LSU Baseball players react to advancing in College World Series

LSU Baseball players Tommy White, Paul Skenes and Thatcher Hurd met with the media to discuss beating Wake Forest to advance to the College World Series Championship series against Florida.

Q. Tommy, earlier in the week you told us you weren’t freaking out — everybody’s freaking out on the Internet, I think is what you said. How confident were you despite the struggles in Omaha?

TOMMY WHITE: I’m always confident in the box. That’s just how I play the game. I don’t think I was struggling. I thought I was doing all right.

COACH JAY JOHNSON: You’re not.

TOMMY WHITE: But no, I was super confident. Just doing my deal. That’s about it.

Q. Tommy, can you just take us through the pitch, what you were looking for and how you prepped for that at-bat?

TOMMY WHITE: I was definitely going for a heater. I thought a heater was coming. But I was very amped up and I saw a slider that was up. And I put my bat head to it. That was about it.

Q. Paul, I think a lot of people probably would agree with Jay here that this was one of the greatest baseball games that we’ve seen in a long time. To be right in the middle of that, to be on the mound against Lowder, this kind of epic duel, how do you describe the whole experience of it?

PAUL SKENES: To be honest, I think it was, it might have been cooler for the people in the stands than it was for me just because all it comes down to is just executing. I didn’t watch a whole lot of Lowder’s outing. Obviously he did really well, executed really well.

But just comes down to slowing the game down and going out there and executing.

Q. Paul, you come in on probably your shortest amount of rest you’ve had all season. And I’m just wondering, what did the conversation about starting today look like? Was there ever any doubt? How did you feel about coming out for the second appearance in the College World Series?

PAUL SKENES: There was no doubt. I know our strength coaches, Wes, I knew everyone was going to do everything in their power to get me ready. Everyone’s going to get everyone else on the staff ready to pitch two or three more times for the bullpen arms.

But there was no doubt in my mind. To be honest, there wasn’t a whole lot of conversation.

Q. Paul, can you kind of describe about — I don’t know if you saw on the Jumbotron that you broke the SEC and LSU strikeout record — could you describe what that moment is like for you?

PAUL SKENES: I’ve gotten to talk with Ben a lot. And he called a lot of our games. Obviously had a really good career at LSU and in the Major Leagues. It’s cool. And it’s cool to leave a legacy.

Q. You guys saw the bunt coming, but Tre’ being able to make the play that he did and with the quickness and fluidity that he did, from your perspective, what do you think of that?

PAUL SKENES: I think he showed everyone in the country that he’s the most athletic first baseman out there. To be honest, I saw him lay the bunt down and Tre’ kind of just came flying in and made the play. Picked me up.

TOMMY WHITE: As soon as I saw the bunt, like, the angle of the bat, I knew he was going to first. I didn’t see Tre’. I was, like, oh, God, they’re going to score. Then he came flying out of nowhere and Milazzo put a great tag on, so that was pretty awesome.

Q. When you’re watching a pitchers’ duel like that through eight innings and you come out and you have to go nine, 10, 11, just to keep that up, just what kind of mentality goes into that? And Paul I guess could speak to that too to give your offense the time to win it.

THATCHER HURD: Like Coach says all the time, it’s just about execution. And I was going to do anything to get that win out for us. I wasn’t going to let us down.

PAUL SKENES: I was with him in between innings. Super level headed. And he knew it just came down to what he went out there and did or what he was going to go out and do. If you keep it simple and make it about executing, it’s a really simple game.

Q. Thatcher, Brock Wilken up with two runners on, big spot. What did you go through mentally, what did you to execute to get out of that situation?

THATCHER HURD: I was going to go at the strike zone, trust my defense, throw everything with full conviction.

Q. This was a goal to get to this spot right now. And talking to the guys on the field they said a lot of it this wasn’t the end goal kind of thing. Your thoughts on being in the title series and what’s ahead?

PAUL SKENES: The whole year we knew we could do it. That was the primary goal — we had a meeting like January 14th or something like that, and the goal for this season was to win a national championship. And everything along the way would be a bonus. This was what we’ve had our eyes on all year. And it’s really cool to be here now.

TOMMY WHITE: Yeah, pretty much the same thing. But just going to come down to execution, just playing the game one pitch at a time. We know what to do. We know what we’ve got to do. And we’re just going to play our game, hope for the best.

Q. Tommy, after the celebration, you went and embraced Camden Minacci. I know you guys were close. Why was that important for you to do? And a number of your players decided to do it with Wake Forest players. Why was that important?

TOMMY WHITE: Their season is over. It’s a very hard time. They had had high expectations coming into this. And they played great.

I’ve known Camden and Bennett Lee for quite some time. We’re all from Tampa. I played with him, against him growing up my whole life. And he’s one of my closest friends. So I didn’t want him to feel anything. I just wanted to make sure he was all right.

Q. Tommy, you faced a tough pitcher in Rhett Lowder. Seeing him this whole night, what was difficult hitting against him?

TOMMY WHITE: He executed every pitch. He threw all pitches for strikes. And he worked fast. He pitched great. But that’s about it.