2025 MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 17, 2025

Dan McDonnell

Eddie King Jr.

Tucker Biven

Jake Munroe

Louisville Cardinals

Postgame Press Conference

Louisville - 7, Oregon State - 6

THE MODERATOR: We're joined Louisville head coach Dan McDonnell and student-athletes Tucker Biven, Eddie King Jr., and Jake Munroe.

DAN MCDONNELL: It's obviously awesome that we get to be with these guys competing at least another day and feel good competing the rest of this week with them.

It's always a lot of mixed emotions because when you sit here, either you lost and your season's over, or you just eliminated somebody else. So you're just sensitive.

I've got a lot of respect for Oregon State and what they went through this year. Somebody did an awesome article on them and shared their traveling and their time in airports and delays and getting back at 5:00 in the morning.

It was just, for a coach, it was very encouraging and challenging because, with the ACC, we now have some California schools. And we didn't head out west this year but we have to head out west next year.

So I'll be turning a lot to what Oregon State did this year to kind of motivate our guys as to how good and how special we can be if we continue our toughness.

We talk about the hard, and this group's been through a lot of hard. Two of these guys are juniors. One's a junior and one's a senior. They've been through a lot of hard the past couple of years.

Jake comes through the junior college ranks. Let's not act like he didn't have it hard either. But I never had a doubt. This guy to my left is just an absolute warrior. So much fun giving him the ball. And even though he hasn't always won, he knows, win or lose, we trust him and I'll go down with him any day of the week.

It kind of symbolizes our pitching staff right now, how well we've pitched in the postseason and how tough we've been.

And to the two hitters next to him, I thought today was our best offensive day from the get-go. I just thought a lot of quality at-bats. We were moving the baseball.

I think one inning they robbed three hits in one inning, which, again, credit to them. But I felt really good about our offense, where we were at.

And like I said, we've pitched our tail off this postseason, so, I'm really happy for this group.

Q. Eddie, during the super regional you talked about hearing the chants at Jim Patterson and what that meant to you. Where does the chants here at Omaha mean, and how does it rank in your career right now?

EDDIE KING JR.: It never gets old. It's something I'll never get used to. I'm just grateful that I'm in the position that I'm in. And I'm I just want to take advantage of every moment I get. Just hearing chants like that in a moment like that, it warms my heart. And I'm so glad that it could be for Louisville.

Q. Tucker, that situation there in the top of the ninth, it was looking grim. They tied the game. There's an error, and it felt like there was a chance where that game could get out of hand. Curious about the conversation you had on the mound and how you were able to regroup and get out of that jam?

TUCKER BIVEN: As soon as he came out, I thought he was taking me out of the game. I was going to get pretty upset. He just came out and said, if you give up one or two runs it's okay. We still get to hit in the ninth. We've done plenty of damage late in the game.

Obviously Alex he's by far the best defensive shortstop in the country. It would be selfish for me to get mad at him in this situation. He's done plenty for this time playing with a hurt hand. Kudos to him.

Just trusting my team, trusting Coach Williams and the pitches he calls.

Q. Jake and Eddie, that sequence where Jake homered and Eddie went to the wall on the ground-rule double, what did that do for you guys mentally as a team that means you can get the ball out and over that wall?

EDDIE KING JR.: It showed us, no matter what we play, whatever ballpark we're in, we can hit for extra bases and hit for power.

But this team, we tried to stay short, for the most part. But we have so many different weapons we can use. So that goes to show.

JAKE MUNROE: I think, for me at least, it helped free me up a little bit telling me that I don't gotta force something on the ground, that I could stick to my approach. And if I catch one well in the air, there's a chance it will go.

Q. Eddie and Jake, you get back to the dugout at the top of the ninth inning. How do you mentally reset, flush that and go from there, score and win the game?

EDDIE KING JR.: You've got to reset as soon as you get the final out. You've got to have, what do you call it, a short mind frame or whatever.

But I think we knew we were about to do something special. So I'm glad I could just come through for my team. Just gotta keep it going.

JAKE MUNROE: Yeah, I mean, for me it was pretty easy. We had the top of the lineup up. It was a tie game, so we've got to scratch across one. I think that's easy for us to do, especially in these late-game situations. And it's easy when you have a lineup like this.

I struck out on a call I didn't like. I was upset about it. Did a little 360, saw Eddie, and I said, oh, yeah, we're good. That's kind of the special thing about this lineup.

Q. Are you able to draw any similarities besides the outcome of this game to game one that you guys just played in the College World Series final? Top of the inning, team makes a comeback, ties it up; bottom of the ninth inning, walk off.

DAN MCDONNELL: It's pretty bizarre that we did that to Oregon State a couple days ago, and they walked us off. And they did that to us today and we walk them off.

It's the value of being the home team. Sometimes people act like it's not that big a deal. It's amazing when you get the last three outs and you get to walk somebody off. So very fortunate that we were in that situation today.

You knew they were going to make a rally there late. And we pitched so well, but their best hitter, one of their best hitters jumps on a heater, and their other best hitter fights off a ball and it drops. It's like, okay, you're in it here now; you're going to have to grind this out and earn it. And they made us earn it.

Q. You guys were exceptionally good hitting today with two outs. You guys were also great on the defensive side, stopping Oregon State from getting anything going all game with two outs. Does that go back to your toughness that you guys preach?

DAN MCDONNELL: I hope so. Look, we've got a shirt that hangs in the dugout. It's got a few sayings for the year and some things on the sleeve that I won't bore you with, what it all means.

But our focus is on that number. That's the game that matters. And we give that shirt out at the end of the game usually to -- you say an MVP, somebody who threw six shutout or somebody who hit two home runs -- a lot of times it's pretty obvious who the shirt is going to go to.

I knew when Alex got on in the ninth, we win this game, the shirt's going to Alex. Like nobody felt worse than he did. And believe me, as his coach, I have to admit, I'm responsible for the way he attacks that ball.

I coach the infielders. We work on that. Like bases loaded, how do you be aggressive, and you have to turn the double play.

So I feel awful as the coach. My star shortstop feels awful. And I'm obviously not wanting to lose this game for a lot of reasons but, man, there's no way I want Alex to blame himself.

Just like Tucker said, the respect we have for that kid -- when you use the word "toughness," like that, Alex Alicea is the epitome of toughness.

He leads off with a 3-2 walk, and then he ends up being the scoring run. I remember the diving play he made up the middle.

And yeah, there's a lot of great shortstops in the country. I'm so impressed with college baseball and how good the shortstops are. I'm just thankful Alicea is our shortstop.

Q. Obviously tomorrow's not an off day. You've got Coastal Carolina. How do you flip the switch after all the adrenaline today? How do you flip the switch to Coastal tomorrow?

DAN MCDONNELL: I think it's pretty easy. I kind of laugh because as a coach you love to practice. If I ask the guys on the bus would you rather practice tomorrow or play Coastal Carolina, these guys want to play the game.

And so they're physically and mentally ready. Yes, we talk about being professional and yet don't get too high, don't get too low. It's hard to not get high with a walk-off in Omaha.

But we'll enjoy the bus ride back to the hotel and we'll enjoy the crowd, the Louisville fans outside the hotel, and that will be awesome. But I'll make it clear, when they get to their rooms and they shower, yeah, we have to turn the page.

Got so much respect for Coastal Carolina. I played against them as a player and I coached against them as a player and a coach for 12 years, being at the Citadel. I've known them very well for a long time and obviously what they did a few years ago with Coach Gilmore and what they're doing now with Coach Schnall. It's so impressive in the way they play the game.

When you talk about toughness, yeah, we'll have a good match-up of two tough teams and grinding it out. But we're looking forward to that opportunity.

Q. You've obviously had a lot of good hitters, coached a lot of good hitters during your career, especially with the College World Series appearances, but how would you describe the kind of run that Eddie is on right now, especially in terms of the postseason?

DAN MCDONNELL: I call it professional. I say it's a very professional hitter. He doesn't play in the smallest parks. He doesn't take advantage. I mean, it's a real hitter. I think he's going to play the game for a long time. It's a good outfielder. There's power. There's contact.

I think the majority of his home runs are with two strikes. It's the blessing of him having a roller coaster junior year, and you get him back for his senior year, yeah, we're reaping the benefits of having Eddie King in the lineup.

I always tell our guys, you know, sometimes when you lose, you actually win. And I know Eddie thought he lost last year because it was a frustrating year. He didn't get it going until late. He didn't know if the draft was going to work out. And it's hard to not feel like you lost out with all those high expectations he had.

But lots of things happen in life, and you look back and you go, wow, that was really a blessing.

I feel like Eddie, what he went through in the postseason, the super regionals and the Eddie chants, and to get the Eddie chants in Omaha -- whoo, we love to get our guys ready for pro ball, but pro ball isn't going anywhere. Enjoy this as long as you can.

But I'm so excited and optimistic about guys like him and Jake Munroe and Matt Klein. These are professional hitters, I mean, real hitters. I don't think they're abusing an aluminum bat or small field. I think these three dudes can just flat out hit. And I think the three of them have a chance to play this game for a while.

Q. Going in the eighth from Schweitzer to Danilowicz, and then he gets in trouble, and you make that approach where he's into an at-bat with two pitches and you go to Biven. What was the thought process there and the strategy to make that move?

DAN MCDONNELL: Roger Williams is super respectful. And lots of times he asks for my advice. Most of the time I wish he wouldn't even ask me because I don't study it like he studies it. I'm not an expert the way he is. He's watching film after film. He's got all the at-bats. You're facing Oregon State. You're facing these guys. We're into double digit at-bats for a lot of these hitters over the last two games.

Sometimes I'm just proactive, and I just get ahead of him because he's going to ask me and I just say, Rog, I trust you, just do what you want to do.

I was in alignment with -- Jack Brown was good and Schweitzer was good. We had ran Schweitzer two innings the other night, and those two righties were coming up, all the righties, but they were the two righties that beat him the other night. Their splits are even favorable to righties.

It just felt like Wyatt is a better match-up. Again their star hitter ambushes a fastball, and then like I said we had to go with their two best hitters and they just set the tone, and that's where you just look at Wyatt and bouncing some breaking balls and just you're a little concerned about the look.

It's nothing against Wyatt, but you look down there and you've got Tucker Biven, and Tucker Biven is the guy that walks up to Coach Williams with his cleats on in like the seventh and says, I'm pitching tonight, like, I'm ready. I'm going down there.

It wasn't like we told Tucker to go down there. Like he said, he gets so mad if I take the ball out of his hands. It's not easy to take the ball out of his hands. But how do you not love that in a pitcher?

So the toughness that Tucker showed tonight, and that's why whoever wins the shirt, we say our prayer. After the prayer, you have to regift the shirt. It's called help the helper.

You might have been the best player on the field. You might have been MVP of the game. But you're not going home with that shirt. You're then going to give it to somebody else and you're going to thank them.

So I wanted to give it to Alex so bad because of what he went through and to make sure he knew, hey, you're the winning run. We won because of you.

And as much as he said Eddie and Jake, I love you guys, he flips the shirt to Tucker Biven. And I just thought it was very fitting that Tucker walks away with the shirt.