'm going to say again. The loss is bad. It hurts. It's tough, because I think this is a good team and I think this team definitely has the ability to continue on. So the loss, it's bad, but really, as that ball landed it was just the reality of it set in, is that I'm not going to be around these guys, this same collective group of guys on a daily basis. That, for me, believe it or not, was probably‑‑ well, not probably, what was going through my mind. And I'm not one to, you know, you win some, you lose some. This goes down as one of the toughest losses. But, I'm going to miss these guys more than I'm going to be hurting and stinging over that loss. Q. I'm not looking to second‑guess but you had DeNato up in the eighth and in the ninth. Was there ever a thought to go to him? TRACY SMITH: I Was going to go to him the next hitter, if‑‑ the kid was a switch‑hitter, so it didn't matter if we spun him around. Truthfully, the flags played a little bit into the equation, blowing out to left. Credit to him. He put a good swing on it and hit a home run but DeNato was ready for the next guy and it just didn't happen. Q. Obviously it's three great baseball games the last three days. Just what was it like to play Stanford, and where are they in terms of teams you played this year? TRACY SMITH: Well, I said it, I mean, they are playing as well as anybody in the country right now, and we knew that coming in. They are a very talented team. They are a very physical team. I said it last night: They are a lot like us in terms of their physicality and they are able to hurt you with one swing. You know, it's not what you do early in the season, it's how you're playing late, and they have been playing great baseball late, and things went their way the last couple days. You know, a lot of credit to them, and I‑‑ you know it could be us hosting or playing next weekend, just as easily as it is them right now, and they have got it done but I'm not going to sit and root against them. I hope that they do well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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