NCAA Baseball Regional Press Conference

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The University of Oklahoma hosts an NCAA Baseball Regional at Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City, June 4-6.

On Friday, No. 1 seed Florida (40-20) will face No. 4 seed Central Connecticut State (41-15-1) at 3 p.m. No. 2 seed Oklahoma (37-22) will compete in the nightcap against No. 3 seed UCLA (33-27) at 7 p.m. Single game tickets range from $8 to $15, while all session tickets can be purchased for as low as $48.

Coach and player quotes from the June 3 press conference follow:

Florida Head Coach Pat McMahon
General Comment:
“We are extremely excited about the opportunity to come and play in Oklahoma City. We are very excited about the NCAA Regional. I think it is an outstanding field of teams. It's going to be a tough field and a tough test. We are excited that we played are way into a No.1 seed and we think we have a great opportunity to continue playing baseball.”

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On Florida's pitching staff:
“Our pitching staff takes great pride in throwing the ball in the strike zone. We work very hard at competing. Connor Falkenbach, Justin Hoyman, Darren O'Day, and Tommy Boss are our top four performers and are coming off a good SEC Tournament. Tournament time is a time for pitching staffs to step forward and we are anxious to see how our pitching staff responds to the challenge in this regional.

Florida's Ben Harrison (senior, outfielder)
On playing as No. 1seed in Oklahoma City:
“It's exciting for us to come to Oklahoma City. I, like a lot of my teammates, have never been to Oklahoma. Walking into this ballpark it looks like a real fun and exciting place to play baseball. We were not really concerned where we play because our goal as a team is to play as hard as we can and to go as far as we can. We are really excited to still be playing at tournament time.”

Oklahoma Head Coach Larry Cochell
Opening Comment:
“Obviously, we are anxious to be here. We think it's a great facility to host a regional, not only for us, but for the opposing teams coming in. This is a great experience. We like the field (of teams). It's good for the fans. We have a team from the west, the midwest, the southeast and the northeast. It has a chance to be a very interesting regional, (with) a lot of interest from the fans' point of view.”

“From our point of view, we're happy with the draw, we're happy with the teams and we feel very confident coming into this tournament. We also realize we have to play better baseball this week than last weekend. I think last weekend might have been a wake-up call to us that we have to do the things that are necessary, and play the way that got us a second-place finish and a half a game out of first in the Big 12 Conference.”

“We have to pitch better, play better defense and we have to hit better in key situations. We didn't do that very well, with the exceptions of Mark Roberts and Casey Brown last weekend. I expect us to bounce back and play the way we played all year. That's college baseball you may go through a spell where you don't play particularly well. I think that was our spot, because I don't think that's indicative of the type of club we have.”

On getting scouting reports for opposing teams:
“We'll have a gameplan. There are no secrets, you don't get information from teams that are in the conference. The first team we play, UCLA, we have connections with Fullerton and Long Beach State and all the teams they played so we find out the necessary information that we think will give us a gameplan offensively and defensively to go out and play against them in the first ball game.”

On Oklahoma's lineup:
“We'll go with the same 10 or 11 guys we've been going with, depending on the different matchups we face. But, primarily, those are the kids who have gotten us here and we understand kids go through slumps, but they work through it.”

Oklahoma's Mark Roberts (senior, pitcher)
On challenges of facing an unknown team:
“I don't know if there are any challenges once you step on the field. From a pitcher's point of view, you just throw your game and make sure you're out on the mound.”

Oklahoma's Ole Sheldon (junior, infielder)
On Oklahoma's hitting:
“I think about two-and-half weeks ago, we were swinging the best we swung all year, one through nine was hitting the ball pretty consistently. Everyone's averages were riding a little bit and over the last two weeks we've kind of gone away from that. But we have the potential to hit the ball well. I have all the confidence in myself and my teammates.”

UCLA Head Coach Gary Adams
Opening comment:
“We're happy to be here, that's for sure. We would have gone to Timbuktu to play in the regionals because it's been four years since we've been to one. It'll be a great experience. Our team has the distinction of having more losses than any other at-large team that's in the tournament. We play in a tough league (PAC-10 Conference). We came in third place in that league, two games out of first."

"We're used to playing tough customers. We have a team is unlike some of the teams that have been to the playoffs before for UCLA. We're not a power-packed, play for three runs an inning kind of team. We're well balanced. I think we have very solid defense. That's been probably our most consistent item all year long. We hit singles more often that we hit doubles, triples and homers."

"We're very well balanced throughout the batting order. Everybody's a tough out in our lineup. And our pitching has also been very consistent this year. As they say, you win on pitching and defense,' and I think that's been the main reason why we've done so well.”

On UCLA's pitching staff:
“Casey (Janssen) has had a great year. He was chosen on the All-Pac 10 All-Conference team. Every time Casey goes out there he gives us a good effort, and we know we're going to be in the ballgame. He's been solid; Mr. Consistency. He plays hard. He competes hard. He has a good arm. He's not only a good college baseball player, but he's also a good professional prospect too."

"The rest of our staff has been solid too. We have David Johnson, who at the end of the season has really picked us up. If it were not for him we wouldn't be here. Wes Whisler, our left-handed pitcher, has done a great job pitching. He usually pitches our third game. We're usually one and one at that time, and he's always come through. We don't really have a closer to speak of. It's been a bunch of guys, and they've all come through. We've pitched 11 pitchers in a game before. That might be a world record. We're not afraid to mix and match with our pitchers.”

On his last year:
“There's been much to do about this being my last year, but the story this year has not been about me, it's been our team. You're looking at a team that was picked to finish seventh place in a nine-team conference. I don't think you'll find us in any poll, even today. But this has been a remarkable team. The story should be about them, and that's how I look at these guys. They've played great baseball all year long to get to where they are. This will be my last go at it. I'm glad for the players that they made it to the regionals. These guys have worked hard to get here. I'm happy because this is my last one, and these guys are happy because it's their first one. Everybody from UCLA is really enjoying this.”

UCLA's Casey Janssen (senior, pitcher)
On his pitches:
“I think everything feeds off your fastball. But I throw a fastball, curveball, changeup, and slider.”

On Coach Adams' retirement:
“It's been something that the players have always thought about this season, sending him off on a good note. Of course, Coach Adams would never, ever talk about it himself. That's just not the way he is. We want to do as much as we can for him. Getting into the playoffs was big and now we just want to keep it going.”

UCLA's Brandon Averill (senior, 3rd base/catcher)
On Coach Adams' retirement:
“He's had a great 30 years at the school. Both Casey and I have been a part of the school for the last four years and we definitely want to send him out on a good note. He's taught us all a lot, both on the field and in life. He's just a remarkable man, and for that, we want to send him out with a good ending.”

Central Connecticut State Head Coach Charlie Hickey
Opening Comment:
“We got in yesterday morning, we got started early. We left school yesterday morning at 4a.m. to get out here but it gave us a chance to get acclimated. We got to the hotel around noon, so at least we had a chance to get some rest, get our feet back on the ground and enjoy this. To me every time we have an opportunity to play in a NCAA regional, it's meant to be enjoyed. I'm going to make sure each and every year we are fortunate to go that we do have fun. It's nice, in some instances it's the third time we've gone. We were out in Austin, Texas, two years ago and Tempe, Ariz., last year, so I think we've done this.”

“We've had six kids do this now, this being their third time which is something to be proud of and I don't mind saying that. Coming out to a different part of the country for us is a great opportunity. I'm excited about being here, it's obviously a terrific ballpark and there is also some benefit to us, from a standpoint of even being a number four seed is that we don't have to sit here tomorrow night in front of probably 6,000 to 7,000 Oklahoma Sooner fans. We've done that, it's not easy, at Texas and then again last year at Arizona State so in some occasions I recognize whom we are as being a four seed in this tournament, playing against the likes of the Southeast Conference, the Big 12 and the PAC 10. It doesn't get easier, you know people think third year in a row makes it easier and it doesn't, but that's not going to diminish why we're here.”

Team's play as of late:
“We went through our conference tournament, which we all understand is our ticket to get here. Our conference automatic qualifying bid, we lost the first game in the tournament then had to come out of the losers bracket and win four games in 28 hours, which was awfully difficult. I think that some people thought that winning had gotten easy for us.”

“We won the regular season championship and with this being the third one (conference title) people might not have appreciated how difficult it is to do, but we persevered with some young pitching. That has been a development, that we're sort of look toward the future with, but all-in-all we had a terrific year and this is the culmination of that and playing at an NCAA Regional level there's only 63 other teams doing it.”

Matchup with Florida:
“To be honest with you, I am not a huge believer in what they are. I'm a believer in what we can do and what we have to do to be effective. I would expect nothing less then some high quality coming out of that dug-out. A team that has played very well in a competitive conference day in and day out. You just look at what they had to do in their Southeast Conference Tournament playing the likes of LSU, Vanderbilt and Georgia. They statistically have a couple guys who do some terrific things offensively. Their pitching staff, have a dominant number one starter, they seem to have a lot of depth and quality in their bull pen, the fact that they only had seven complete games will tell me that there is some quality throughout the whole bull pen. They don't look like they trick it at all, they pitch, they play defense, it doesn't appear that they run an extraordinary amount, but again all that stuff doesn't work when your playing quality people day in and day out like they have to.”

Like most about team:
“All in all we're a team that is not afraid of playing hard, we play emotional, we make mistakes but we play with intensity. When we've gotten to this stage, you're almost afraid of getting in other peoples way and being someone that comes out here I am looking for us to play that way in this environment. Play as hard as we can, if we make mistakes fine, but let's play hard, let's compete and let's hustle, that's the one goal I would like to see us do over the next three days.”

University of Oklahoma Athletics

NCAA Baseball Regional Press Conference

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