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2015 Men's College World
Series
Friday, June 12
LSU
Cal State Fullerton
Vanderbilt
TCU
THE MODERATOR: Welcome back, 2015 College
World Series. First I'm joined by Vanderbilt head coach
Tim Corbin, LSU head coach Paul Mainieri, TCU head
coach Jim Schlossnagle, and Cal State Fullerton head
coach Rick Vanderhook. We'll go from my left to the
right, beginning with Coach Corbin.
COACH CORBIN: Welcome. We're certainly glad and
fortunate to be back in Omaha once again. Great
experience, obviously, last year. I think, as a coach, we
all want that opportunity for our kids, if we're fortunate
enough to play consistent baseball during the course of
the year, and we have. We've survived our league and
been able to get through it, and certainly like everyone
else that's here, played well in the postseason in order
to earn this opportunity. So we're very glad and happy
to be here.
COACH MAINIERI: When you're a young coach, which
I was many years ago, I was laying in bed at night, and
I bet I could speak for the other three guys and say,
dear God, if you ever let me take a team to Omaha, I'll
never ask for anything else. Then you get to come
here and see how cool it is, you go, well, I kind of
fibbed to you; I'd like to bring another team here. This
is my fifth time here, and I can tell you, it never gets
old. Every coach, every staff member, every college
player, this is the ultimate dream for them to come to
Omaha, Nebraska, and have a chance to fight for a
National Championship. It's a great honor to be here,
too, because you know you're surrounded by seven
other tremendous teams that all could tell the story of
their journey here. The trials and tribulations during
the season, we've all had them. For these eight teams
to emerge and to be here, they've all earned their way
here, and I would expect nothing but great baseball
every ballgame out there.
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: I would echo the same
sentiments as Coach Corbin and Coach Mainieri. This
is the pearly gates of college baseball. You wake up
every day, at least I do, trying to find a way, whether it
be in recruiting or coaching your team or just anything
you're going through in your program, to give you a
better chance to be here. Personally for me, it's just an
honor to be on the stage here with these guys and then
the other four coaches. These are guys that you've
either grown up watching as a young coach or you've
grown up with them, guys like Kevin O'Sullivan and
Brian O'Connor. So we're certainly excited to be here.
This is the first time I've had a chance to coach a team
that's been here that has Omaha experience. Certainly
the first time for TCU to be back-to-back years. So
looking forward to see how that helps us. Just all in all,
just tremendously blessed and looking forward to our
opportunity to be a part of this thing.
COACH VANDERHOOK: Honored to be here,
definitely. I've been here a few times. My first time as
a head coach. I've talked to some people about how
overwhelming this can be. When you're an assistant,
you set off in the bushes and do what you want to do
and not getting stuck up on the stage. As I look out at
Coach Mainieri, who I've seen coach for many, many
years back at Notre Dame when he brought his first
team here, and I met Brian for the first time, and I said
the other day, I can remember the first time I met Brian,
he was your assistant at Notre Dame. Just honored to
be here. Our program hasn't been here for a while. I
don't have any experience being a head coach here.
My players have no experience here. But where we
were 2 1/2 months ago, I think we were like 11-12,
gone 29-9 since. It shows the character of the players
that we have on our program. They're honored to be
here, and they're not going to be wooed by everything,
at least hopefully after the first inning, because that's
going to happen. But surreal is the way I'm going to
put it for me to be sitting up here with these guys and
preparing to go to battle with every team in here. It's
eight good teams, and we're ready to go.
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said, the pitchers really enjoy it as well.
Q. If each coach could just name your opening
starter.
COACH VANDERHOOK: Thomas Eshelman.
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: Preston Morrison.
COACH MAINIERI: Jared Poche.
COACH CORBIN: Carson Fulmer.
Q. As you talked about the experience your team
has and getting to coach a team with experience,
what did you see from them all day yesterday as
you visited the stadium, made the ride here, and
spent the night with them?
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: It just, they weren't -certainly the new players were a little more starry-eyed,
like you normally have when you bring a team to
Omaha, but I didn't see nearly as much of that out of
the older players. They were just looking to get
something to eat versus taking as many pictures in the
stadium. I don't want the greatness of Omaha to ever
become routine for anybody, but I think those guys,
their heartbeat is a little more normal than it normally
is. We're going to rely on that hopefully when we get a
chance to practice today and play on Sunday.
Q. This is for all four of you: I wonder if you could
address just what you've seen from the flat seam
ball this year, how do you think it's affected the
game, your hitters and your pitchers, and whether
it's affected the way you coach at all?
COACH MAINIERI: Well, I think it's had some effect
coming out of fall practice. We felt that it would make a
little bit of a difference. Last year we hit 41 home runs;
I predicted we'd hit probably 60. I fell a little bit short of
that; we hit 50. I think the biggest thing, quite frankly, is
our pitchers enjoy throwing it more. There's no blisters.
They get a little bit more movement, maybe even a little
bit more velocity. I think it's been a slight improvement.
I think more needs to be done, quite frankly.
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: It's definitely had an
impact. I agree with Coach Mainieri. I think we can
take one more step and play with a Minor League
baseball. But we're not a home run-hitting team, and
we do not play in a home run-hitting park. The biggest
thing it's done for me is push the outfielders back. At
least they have to play legitimate outfield depth. Last
year, especially in that Virginia game for us, the wind
was blowing in. You had great pitching, and you had
the old baseball. Unless the ball was hit directly over
the shortstop or directly over the second baseman, you
couldn't score a single from second base. So I didn't
think that was legitimate baseball back then. Without
question, in my eyes, it's had an impact, and like he
COACH VANDERHOOK: We haven't hit any home
runs except the last game. But our pitchers really
enjoy it. It's given them a little more life on the ball. It
took them a little while to get used to it, to control the
movement of the ball a little bit. We don't hit any home
runs, but it has -- I agree with Jim, it's made the field
not as small. For a few years, the field was like playing
on a softball field. When you've got good athletes on
the field, they can cover the whole softball field. Hits
were at a premium. I enjoy it. I'd like it to be a little
more livelier also with them, but those choices are out
of our hands.
COACH CORBIN: I think it's created a little more
harmony between the offense and the defense. To me,
it's been a better game. I like the adjustment. I don't
even think about it anymore until a question like that's
asked. To be honest with you, it's a good game right
now. I like the way it's played.
Q. First of all, for all coaches a question,
congratulations for getting here: With the
personnel out of the ballpark, as it is, I'd like to
have you maybe talk a little bit about your defense,
what makes it so special, and also the arm strength
of your outfielders.
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: About our defense, outfield
defense you're talking about? Well, the best quality our
team has is just we have eight seniors, and five of them
play every day, four in the infield and one in center. So
they don't get fazed by anything. I'm not going to say
they're plus defenders, but our shortstop is the all-time
assist leader in the history of our school. He's the alltime currently among active college players, he's
played in more games than anybody else in college
baseball. So I would say we're an above-average
defensive team. Our centerfielder, Cody Jones, is well
above average. Probably a tick behind Coach
Mainieri's centerfielder. They all throw solid. But all
three outfielders are athletic and could probably play
center on any given day, which has been good with the
timing of the new ball because you've had to play better
outfield defense.
COACH VANDERHOOK: I consider us efficient
defensively. I don't think we're above average. We're
not below average. We get the outs we're supposed to
get, and that's all I ask our guys to do. Our shortstop
Timmy Richards has really played phenomenal
defense for the second half of the season, and he's
probably our best defender. Our catcher is a solid
catch/throw guy. But we're just efficient. That's all I
want to do. I don't ask our guys to do anything beyond
what they do, and they've done a good job of just
staying with that process right now.
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COACH CORBIN: I think for the most part we're
experienced defensively. We have two new kids, one
at third and one in left field, but they've transitioned
nicely. Third baseman's played very well actually as
the season's progressed. Swanson's made the
transition from second to short well, but I thought that
would be the case. He would have been our shortstop
his freshman year had he not gotten hurt. Zander Wiel
and Tyler Campbell have played well on the right side.
I think a little bit like maybe Paul and Jim, from what I
know, is all three outfielders for us could probably play
centerfield if they had to. So I like the athletic ability of
them.
COACH MAINIERI: I don't think it's an accident that
you're staring at these four coaches because you don't
get here unless you pitch and play defense. It's just a
reality. In this era, you can't put together a lineup that's
good enough and powerful enough to ride your offense
to Omaha. If you look at all four teams, they all have
sub-3.00 team ERAs, and they're all excellent
defensive teams. When I put together our lineup every
day, it starts with defense, quite frankly. If I have two
equal players on defense, then the guy that's a better
offensive player ends up playing that position. So we
end up trying to figure out a way to scratch some runs
across. But you have to play defense. We're pretty
proud of our guys. We've got a pretty good shortstop.
Our third base situation was very scary going into the
year because we lost what I thought was the best third
baseman I'd ever coached in Christian Ibarra. When I
moved Conner Hale over there, I think he's done a
good job. And we moved Jared Foster over to get a
little more oomph in our lineup. He's a really good
athlete. He's not a polished, finished product at
second, but he's done a solid, steady job. And our
outfield can really run, as Tim said. We catch a lot of
balls out there. I think the key for our defensive team
has been the evolving of our catcher, Kade Scivicque,
who's turned into a really solid defensive player.
Q. This is for Paul and Tim: You guys played
Arkansas, their first six SEC games, they were 1-5.
Some fans were freaking out. What did you guys
think about Arkansas, and what do you think about
the job Dave's done to get them here to Omaha?
COACH CORBIN: I think he's done a great job. I don't
think there's any question about it. We played them on
the first weekend, and I thought they were pretty good
during that time. So as the season progressed, you
could see them just hanging there, hanging there. They
certainly had a guy at the end of the game that could
finish games, and I thought he was very, at least from
afar, looked like he was very patient with the group,
and it paid huge dividends. No, I like his team, I never
looked at them -- if you told me at the beginning of the
year that they'd be in Omaha, I'd say, I can see that
because of some pitching, some older kids. Very
unheralded kids for the most part. They're a good
team.
COACH MAINIERI: I've coached against Dave's teams
now for nine years, and there's nobody I respect more
than him and his ability as a coach and how he handles
his team, how he game strategizes. He's an excellent
coach. Good coaches earn their money when things
aren't going so great. It's easy to coach a team when
everybody's doing well, but when things are struggling
a little bit, that's when you hold it together. You look at
Brian O'Connor with all the struggles he had this year,
and they got here. You look at Rick, how he
demonstrated how they held it together. You look at
Arkansas. Those are commonalities among those
teams. I'll tell you this, they've got a relief pitcher in
Zach Jackson. You don't want to be behind when you
get to the seventh inning, I promise you.
Q. Coach Mainieri, LSU is a brand name in college
baseball. Now TCU has been here three of the last
six years. Do you recognize things in their
program that LSU used to build?
COACH MAINIERI: Well, I didn't build the LSU
program. So I don't know how it was built. I wasn't
there during the Skip years. Listen, there's a lot of
great programs. I think you could look at all four of
these schools up here as being brand names in college
baseball. Fullerton for how many years, decades.
Vanderbilt under Tim, what he's done is remarkable.
And obviously what Schloss has done at TCU. You
don't accidentally -- maybe once in a while you could
put together a good team and get to Omaha, but when
you are banging on the door every year and you get
here in consecutive years, that's not by accident.
That's a program. That's a difference than just having
a good team. What these coaches have done is really
remarkable. I'm just kind of the custodian of the LSU
program. It was developed a long time before I got
there. I hope that we make Skip proud and can keep it
going well.
Q. Coach Mainieri, you mentioned Brian O'Connor.
Obviously, you two go back to your days at Notre
Dame. This is his fourth trip here. What in your
mind has made him so successful? And also, how
close do you think he is from finally winning a
National Championship?
COACH MAINIERI: It was pretty close last year. This
guy to my left here broke his heart. Brian, I hired Brian
when he was 23 years old to be my number one
assistant at the University of Notre Dame. It was
probably the greatest decision I ever made in my
coaching life. He's just got it. He's one of those guys
that you meet him for five minutes and you know he's
got it together. The success he's had in Virginia does
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not surprise me in the least. The only thing that would
have surprised me is if he didn't have this kind of
success. To be already to Omaha four times in his
tenure there is remarkable. He's banging on the door.
To win a National Championship, I was fortunate
enough to experience that one time. It takes an awful
lot of luck. You have to be good, but you have to be
good at the right time. There's just so many things
have to fall in place. I'm sure Tim could tell you, they
won it last year, and I'm sure a half dozen other teams
are capable of winning it, but a bad umpire's call, a bad
hop, so many different things can happen to knock you
off track. Sometimes it happens when you least expect
it to happen, quite frankly. Brian will get his National
Championship. I'd be surprised if he doesn't finish with
multiple ones before he's done.
Q. Coach Corbin and Coach Mainieri, with the SEC
having half the tournament field this year, how
much pride do you take in your conference sending
four representatives?
COACH CORBIN: We're all prideful of that. I think -Paul would probably say this, too -- we don't bang
ourselves on the chest and say this is the toughest
conference. It's a very good conference, and I think
you have to endure it. I think you just have to keep the
confidence of your kids going during the course of the
year because there's certain times that you go through
a weekend and you wonder -- you do a self-check of
whether or not you've got the right club or not, but you
do. You're just getting through another club, and you're
just going through maybe a weekend that's not as good
as the one prior to or after. I just think you have to
endure that, and if you do, I think you're prepared.
You're prepared for the Regional. You're prepared for a
Super Regional, just because of what you have to go
through and the level of abilities and skill sets that exist
inside the conference.
COACH MAINIERI: I don't think I could say it any better
than Tim just said. Perhaps the best team in our
league isn't even here, Texas A&M. They started out
24-0, and Jim Schlossnagle's team beat them in a 16inning game, or they'd be here as well. But I think that,
like Tim says, we let the people out there evaluate what
our conference is like. We're not the ones that are
beating the drum saying we're better than everybody
else. We're better than this league or better than that
league. But we know every weekend, no matter who
you're lining up against -- it could be the top team in
the league, it could be the 14th place in the league -- if
you don't bring your "A" game, you're going to get beat.
It's that simple. We lost a home series to Kentucky this
year, and Kentucky didn't make the NCAA Tournament,
and they were capable, believe me. Maybe they should
have made the Tournament. It's just every game you
go out there and you play, you know there's going to be
two or three future big leaguers minimum on that other
team. You don't outcoach anybody. The environments
are almost the same everywhere you go with big
crowds, beautiful stadiums, spotlight. With the SEC
Network and the ESPN contracts, everything is under
the microscope so much. You're dealing with the
media. It's just a very, very challenging conference, and
it prepares you very well for the postseason because,
honestly, there's nothing you're going to see in the
postseason that you haven't already seen during the
regular season. If you're able to survive it, you're
prepared.
Q. Tim, when I go out there, I talk to a lot of kids
that have Vanderbilt caps, and they can name your
whole lineup. They said they didn't know that
about Vanderbilt last year. What does Omaha do to
the branding of the program? Did you foresee that
brand coming out of coming here?
COACH CORBIN: You couldn't buy a Vanderbilt hat
back in 2002 and 2003. I remember going to a
sporting goods store and asking, and there was just a
lot of orange. There was nothing black and gold. So I
think that part has been fun to see. I would say that our
network has done more for our kids and done more for
our league in players than anything I've seen in the
past 12 months. They do a remarkable job of
celebrating the kids and making them feel good about
what they do. Prior to getting to Omaha, I think that's
the one thing that all of us could point to and say that's
been a very good thing for our kids. That's been a
good thing for branding. That's been a good thing for
LSU, Vanderbilt, Arkansas -- all of our teams. So,
yeah, branding is a very powerful thing with young kids
because they look up to these kids like they're rock
stars.
Q. Coach Schlossnagle, Tony Vitello is here with
the Razorbacks. How much did he have to do with
assembling some of the players you've had here
the past couple of years, and what do you
remember about working with him?
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: He's a tireless recruiter.
He's relentless. It's all he thinks about 24/7. Not that
he's not a good coach, because he is. I'd have to think
through the roster. He was with us for two years, three
years. There's a couple guys on the team that we had
recruited before he came, but the majority of the roster,
without question, especially the sophomore/junior class
-- and particularly this junior class that's had so many
guys drafted, and the pitching, he did a phenomenal
job with. We're very grateful for Tony's efforts at TCU.
Q. For the other three gentlemen, could you explain
to me the way you revitalized the way you recruited
players, the type of players you recruited to get to
this level, to win at this level, and how long ago did
that process start?
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COACH VANDERHOOK: I recruited at Fullerton before
I got in this position, and we've taken -- we don't go
after the top dog. Thomas Eshelman was not recruited
by anybody out of high school before we got him. He
was an 83 to 85 guy who threw strikes. So that is what
our program's about. You go back to one of the
greatest players in College World Series history, Mark
Kotsay was the same guy. We had a lot of guys close
to our program. Some played football, and Eshelman
played basketball, but you kind of just go out and find
them. It was more of the ball at one era where you had
to change your recruiting and go out and get arms and
go get speed. After they changed the bat, you couldn't
go out and try to get thumpers because they couldn't
thump, and now the cycle is going back around again
where you need to get more physical guys and do what
you do. We're a small program, extremely small
program. We don't play football. Our league hopes
that they get -- well, they actually get one bid in
basketball, and they play one game. With all the other
people that come here, it's different. I'm just trying to
do what Augie and George did after them, what Paul
said about Skip. This year, as he said, luck. We had
some luck go our way. We definitely did. That ball
nicked the foul pole, and he called it fair, but it was
instant replay for the first time, and we're sitting there
for five minutes waiting for that until they confirmed it. I
consider that lucky. You need to create your luck and
hope it comes at the right time. I've been here as an
assistant with some real good teams that didn't get
lucky and went home. In 2004, we weren't lucky at a
certain point. And now that team which played good
and won a National Championship, had seven guys on
that team play in the Major Leagues, which you would
have never thought. So that's what I've got.
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: Well, I mean, I think we've
always tried to recruit the best player we could find.
The difference at our school being a private school,
with next year a $55,000 cost at 11 1/2 scholarships
and really not any alternative means to get guys to
TCU. We have to find guys that are good players,
really good students, and their families come from
some resources to where they could help afford the
cost. However that fits together is however it's going to
play out. Without question, if you're going to be over
invested, with 11.7 for us, it's going to be the pitching
staff. Keaton Jones our starting shortstop, who just got
drafted in the 15th round, was a walk-on pitcher.
Preston Morrison, like Thomas Eshelman, a
nonrecruited pitcher from North Carolina, became the
best pitcher in our school. With every college
underfunded, every coach is going to be able to come
up with that type of player on your team. Like Rick
said, to me, the line between winning and losing,
whether you're in the SEC, the Big West, or the Big 12,
the line between winning and losing has never been
thinner. You look at our season last year, we won an
11-inning game in a regional, a 22-inning game in a
Regional, three one-run games in a Super Regional,
won a one-run game in Omaha, lost in the 15th inning,
and you know what's happened the last two weeks. So
me, it's about putting together the most athletic team
you can come up with and good pitching and coach
them like crazy and hope things go your way.
COACH CORBIN: I guess I vaguely remember what
the question was. Could you just repeat it again. I'm
listening to the answers. Certainly, I had to adjust. I
think through the years, when we were trying to
compete at a level that was somewhat successful, we
had to recruit a better athlete in a lot of different ways.
I think what Jim said, the pitching was paramount.
Before my arrival, Vanderbilt had some good arms.
Jeremy Sowers was already there when we got there.
But the thing about Clemson and how Jack (Leggett)
went about recruiting there was power arms, efficient
arms, guys who could keep your team close and play
good defense. That certainly was very impactful on me
personally on how to build a club.
Q. Have you ever been around a catcher as
effective catching base stealers as Kennedy? And
also, how big of a factor is he going against some
pretty good base-stealing teams on your side of
the bracket?
COACH VANDERHOOK: He's good. We had a guy
named Kurt Suzuki, who was pretty good a few years
back. But he's good. We went into Louisville last
weekend, and he had 20-some stolen bases. My
thoughts are you don't have to be any different. For my
catcher, you catch it, you throw it to second. If they're
out, they're out. If they're safe, they're safe. But he
came up with some pretty good throws there. He
catches. He handles the pitchers. He's done a
fantastic job of it. Now, he's not Suzuki, but he's good.
I can say that he is.
Q. Jim, would you tell us why you're going with
Preston and a little bit about him. And now that
you know that LSU will throw a lefty, how does that
change your approach? Paul, will you talk about
why you're throwing Jared Poche.
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: With Preston, we could go
right or left. We basically have two guys rested. With
Preston, he's the best pitcher in the history of our
school, most successful at least, not the biggest arm.
He's got a great presence. He pitched really well here
last year. He's not going to be wowed by the
environment in any sense of the word. He's going to
give us, at least I think, on that particular day, the best
chance to be successful. In terms of Poche, we know
he's really good. We knew going into the season we
were going to play a lot of left-handed hitters. Going
back to the recruiting season, that was one effort we
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made the last two or three years to add more balance
to our lineup. When in doubt, they're equal and ready
to take the left-handed hitter, which then means you're
going to be a lot more susceptible to left-handed
pitching. So we knew that was going to be the case all
year. We've seen everybody's -- when in doubt, the
other coach normally picks the left-hander. NC State
did that, Texas A&M did that. We've seen it all year.
That doesn't mean we've seen guys that are better
than him. It's just we've seen everybody's best guy.
There's some guys, some of those lefties on our team,
they hit lefties as well, if not better, than right-handed
pitchers. So certainly it adds an element to the run
game we have to deal with. Again, we've seen that all
season long and we are looking forward to the
challenge.
COACH MAINIERI: I've never seen Morrison pitch in
person. I think he pitched with Alex Bregman a couple
summers ago. Alex told me he's a tremendous
competitor and a really outstanding pitcher. So he's
going to be a great challenge for us. So I'm not
surprised Jim pitched him because of his experience. I
think he pitched your opening game here last year,
didn't he? So there's actually several reasons. I'm not
really going to go into that kind of depth about it except
a lot of it is the same reason that Jim is. Poche's been
our opening game starter for most of the year on our
weekend series. He's the grizzled veteran in his
sophomore year on our staff with all the freshmen
pitchers. He's pitched two terrific games in a row in the
postseason. So he's pitching with a lot of confidence.
He's got a little bit of experience, a lot of moxie, and we
just thought that, hey, the first game's important, but
the second game is equally as important. So the
bottom line is we've got two starting pitchers that need
to perform well for us if we have any chance to win this
thing.
Q. This question's for Paul and Tim and whoever
else wants to chime in: The shortstop serves in
the Draft was pretty well documented with the top
three guys being shortstops. What do you guys
attribute that to? Is there a reason for it? Is the
position developing differently? Is there any trend
or any explanation for it?
COACH CORBIN: I think Major League Baseball is
always looking for shortstops that are competent, that
they think have a skill set that can stay in the game for
several years. In the college game, it's very cyclical. I
think it just happened this year you had so many good
shortstops, and even in our league, outside of Alex and
Dansby, there were great shortstops in our league, and
all can play at a very high level. And the guys that
aren't mentioned are very good. I think it's a year
where the shortstop can defend but also has offensive
abilities, is out there, and because they're out there,
they got grabbed quick. Sometimes in drafts, whether
it's MLB or NFL, you see a certain position get
highlighted, and the next thing you know, once one guy
goes, then that position, the next position guy right next
to him goes. I think that's kind of what it was this year.
Q. Coach Mainieri, do you have anything to add?
COACH MAINIERI: I think one of the reasons as well is
there were several guys that got hurt that were
projected first round power arms. I think six or seven
first rounders came down with injury, and that kind of
kept moving some people up the Draft ladder a little bit.
I know in our case we're very fortunate to have Alex
Bregman. I'll tell anybody that. For all intents and
purposes, he wasn't coming to college, and then he
broke his finger right before the start of his senior year
in high school, missed his entire senior year. The new
Draft rules were put in place that particular summer.
When he didn't go in the first round, he was committed
to coming to school. Boy, weren't we the lucky ones.
We weren't sure he was going to be a shortstop when
he arrived at LSU, and through a lot of hard work and
obviously having the physical tools to do it, he's made
himself into a pretty good shortstop, who I think will -there was a lot of questions whether he'd stay at that
position, but I don't think there's any doubt he can play
shortstop in the Major Leagues.
Q. Coach Schlossnagle, Preston Morrison doesn't
have a win in the postseason yet in his career.
How much would it mean to you personally to see
him get one before he's finished?
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: It would mean a lot
because it's going to be in Omaha in the first game.
He pitched great here last year, and all the games are
close normally at this level of play. He gave us an
unbelievable chance to win, as you know, pitching into
the tenth inning. First time I've had a pitcher -- he only
threw 105 pitches. That's the first time I've had a guy
go beyond nine innings in my career, and he was lights
out against A&M last week. It just happened that Matt
Kent was just as good. I'm sure Poche is going to be
really good. When you are playing at this level, there's
a lot of things that go into a win and a loss for a
pitcher's record, but Preston's going to give us a great
chance. There's no doubt about it, especially if he's
pitching the way he's capable of. I'd love for him to get
a win. I'm just glad we get a chance to see him pitch
again because last week I was worried we wouldn't get
to.
Q. Jim, you talked about battling late-inning
games, extra innings throughout the season, and
last season in your Omaha run. What has been the
key of controlling the emotions of the team and
making sure they move on to the next phase after a
win?
page 6 of 9
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: Experience is the greatest
thing. We've done a good job in the middle game. We
employ a guy named Brian Cain, who's really helps us
and established a culture in our program of just playing
on to the next pitch. That trickles down from the older
guys to the younger guys. When you play eight seniors
every day, these guys have been in two College World
Series, three Super Regionals, they've been a part of a
really bad season in 2013. We led the Big 12 in
pitching but we were so bad offensively, that we played
in a lot of close games, just happened to lose them.
They're resilient. All of the teams -- if you're still
playing, you're resilient. So a lot of the characteristics
that I could come up about our team could be said for
all of these teams. They don't panic at all. They
certainly handle it a lot better than I do.
Q. Two different questions for Jim and then Tim:
Jim, I know you've been asked about it this week,
your relationship with Andy Cannizaro, what does
it mean for you to see him at the level he is with
Paul now? Tim, I know you guys didn't play LSU,
but you guys watch each other through the season.
Going into the year, seeing all the freshmen
pitchers, what's it say to you that they are here with
that freshman and sophomore-dominated pitching
staff.
COACH CORBIN: Well, you're right. We saw LSU
from afar. Good to see them in the Tournament. Alex
Lange is about as impressive a kid -- now, I don't coach
him. This is just my observations. But having met him
out in New Mexico at the end of last summer and
watching him pitch in the Connie Mack World Series
and watch what he's done this year, that's about as
impressive as a continual performance as you can
have by anyone. Not really a surprise. I think, in order
for a young man to come in and compete at that level,
they have to be mature. There has to be an old soul
component that exists inside of him. Like I said, I don't
know him, but it looks like that's the type of kid he is.
Certainly, when someone like that or an Alex Bregman
comes into your program and plays as a freshman, it
directly impacts not only the younger kids that age, but
the older kids. They see it, and there's a level of play
that rises because of that type of fabric that is on the
team.
Q. Your relationship with Andy (Cannizaro), you
recruited him to Tulane, you know him well. I
guess your feelings seeing him achieve what he
has just in one year for Paul.
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: I'm very, very close to him.
All of us, you'd like to think your relationship with every
player is the same. It's certainly not. Certainly as an
assistant coach, I recruited Andy since his junior year
in high school and coached him for four years. He was
our shortstop on the first College World Series team I
was ever part of in 2001. He's just a very, very special
young man in every sense of the word. Talking about
shortstops, he was as good as any that I've ever seen
or that I've ever coached. He just had the worst job in
the world, that's being the Triple-A shortstop to Derek
Jeter during his career. He had a cup of coffee in the
Big Leagues. But had no doubt he would be successful
in whatever he wanted to do, whether it be professional
baseball, which he was great at with the Yankees, and
certainly when we talk, if we just don't text every other
day, it's every third or fourth day. I told Coach Mainieri
yesterday he beat me to the punch because, if I would
have had the right opportunity, the right fit at the right
time, certainly Andy is a guy I would love to have on
our staff. There's no doubt that he's, I'm sure, a big part
of their success and going to be for a very, very long
time. He's a very special human being.
Q. Coach Mainieri, making that first trip to TD
Ameritrade two years ago in 2013 and having it
been a different experience from what you were
used to, now coming back two years later, how
much better prepared do you feel with that
experience?
COACH MAINIERI: I hope we're better prepared. We
were two and out two years ago. I don't know if it's
because the newness of the field as much as UCLA
played a little bit better than we did one game, and
North Carolina did the other. It was much different
than the atmosphere that we experienced at
Rosenblatt in a lot of little ways. Just the driving up to
the stadium with the bus and the parking lot as
opposed to here, where you drive up to a door.
Obviously, the field played differently. Just the whole
atmosphere is a lot different, and a lot of it caught me
by surprise, quite frankly. I don't think I had the team
as prepared as I should have had them. I had built up
the experience of Omaha so much that some of the
things that had changed were a little bit of a letdown for
the kids, quite frankly. Now everything is more focused
just on playing the games and realizing that's what
we're here for is to go out there and play as well as we
can on the field, and the bases are still the same
distance as what the mound is. The fences are kind of
far. The ball doesn't travel as well. All that stuff's been
well documented. I don't think that's going to affect us
much. We've played in big ballparks before, and I think
we've got a team that can handle whatever
circumstances. I just think the familiarity will help in a
lot of different ways.
Q. Jim and Tim, since you were here last year,
you've gone through the season with the new ball.
Do you expect the home run correction in offense
will be better in this year's World Series than it was
last year, or do you think it's not going to quite
match up?
page 7 of 9
COACH CORBIN: I have no idea. I'm anxious to see it,
I guess. The level of pitching that we're up against with
Eshelman and Poche and Preston, it would be tough.
These kids pitch very, very well. So I don't know, ball
or old ball, new ball, I'm not really sure. I'm anxious to
see what happens.
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: Since it's up during the
regular season, I would assume there would be some
sort of upward trend in the postseason. But at the end
of the day, the pitching is going to dictate that, like he
said. Last year, I know I was vocal after the 15-inning
game about the ball and everything, but Nick Howard
and Riley Ferrell had a lot to do with that, too. Not a lot
you can do when those guys are throwing 95 to 100
with 88-mile-an-hour breaking balls. We'll see, but I
would anticipate yes.
Q. Rick, looking back into April, you guys were 2019 after that Bakersfield loss. It seemed like this
team kind of flipped the script a little bit. From
your perspective, what changed on this team? And
I guess individually, from a player's standpoint,
who kind of flipped the script on their own season?
COACH VANDERHOOK: Richards. Richards got
consistent at shortstop. Offensively, we made -- or
defensively, we made moves. We moved Pinkston to
first. We went from 5'9" to 6'5". Infielders like that a lot
bit more. We lost a little offense. I think they just got on
a roll a little bit. We played all over the country. We
flew 26,000 miles before the Super Regional to play
games in Indiana and Maryland and Hawaii and
Tampa, Florida, to get some different flavor in the
preseason. And then after that point, we pretty much
stayed on the West Coast for a while, and they got to
get in a little bit of a rhythm and a little groove, and
we've learned how to play in one-run games. We've
learned how to score late in the game. Those are
things that you learn throughout the season. You can't
teach. They just have to figure it out and how to do it. I
thought they did a good job with that. We started
getting Eshelman more than one run a game, which
helped him a little bit. And then we lost Garza, and we
didn't miss a beat. It's all them. I didn't do anything.
Well, I did. I made them shave and get haircuts.
That's about it.
Q. Paul, you're good friends with Brian O'Connor.
Have you all eaten dinner here? Will you do
anything with him here while you're all here?
COACH MAINIERI: In 2009, we were both here, but we
were in the same bracket. We pretty much had the
same schedule, so on the off-days we could get
together. Now we're on opposite brackets. So the
days that we're not playing, he will be playing, at least
the first few days of the Tournament. I got to visit with
him a little bit last night after the administrative
meeting, but I think everybody's here just to do a job,
quite frankly. We'll have plenty of time to socialize
later.
Q. Jim, in your time at Tulane, you guys played LSU
quite a few times. How do you take from those
times going into a game like this with such a big
program like LSU?
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: That was so long ago, and
I'm not a player. It doesn't really matter for me. It's all
about what the players are able to handle. It's just a
great opportunity for our program, to play one of the
more elite programs, if not the most elite program in
the history of college baseball, especially the last 20
years. I know Omaha is a different place when LSU's
here. The first time we came in 2010, there was a
bunch of LSU people still here even when their team
wasn't. I've been called "tiger bait" plenty. If I get that
Sunday, I'm used to that part. It will just be a little
further away instead of right in your ear in the bullpen
like the old Alex Box was.
Q. Coach Schloss, last year your pitchers had to
face six guys batting over .300 for Texas A&M that
could hit for both average and power. On Sunday,
your pitchers are going to face eight guys batting
over .300. How does that experience going in help
you prepare for LSU?
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: I think the last couple
teams we played, North Carolina State and Texas
A&M, were very physical clubs. Somewhat similar to
LSU. The difference is the speed element. They're not
just -- they can win games in a variety of ways. So with
Texas A&M, it was a matter of they're going to hammer
your mistakes. If you could make pitches, then you
gave yourself a chance, which is probably most good
hitters. The difference with LSU is just very, very
complete team. So there's more than just making
pitches to bigger physical players.
Q. Perfect timing because my question for Jim is
controlling the run game. LSU obviously has a
weapon in their arsenal. How much of an
emphasis is it this week based on any other week?
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: Don't do anything more in
practice because you certainly don't want to make your
players panic in any way. But that's one of the beauties
of a guy like Morrison, he's going to be able to handle
it. Whether he's successful or not remains to be seen.
He's a guy that can still execute pitches and then pick
off at first base or pitch out or whatever the things you
have to do, whereas other guys, they're not equally as
adept at doing both. If they're worrying about the run
game, then their pitches are going to suffer. I don't
worry about that as much with Preston, but it's
definitely something you have to prepare for.
page 8 of 9
Q. Tim, there's a difference between a good player
and a popular player. Carson and Dan are both
popular players. What is it about their philosophy
or approach that makes them attractive?
COACH CORBIN: I just think that, as the years have
gone on, they've been able to hold on to their
innocence. I think that's very seeable, and they
certainly engage other people well, and they do it
naturally. It's not manufactured. Their personalities are
very engaging. They see people for what they are, and
they see themselves for what they are. They're real.
They don't get outside of their personality, and I think it
wears well, and people feel that.
in 80 runs as a lead-off hitter on a team that won 56
games. Certainly, I see a lot of the way LSU plays with
those speed guys and the way Andy played. You'd
have to ask Coach Mainieri, I guess. You probably
already know since you're around them all the time. I
don't know what effect Andy's had, but I know he was
that kind of player.
Q. Coach Schlossnagle, a lot is going to ride on
Evan Skoug for you on Sunday. First College
World Series, and after the 16 innings he caught on
Monday night, what do you see when you look at
him this week, in terms of how he's prepared
physically and mentally?
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: He's excited to play.
Everything's been brand new for him. We've asked a
lot of him all year, to clean up every game and handle
an older pitching staff. He's mature beyond his years. I
don't anticipate anything being any different for him.
He's had plenty of rest since Monday night. In this day
and age of college baseball, when you get a guy like
Bregman or Swanson -- I'm not certainly ready to put
Skoug in that class, but they're high level amateur
players in high school and summer baseball, and
they're prepared for a lot more things than kids used to
be 10, 15 years ago.
Q. Going to Jim and Tim again, back to the running
game and Andy for you. You see Andy's influence
in that running game a little bit when you've
scouted LSU. Paul's talked a lot about how Andy's
added that. And, Tim, even though you haven't
played LSU, do you see a little bit of a difference in
the way they attack on the base path this year?
COACH CORBIN: They just operate aggressively
because they can. When you can, you will. They're
able to do that. There's just a lot of kids with long legs
that pick up their feet very efficiently and close down
space quick. Then you've got a guy like Alex who's just
so competitive and so wired to get to the next base that
he's fast, he's quick, he wills himself. It's just a
combination of a lot of good athletes. That is, that's a
tough component to defend in a lot of different ways,
and it does take some savvy in order to try to stop it
and then deliver pitches at the same time. The best
thing you can do is just not let them get to first.
COACH SCHLOSSNAGLE: Regarding Andy, I don't
know who's in charge of what at LSU. I don't know
who runs the offense or anything like that. I know what
kind of player Andy was. He stole 50 bases and drove
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