The NCAA conducted a press conference on Friday at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha with the two remaining teams in the College World Series. The best-of-three series against the North Carolina Tar Heels begins Saturday at 4 p.m. PDT and airs on ESPN. Games two and three, if necessary, will be played Sunday and Monday at 4 p.m.
Today’s press conference (courtesy of the NCAA):
Oregon State Head Coach (opening statement): “We are also excited to be here. We talked about it in the regional and super regional how we were leaving good teams behind. We had eight great teams here. We’re fortunate to come out of the loser’s bracket. We’re excited to play North Carolina. To think there are only two clubs left and we’re one of them certainly makes it special. We’re anxious to get it going and have fun with it.”
(about losing the first game and coming back to win the next four): “One thing we talked about after the Miami game is who were are. Every team has a game that they look back at and think they should have won. We did that at a time we didn’t want to – the first game. The credit goes to the players. Success comes when you’re confident in who you are and what you do. The kids played with a lot of heart and confidence.”
(about the series pitching rotation): “I’ll let Coach Fox answer that because he has his set up. We don’t. We’ll do what we’ve been doing the last three days and throw whoever is ready to go.”
(about North Carolina): “We don’t have the luxury of seeing each other play because we’re on other sides of the country. We knew they had good pitching, but it looks even better in person. It’s a tribute to the two programs to get to the top. We did do similar things to get here. When you think about North Carolina, you think about basketball. Now they think about baseball too. They have some special arms. That’s for sure.”
(about playing North Carolina in the championship series) “When you see teams play in person, it’s a different perspective. What’s fitting for us is both programs have done it right. They are kids that play hard and play the game right.”
(about playing in the Northwest): “It’s getting better, but generally we are on the road for our first 14 to 17 games. The new season with the change of schedule is going to help us. However, I think it creates toughness in our club. You have to overcome adversity. Everybody deals with what they have to deal with.”
Oregon State Catcher (about the difference between OSU and UNC in the number of days off): “At this point it doesn’t matter. We’re running of fumes. The adrenaline of playing in front of all these people will keep us going.”
Oregon State Pitcher (about what he thought about when he woke up this morning): “We get a day off. We were pretty tired. Now is not the time of the year to complain about injuries and stuff like that.”
(about the fan support back in Oregon): “I hope they are excited. I think the whole Northwest has embraced us. I heard that more fans are coming out, and we already have a good contingent of fans here. What makes it even more special is we have a lot of kids from the Northwest on this team.”
Oregon State Leftfielder (about North Carolina’s pitching staff): “Obviously we got to see them on TV during the super regional. They have some special arms. To see it live is something else. They have some big league arms.”
Oregon State Shortstop Darwin Barney (about playing in the championship series after losing the first game): “After our second practice five days ago at Creighton, I put my practice pants away and wondered if I’d every use them again. When I was getting ready to come here today, I put them in my bag. It was a surreal feeling.”
