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NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SUPER REGIONALS: CHAMPAIGNJune 8, 2015Tim CorbinPhilip PfeiferDansby SwansonCHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS Vanderbilt – 4 TIM CORBIN: Well, first off, I know there's a lot of levels to what just happened out there, but I think we saw exactly the type of team that Illinois is and was: Very hard‑nosed team, very difficult to beat, as has been shown by their record. To beat them twice at home was a difficult proposition. The guy on the mound today, Tyler Jay, he's fantastic. You think about his situation and how he came into today and how motivated he was, we really had to battle to break him. We just barely did. We probably never broke him but we just scratched enough in order to move one run ahead of them. Obviously the big hits in the game were Zander's home run, Dansby's home run which was cut against the wind, two‑strike hit which he did a great job of staying on a breaking pitch. Bryan Reynolds, two‑strike, two‑out hit which kind of broke the game open from a small momentum spot and the safety squeeze by Rhett. Philip Pfeifer, just proud on a lot of levels for him just because of where he's been and the fact that he wasn't with us last year; and the fact that he got the chance to start this game today. Pitched very well as the day progressed. Just so proud of the start. And Ben Bowden, giving us the stop gap; Kyle Wright being a freshman and an out with the bases loaded was the turning point in a lot of different ways. Very, very proud of the team. So very difficult to do coming off a situation like last year. Not defending anything but it's difficult. That target is very big and there's a lot of shots that you take. So we're just very thankful that we can get to the point, storybook ending. You've got the No.1 guy in the country here to watch us play from Chicago, he's got the day off, and he's standing there watching the guy on my left get picked, No.1 in the country today. So the whole deal is just surreal and kind of jaw‑dropping to say the least. Just a great day for Vanderbilt university and the kids. I'm just so happy for the kids. Q. You guys had on one side the best left‑hander in college baseball and Phil on the other side, having to compete with that. What does it say about Phil that he had the game that he did today? DANSBY SWANSON: We knew Phil was going to come out and give us all he had. He was one of those guys, once he gets his rhythm and momentum, he's definitely hard to hit. Once he kind of was able to shut them down, we got all the confidence in the world in him. We're just so proud of him from everything that he's gone through and where he is now. He battled out there. He made pitches when he had to, and he was able to have some good innings in the middle part of the game that helped us get some momentum and rhythm back on offense. So huge credit to him. Q. In the early going, you were a little rough there. PHILIP PFEIFER: Yeah, but that's nothing new, really. Starting off a little out of rhythm has kind of been my Mo. But you know, I think if I've learned anything from the past two years, it's going to look bad before it looks good. So I had faith in myself and faith in our hitters who battled their butts off today. I was just going to try and execute from that point forward and just get out. Q. Can you talk about what you learned from your first at‑bat, the strikeout? DANSBY SWANSON: Well, first time facing Tyler Jay. He was just locating really well, staying down in the zone and his slider was working well. He was just able to locate down my back foot, so I was able to clear a little bit of space for myself. And just look over the plate and just adjust to what would come and I was able to cut my hands across a slider that was left up a little bit. Q. As a whole for the team, did you see him better the second and third time through than the first time? DANSBY SWANSON: Yeah, I think so, and I think that's true for any lineup. We were able to battle and stick with it, because eventually we'll be able to break through and we had faith in ourselves and confidence in ourselves to be able to do that. Had to battle off some tough pitches and have some long at‑bats to kind of tire him out but he's phenomenal in a lot of respect having been a former teammate of him? Q. Did you face him in the U.S. national team ever? Left lefty did not. Q. So you have a big role in advancing back to Omaha; getting selected to No.1, this has to rank high on your favorite days. DANSBY SWANSON: Yeah, I can't complain, that's for sure. It's a surreal moment, especially to be with all my loved ones. I have my family here. Coach Corbin has done so much for me and the rest of the staff, as well, and my best friend is standing next to me, too. You can't screw up the moment any better than that, just to be able to enjoy the moments with the people closest to you, it's pretty phenomenal. Q. Tyler Jay, how much of a distraction was that going into today? PHILIP PFEIFER: Would you repeat that, please. DANSBY SWANSON: For me? Honestly, it's two separate things. I was at peace with both just going out there and just competing because baseball comes first before us than anything else and I can't control anything going on around me. I was just going to control my effort and focus and let everything else pan out. Q. Inaudible. PHILIP PFEIFER: Still waiting on my alarm clock to wake me up honestly. This day has gone so well for our team, and I'm ecstatic. I've been waiting for this moment for so long, and now that it's here, I don't really know what to tell you. I'm just ready for the first game once we get there. Q. What have you learned from Carson and Walker? Must be special to be on the same staff and getting drafted so high; what type of teammates they are. PHILIP PFEIFER: First off, I think those two guys might be the biggest fan of our pitchers. Those guys are incredibly supportive on and off the field. Secondly, I think just watching them work makes you better. They compete low in the zone. They throw strikes. They have plus pitches and they work really hard. So I think pitching in between them has made me a better competitor for just being around them as they were. Q. Anything individually about both of them? PHILIP PFEIFER: You know, sometimes I watch Carson, just how he competes. He is very aggressive on the mound. And really, it's almost like watching a yin and yang, taking Carson's competitive edge and the way that Walker just approaches the game. Walker is very relaxed up there on the mound. He's aggressive but he does so in a controlled manner, so trying to find that balance between them, really, I think is what's benefitted me most. Q. How satisfying is it this time to go to Omaha with all that extra baggage you have to deal with? TIM CORBIN: It's just as great, if not greater, just because of the circumstances that exist throughout the year. It's a difficult year to play, there's no doubt about it. You think about it from the time that we won that National Championship, I can personally say we haven't stopped. It's been a full‑blown, 100‑mile‑an‑hour ride, and it has not stopped up until this point but I'm perfectly fine with it. But I've become very protective of the kids, of course, because they are ours and I want to protect their emotions as much as possible. So I think if there's one team that I've lived with with them is trying to center them in just these small moments that we're involved in and try not to get too distracted by anything, and I think they have done a wonderful job that way. I tell them all the time, I'm at peace with them because they are mature, and it's like raising your own kids. Once they leave the house, you say, step back, I'm happy with them, they are going to be fine. I don't have to worry about them at all. They will do the right things and make the right decisions and that's how I feel about them. Q. Your relievers got out of big jams; what impressed you about them? TIM CORBIN: Just the ability to get out there and pitch and throw strikes. Ben's situation was difficult because it was a one‑run second so he had to amend that inning. Kyle Wright, bases loaded, one out, freshmen don't do that. That's just tough to do, to get a strikeout and then get the third out. And then finishing the game is very difficult to do in someone else's ballpark. Just to get the third out is difficult to do. And when you're going through the middle of their order, it's two and three, and they are both left‑handed and they have both had tremendous success this year. I'm just happy that they were able to complete the mission and breathe, for a lack of better words, just breathe and execute a pitch, which is so very important. Q. How tough was that grind of trying to get to Tyler Jay enough to when he's out of the game, you guys have the lead. How difficult was that? TIM CORBIN: It's very difficult scoring runs against him because he doesn't give you anything. We felt like if we could get to first base we were going to try to run just to get to second base because we knew he wouldn't give in. But he's a very tough competitor. I look at his situation a lot like Dan, there's a lot riding on the line for that young man. He gave them every opportunity to win the game: Our hitters are pretty tough to knock down, especially now, because I think they are seeing the ball well and I think they are breathing really well. He's a tough customer. I don't think it's going to take him long to get to where he needs to go. Q. Did you have any take away from what Missouri State did to Arkansas? Coming back with a lefty, must have struck you as a cautionary tale. TIM CORBIN: I was 100 percent sure we were not going to have the same type of game. We talked about it being a close game. We talked about it's going to be a battle and we are going to have to absorb some punches because we knew this was a prideful team at Illinois and very difficult to set down. So we knew we were going to have to take their best punch, and I thought we did, early. And I just thought that we had to grind out the at‑bats, that's all. But I knew it was going to be completely different. Yes, I saw that game, and understood, but you know, everything is a little bit different. We just knew that this one was going to be most difficult. Q. How did this team stack up to teams you saw in the SEC? Where is the Big Ten? Is it moving forward? TIM CORBIN: I think the Big Ten has made the greatest advancement in college baseball without question. And I don't say that just after a victory. I said it before we came in here. I thought Indiana was very good. I thought this club that we played was very good. They could have been in Omaha, too. That type of pitching, we didn't even see Johnson. That guy, he has a 2.0 ERA. Older clubs are very dangerous because they are usually not spooked and this one wasn't. You look at the Big Ten teams that didn't even get in here, Ohio State, Nebraska and Michigan State, for crying out loud, was one of the better teams in the country for a while. My buddy was here, Eric Backage (ph) watching the game and his club was very nip and tuck with Louisville. Yeah, I just think there's a lot of equality in college baseball right now without question. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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