2025 MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 13, 2025

Dan McDonnell

Patrick Forbes

Jake Munroe

Louisville Cardinals

Postgame Press Conference

Oregon State - 4, Louisville - 3

DAN MCDONNELL: Obviously congratulations to Oregon State. Man, they played well -- outside, I know that was a freaky error there late -- but they pitched well, holy cow. They made our offense -- they were ahead of our offense tonight. My gosh, I know I had to look at this box score, but 14 strikeouts against a really good offense. So I thought they pitched really well.

They took advantage of an unfortunate situation for us, just a little hiccup here or there and you get walked off in the ninth. Must have been a great game for everybody to watch and enjoy. A lot of good baseball. We came up on the short end.

Q. Patrick, that was one of your better performances. I know the numbers don't necessarily indicate it. Seemed like they weren't able to touch your slider most of the game. What was working for you. Looked like you were really in the zone, matching their guy pitch for pitch?

PATRICK FORBES: Really just trying to get ahead. The slider was good late in the count. Just kind of try to get them in between the fastball and slider. That was working to get some swing and miss.

They put some good swings on some balls. Give them credit. I tried to keep us in it, let the offense come back. But that's baseball.

Q. Jake, Dan was talking about the pitchers. From your vantage point what did you see from them? And how difficult was it to try to get some hits off of them?

JAKE MUNROE: It was tough. They attacked us well. They kept us off balance. But as good as they pitched, it's kind of on us. We could have done a lot better as a group.

So hats off to them. But as hitters we know that game won't happen again. It's just a rare occurrence that our pitchers keep us in for that long and we don't help them out a little bit more.

Q. Patrick and Jake, how does a team respond after a game like that?

PATRICK FORBES: Like we have been, usually. When we get a loss during the season, we usually come back with an edge. We're definitely hungry after this win. That's why they give you two losses. It's not like basketball where you lose once and you're out. That's what makes this game great. Looking forward to how we respond.

JAKE MUNROE: It's "So what, now what?" That's a saying we use a lot. It's win or go home now. I think you'll see some of the best baseball out of us.

Q. Jake, elite starting pitching was on display tonight. Both teams hitless through the first three innings. But in the fourth inning when the shadows completely covered the mound, the cap on the offense lifted. Did the shadows play any role in the ability of picking up the offspeed pitches today?

JAKE MUNROE: Yeah, a little bit. I think also that first go around, them seeing Patrick and us seeing this guy, two really good pitchers. The shadows played a bit. That second AB, definitely felt a lot clearer. But, still, we've got to get the job done.

Q. Jake, what was it about Whitney's stuff that made him so hard to hit beside the shadows?

JAKE MUNROE: I think his short arm action. So the velo played up a little bit. He had his curveball today, his big one, which we weren't expecting him to throw as much as he was going to throw it. Just needed to make an adjustment a little earlier.

And he was all around the zone. I think he had one walk. Just kept attacking us and he could land all pitches.

Q. Based on how your team has responded to losses especially in the postseason, how confident are you going into that game on Sunday against Arizona?

DAN MCDONNELL: I mean, there's no reason for us to not be confident. It hasn't been the smoothest year. Success is not always a straight line. We've had our bumps in the road and we've zigged and we've zagged.

But like Patrick said, we've been knocked on the mat a lot this year, but we have always gotten up. When you come from Louisville, Kentucky, and you have a Muhammad Ali uniform, you talk a lot of boxing, and you're going to get knocked down, especially with these teams.

I'm as confident as I think as a coach should be and just looking forward to getting out there playing Sunday.

Q. When you find yourself in a pitching duel like that where both guys are finding all their stuff early, does it change any way that you decide to go about the game plan? Does it change anything at all for you guys?

DAN MCDONNELL: As a coach, you're just a little helpless. I had heard how good Whitney was, I just had never seen him. But it was one of those, hey, Coach, this guy was a first-rounder out of high school if he wanted to sign. But unfortunately for us he chose to go to Oregon State.

And then I think Patrick Forbes, his best days are ahead of him. I think the sky's the limit.

So, I think you're right. Not to take anything away from how talented the pitchers are, but take that talent with the shadows, it was, like, unhittable. It was like strikeout, strikeout, strikeout. And you're just hoping that give the hitters a better chance when the shadow comes over. But still, that's just elite stuff.

Like Jake said, the breaking ball. We know he had it. We were just hoping he wasn't going to land it as well as he did, the breaking balls, because really he was throwing multiple pitches there.

And we finally got to him right in the sixth. I don't know if he had a three-ball count -- the first hitter of the game was 3-2 count to Lucas -- and then I don't know if he had a three-ball count for about four innings. And then we got to him there a little bit in the sixth and they made the change. Like I said, they pitched really well.

Like Jake, it's a confident group. Our group expects a lot. They're going to be very disappointed in how they were offensively. But they did show a fight. So we have to come out and fight on Sunday.

Q. You talk a lot about turning the page throughout the season. As you guys do that on to Sunday, you've seen Arizona before this year. It was the third game of the year. It's a long time ago. Is there anything that you can take from that game into Sunday? Or is it just kind of a it's a different part of the season, you just kind of play it new?

DAN MCDONNELL: It's a whole new season. I mean, we'll look at our scouting report and look at that game, but, my gosh, it's February 16th, and so it's really a whole new game.

And we're into scouting reports. We want to be organized and we want to be prepared. But this is about us. I've got to make sure these guys don't get too down on themselves.

And they're competitive, and it's going to hurt. It's supposed to hurt. But I just gotta get them back and get them some rest. As we like to say, win the day. So I've got to get out there tomorrow and make sure the guys win the day and get ready for Sunday.

Q. Obviously you have a really good middle infield, and you've played on turf fields throughout this tournament in the first two weekends to get to this point. It's such a tight game where it's just so marginal, and there's three balls that hit gloves in the middle infield. Do you look on that and think about anything possibly of the first two weekends here?

DAN MCDONNELL: No, again, Oregon State, a lot of teams play on turf. Kamau almost made some great plays, and Alex's error was just very unfortunate. I believe he's one of the best shortstops in the country. Man, we're blessed to have him as our shortstop. He's a superstar.

He probably just forced it a little bit. Those medium-hit balls are sometimes the harder balls to handle. When it's hit hard it's a little more reactionary. When it's a slow roller you're full speed. It's that medium ball.

And we practice bases loaded. There's one thing about turning a double play; there's another thing about turning a double play with bases loaded. We practiced that and we talk about it. We really try to use it as a momentum swing. Like, when your back's against the wall, we've got a chance to flip this game right here.

Even though we're on defense and they've got runners on the bases, it's really an opportunity for the defense.

But fortunately it didn't kill us. It was just one run. And the law of averages are they've got a good chance to score a run anyway.

I thought the difference when they had first and second, nobody out, and one gets away from Patrick, the wild pitch. And you want a team to give you an out to get runners in scoring position. But when they don't have to use an out to get runners into scoring position, it's a ground ball up the middle, run. Then we have to bring the infield in because it doesn't look like we're going to score that many runs and it's a ground ball.

And before you know it, you feel like you handed them two runs. Now, they earned it. That's situational hitting. But if it's first and second, you know, that ball that's hit to Alex is a double play ground ball. And that's just the fine line.

When you win, you don't really talk about it and people don't realize it. When you lose, you know, you evaluate those things. But it is, it's baseball. If you're not going to score more runs, then, man, every pitch, every defensive play is it's crucial.

They dealt with it, too, because of the error they made there, or errors, I guess, on that one play in the ninth. They get magnified because it's such a low-scoring game. But that's what you love about baseball. There's a lot of ways to win. Unfortunately, there's a lot of ways to lose.