COLLEGE WORLD SERIES: BATON ROUGE REGIONAL

May 31, 2025

James Ellwanger

Dan Heefner

Nathan Humphreys

DBU Patriots

Postgame Press Conference

LSU - 12, Dallas Baptist - 0

DAN HEEFNER: Obviously LSU has a great team. We know Kade is one of the best pitchers in the country. We knew we'd have to play a great game in order to beat them. And we obviously didn't do that.

I thought James came in, settled it for us, did a good job and kind of stopped it right there. But we didn't play good defense, and we didn't string anything together. And the double play kind of killed when we did have something going.

But looking forward to another chance tomorrow. And need to get after it so we can play again tomorrow night.

Q. James, you had 92 pitches in 4.1 innings when they were running up your pitch count in the beginning when they came in. What was your mindset to keep calm and collected to keep going throughout?

JAMES ELLWANGER: It was just really going one pitch at a time, trying to fill up the zone and get guys out one at a time. So that was my mindset in there.

Q. Nathan, Kade is a lot to handle when he's out there. What is it exactly that he does that throws hitters off as much as he does?

NATHAN HUMPHREYS: He has great stuff. He locates pretty well. As a hitter, you just have to go up and pick a pitch you want to hit and just stick to your approach.

He threw a good really good game tonight. I thought we put up some good at-bats against him, but as Coach said, we couldn't string anything together.

Q. Y'all didn't put a game in play against Anderson until the 33rd pitch. Seemed you all were pretty patient. Was that the approach, to try to drive his pitch count up early?

NATHAN HUMPHREYS: You know, I think, coming into the game, we were looking for our pitch. That's kind of different for each of us. I think we were all trying to be patient, looking for that specific pitch. Then once we got it, we were getting our swing off. I think things just didn't work out tonight for us.

But the same plan will be same for tomorrow. We're going to come out and try to get our pitch and do damage with it.

Q. James, this is your sophomore year. What progress have you seen from yourself, and what has the coaching staff been able to help you progress so far?

JAMES ELLWANGER: They really just helped me grow as a competitor on the mound and find my mindset and my level on the mound. I mean, I got a great defense behind me. So being able to work with them and through them to fuel me on the mound has been one of the biggest ones.

Q. Coach, trailing 5-0, why go with Ellwanger as the first guy out of the pen?

DAN HEEFNER: I think just knowing how a regional works, and if you win the first two games, you shrink it, you have four games maximum. If you lose one of the first two, in order to win it you're going to have to play five.

And even though we knew we were facing Kade Anderson and he's really tough, and we do feel like we've got a good offense, and we thought James could come in and throw up some zeros, and just looking at what's the best opportunity to win a regional.

That's why we brought him in, and he did a good job for us, but we just didn't put the at-bats together and bring it closer. And didn't play defense for him either.

Q. I know you kind of talked about how your team didn't really string it together and the defense was a little spotty, but what made LSU so much different this time than earlier in the season? I know there's a difference, but what was so different today?

DAN HEEFNER: I was impressed with them when we played them earlier in the year as well. They have a great approach. Like obviously Kade is one of the best in the country. He's elite on the mound. Like, it's elite stuff with command. That's what makes him different and special.

But I think what makes their offense good is it's just approach. One through 9, they have an approach, they stay within the strike zone. Every at-bat is just pressure.

They did that tonight. I felt like they did that to us the last time we played them as well. So I don't think huge difference between the two games. They're a really solid team on the mound, offense, defense. But the at-bats, they put a ton of pressure on you just with how disciplined they are.

Q. For Micah, it was his return to Baton Rouge. How much did he acknowledge that, and what do you think was missing for him tonight do you think?

DAN HEEFNER: He definitely -- I think he was excited to be able to come back here and throw. He's had an outstanding season for us. He was our number one Friday night guy. He's been dominant throughout the year. He had an injury where he was shut down for a while.

Last week was his first time back through just electric, lights out for three innings. But he did go about four weeks without throwing before that.

So obviously I'm sure there's some emotion there coming back and throwing here again. But in my mind it doesn't take away from anything what he's done for us. We're not here without Micah Bucknam and what he's done for us over the course of the season.

Q. You said a little bit earlier about what it takes to win a regional. For the rest of the weekend you've got to win two games tomorrow to see a game 7 on Monday. How is the rest of your pitching staff looking and what's your message to those guys as you go into tomorrow having to win two games?

DAN HEEFNER: We're going to figure out what's the order we want to go in. And do feel like we've got some great pieces. We've got some really good guys we haven't used yet and guys that can go long, too. So we feel good about that.

And you know one thing we've seen this through the years, if you're going to do something special it's going to take some guys stepping up that maybe haven't had some opportunities. And in the situation we're in now, it's a team effort.

So I think that's going to be the message to them is we've been talking about this and now the opportunity is coming. So it's just next-man-up mentality. We need to take full advantage of it. And every inning, every out is important in order to finish the whole thing off.