2025 MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 15, 2025

Mitch Canham

Canon Reeder

Easton Talt

Oregon State Beavers

Postgame Press Conference

Coastal Carolina - 6, Oregon State - 2

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Oregon State.

MITCH CANHAM: A lot of uncharacteristic mistakes made early on. Kleiny wasn't his sharpest coming out of the gate. And even we had the hit batter that ended up in a strikeout and a clock violation. So some things that went in our favor, but a handful of things, like not playing clean that led to a handful of runs. All six of their runs were from free bases.

It was not clean baseball, and they got a good guy on the bump going. I thought what we had eight or nine really hard-hit balls that the wind knocked down, but that's part of the game too. They dealt with it. So did we.

But the beauty is that I trust these guys to go out and take the path that we've chosen to take all year and battle through the other side of the bracket.

Q. Easton, what did you see on the home run, if you could take us through that at-bat? And what made Morrison so effective as he kept going in the game?

EASTON TALT: The first at-bat, Gip, our hitting coach, told me to go up and see a pitch, so I was going up there to see a pitch. I saw him upset because he missed a fastball up and then slider down. I knew he was going to be throwing one pretty much down the middle.

He came back with a 2-1 fastball and basically repeated the same pitch, the 2-1 fastball. Got a hold of it.

He was mixing well, hitting spots. He had a lot of confidence, too. Just mixing them well.

CANON REEDER: I agree. I mean, he hit his spots when he needed to. Did a good job mixing, and just effective when he should be. But we'll get him next time.

Q. When you see those balls just getting gobbled up in the wind, which we've seen in this park for so long, how frustrating can that be as a hitter? How do you adjust to that? Do you have to make any kind of changes with your approach to take the conditions into account?

CANON REEDER: I think it definitely can be frustrating. But that's just part of the game. We're playing in the same ballpark. At the end of the day it's not really a big deal. You've just got to flush it.

We're just going to keep swinging it, keep playing our game.

You don't necessarily change your approach. You know we're playing in a big yard. You want to keep the ball on the line, get true back spin. But that's just part of the game.

EASTON TALT: After my home run, I think Aiva and Gavin got one back to back, and both those balls were hammered. Just keep putting good swings on the ball and eventually they'll fall. Soon enough they'll be line drives.

Q. Does it change your approach? I know you've had a lot of elimination games this year. Kind of going out and doing the same thing, trying to get the same success?

MITCH CANHAM: We're going to go out, get a light practice in tomorrow and put together a game plan, prepare for our next opponent, and continue to plug away just as we always have done. Try to make it more than it is or less than it is, and shame on you.

Again, even as the game's going on, I'm like, okay, it's been a long time since I've seen this kind of ball being played from our side. At the same time, I'm not surprised on how they continued to put in the work at the very end of the game, getting guys on board.

And great to see a handful of our guys come out -- Kmatz, Palmer and Edwards -- and throw the rock and do a nice job, just getting little touches. First time getting the jump on the bump in Omaha.

That is going to be an important factor these next several games for us to continue to be successful. Having a day off tomorrow gives our pen a little breath. Kept all those guys pretty short. So just being able to be prepared for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and everything thereafter, let's just keep rolling.

Q. You mentioned the other day studying past teams. Maybe not yours necessarily. But you were on that 2016 team that came out of the losers' bracket and won the national championship. Number one, have you studied that team a little bit as you prepared for the College World Series? And, secondly, what do you remember about that team that's going to help you guys persist?

MITCH CANHAM: Did I study that team, our team in '06? I studied it pretty hard. I lived it. 2018 as well. Got wisdom from Zak Taylor. It's baseball. If you're scared of a little bit of an obstacle in front of you then sport isn't for you and most of life isn't for you because it just keeps coming. So take it with grace and go out there and fight.

The beauty of that team, every day we woke up and we were excited to be there with one another. Again, you quiet all the noise and you focus on the task at hand and bringing excitement to the game.

Early on, in today's game, it was a little too somber at times. And I had to go down the dugout and ask a few guys, hey, typically in these moments I hear you saying this, and typically I see someone shooting water over another guy or whatever.

I go, don't change who we are based on the score of the game or what have you. You don't change the way you pitch based on the score of the game; you attack the strike zone if you're on the bump.

If you're at the plate, doesn't matter the score, you're going to swing at high-quality strikes and you're going to take balls. So it doesn't change our approach.

Again, waking up tomorrow morning, it's going to sting a little bit tonight, but I'm excited for tomorrow the fact that we get to be around one another.

And there are going to be a handful of guys graduated. We had a graduation ceremony yesterday at lunch. Watching Chase Reynolds and Wilson Weber get their diplomas was very exciting things.

The whole picture getting to see the guys grow up in front of you. And what a great opportunity we have to go out and fight Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. If we do our job and we play together as a family, like I know we can, we're going to play Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then jump in the championship series. And at that point again it's all about getting hot. We still have air. We're still in it.

Q. You mentioned the balls that got gobbled up. After those two by Arquette and Turley in the third, Morrison seemed to settled into a groove. Did you see anything different from him once he settled in or maybe something different in the approaches from your hitters?

MITCH CANHAM: No, I think once we got -- I did one of those in-game interviews after the third -- and we were talking about that. I said I'm excited to watch the guys second time through just finding balance.

He did a really good job mixing a lot of his pitches. It was fast, low, fast, low, in, out, up, down. Obviously they have a really good guy behind the dish receiving.

I have no idea -- I'm in the dugout -- I have no idea how close those pitches were, how good they really looked. Just based on how the guy receives it and what kind of cut our guy is taking at the pitch.

Again, our guys were still putting good barrel on it. I like where Jacob Craig was at. Arquette, again, all these guys, there was no quit. Look at the very end of the game. Gavin Turley is Oregon State's home run record and he goes for a push bunt to get on base.

At no point in time was anyone thinking adjust. I know Canon had said we we're just keep going at it and swinging. He understands if the third baseman is back, the first baseman is back and the second baseman is up the middle, we'll look for holes and we'll use the small game if we need to.

And really, when the wind is howling in like that, you have to lower your sight, especially when a guy has a little bit of a jump. He's got pretty good offspeed stuff that barrels down. You really have to work line drive down.

They made some great plays. The ball the kid caught in the corner sliding into it from Arquette. And their infield played solid defense as well. I know we put a couple of scares in them with the balls at the wall.

Again, control what we can on our side we need to force them to put more balls in play. Six walks, we can't do that. Hit-by-pitch or two, again, that ain't going to work, especially with a team that, as I talked about before the game with the guys, they're going to continue on fighting throughout the entirety of the game, just like we're going to do.

So minimizing mistakes is always important. But I anticipate us going out and playing cleaner baseball Tuesday.