WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL D - NICARAGUA VS ISRAEL

March 8, 2026

Noah Mendlinger

Cole Carrigg

LoanDepot Park

Team Israel

Postgame Press Conference

Israel 5, Nicaragua 0

Q. Noah, three hits and a walk; how much is that going to help you going into this possibly major league season?

NOAH MENDLINGER: I mean, it's one game. I don't want to overreact about one game. I think the ball fell a couple times for me. I found some holes. But ultimately just try to take this experience and kind of run with it into the year.

Try not to take the highs and lows, ride the roller coaster. We'll see it for what it is. It's one game. But we certainly want to take that into tomorrow's game with the early turnaround.

Q. Cole, reeking havoc on the base paths. How much fun were you having out there?

COLE CARRIGG: Yeah, it was a blast to try to help the team win, and we did that, and it was a really fun game.

Q. How were you guys able to quiet the noise from the Nicaraguan fans and focus on the game?

COLE CARRIGG: Yeah, I think it started early. We got a run up on the board quick. That helped. Obviously there was a huge bases-loaded jam that we got out of -- was it Mallitz? Shout out to Mallitz for that, and Gelof turning the double play.

Yeah, just silencing them with good plays and big four- or five-run-inning there in the middle. I think that helped a lot.

NOAH MENDLINGER: Yeah, for sure. I was told that this is the first shutout in Israel history in the WBC, and I would kind of credit our staff for that. I don't know that we silenced the noise so much as our pitching staff really did.

Q. Was this a must-win game for you having lost the first game and now facing the Dominican Republic? If you beat DR you're into the next round.

COLE CARRIGG: 100 percent, yeah. I feel like every game in this pool play is a must-win game. We've got a tough one tomorrow with the DR, but it's a one-game series, and you never know.

Q. How different is the mindset of the team right now coming off the field tonight as opposed to 24 hours ago knowing that every one of these games is as important as it is?

NOAH MENDLINGER: I don't think the mindset changes. As Cole said, I think every game is super important. We've set our goal to go out there and shock the pool and you can really only do that one game at a time. Ultimately we did what we were looking to do today, and tomorrow is a new day.

Q. How did the coaching staff really help you guys mentally transition from yesterday to today?

COLE CARRIGG: Honestly, I don't think anybody was really too worried about yesterday's game. I think the score didn't really show how the game went. It was also our first game, a little stagnant in the first half. But there was also some plays that didn't really go our way, and if they do bounce our way, I think that game goes a lot differently.

We picked it up in the second half of that game, and I don't really think anybody was worried or hit the panic button. There was no real, like, you've got to do this, you've got to do that. Everybody just was good with how we played and knew we could come into today and show that.

Q. What brought out the confidence in this group tonight because it really did look like a different group mentally out there.

NOAH MENDLINGER: I think the cheesy answer is confidence comes from preparation. And to your point about the coaching staff, I just want to give them credit, too. I think we've got a lot of guys behind the scenes that are working their butts off getting scouting reports. It's not easy especially with some of these guys that don't have a ton of data on them. A real nod to them because they made sure we were prepared for today.

Like I said earlier, we take every game just the same, and the coaching staff certainly has, as well.

Q. You guys brought up the staff, the pitching staff and what they were able to do. What can you say about what Dean was able to do to set the tone on the mound for you tonight?

COLE CARRIGG: Yeah, Dean was incredible. He was attacking the zone early, in the zone, getting hitters off balance and he pitched incredible. Honestly, that was the start -- kind of shutting out the noise was Dean for sure starting us off great.

NOAH MENDLINGER: Yeah, anytime you've got a guy like that on the mound, you feel pretty good playing defense behind him. You knew Dean was going to fill up the zone. He left a couple runners on base and Mallitz came in and made a couple huge pitches there. You feel really good when you've got No. 64 on the mound and yeah, we were really confident with him up there.

Q. How interesting an experience is this where you guys are a team that hasn't been together for more than a few days, you're out there in these big situations where you're trying to confirm the name of the guys that threw the pitch for the double play and you're out there playing these important games with the country across your chest?

NOAH MENDLINGER: Well, I'll bail Cole out. Honestly, the pitchers and hitters kind of stay their separate ways for a lot of this. That's just the truth of it. We try to get as close as we can in the short time that we have, but the truth is it's tough. We spend some time away from each other, but ultimately, within the faith, the ethnicity, we're a brotherhood, and we try to get as close as we can in the short time that we have together.