Paul Mainieri Alex Lange Greg Deichmann LSU

College World Series: Baton Rouge Super Regional Sunday, June 12, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana Paul Mainieri Alex Lange Greg Deichmann LSU CCU - 11, LSU - 8 PAUL MAINIERI: Well, started out as a very exciting game for us. I thought Alex Lange was pitching really good fastball for four or five innings there. I thought he looked tremendous, had a lot of strikeouts. They were extremely tough outs and he I thought was really competing hard. He was getting his breaking ball over and really just was pitching really good baseball. And then we got the three-run homer by Deichmann, which really was an exciting moment. Place was electric, was loud. Then we got a 4-2 lead, and going into the sixth inning, I think Alex will tell you when he gets up here, that probably the biggest mistake he made was walking the leadoff batter in the sixth inning. And then we had a passed ball right after that and we kind of gave them some life; and like good teams do, they took advantage of it. You know, they threw up some good at-bats right after that against Alex. And he was competing hard like he always does, but you know, I could kind of see that it was time to pull him. He was running out of gas there, and unfortunately -- I thought Parker did a tremendous job when he came in, limited the damage a little bit there, and we went to Latz and they got a couple of good swings on him, and before you know it, they put up crooked numbers. So it's a tough loss for us, but it's a three-game series, or best two-out-of-three. And if we were sitting here tonight, if we had won, I would tell you, we haven't got anything wrapped up and neither do they. We've lost the first game of a series before and come back and won two in a row. That's a mind-set that we are going to have. We're going to go out there tomorrow night, and leave it all out on the field and hopefully we're going to be able to beat these guys. THE MODERATOR: Alex, a few comments about your outing, please. ALEX LANGE: Nothing really much to say. It hurts to let your teammates down like that. That's what sucks. It's just disappointing. That's obviously not the result we were looking for, but it just hurts to let my teammates down, I know when they are counting on me, especially in the big games. Just sucks. Q. What did it feel like going into that sixth inning? ALEX LANGE: I mean, I felt fine. My arm was good. I felt like I had good stuff today. My breaking ball was good. I think my changeup was the best it's been all year. My command was really good, too. Just wasn't anticipating that happening, but that's baseball. Q. Their lineup, was it what you expected, aggressive, free-swinging; was that what you expected or was it a little bit more than you expected? ALEX LANGE: That's what we expected. I just didn't execute. Q. Having to sit there for a lot of the previous innings with your team at-bat, did that take you out of rhythm somewhat, because that was a long atbat for your team, and then you had to go back out there and try to get back in rhythm. ALEX LANGE: What's your question? Q. When you came back out, you didn't have a great inning, but you had to sit through your team's at-bat before that, a long at-bat; did it take you out of rhythm, having to sit that long? ALEX LANGE: No, I mean, I sat last week through a 57-minute rain delay and a 30-minute inning in the second inning. It's not an excuse. I didn't execute. I wasn't good enough today and they beat me. Q. Greg, when they went to Morrison, seemed like he really put the clamps down on things. What was he doing that made him so effective for those first two innings? GREG DEICHMANN: I mean, you know, give credit to them. They threw, you know, their guys threw and they Rev #1 by #167 at 2016-06-12 06:08:00 GMT page 1 of 3

banged it around. But the guy -- that's their closer. That's their go-to guy. I guess he had some time and things that might have kept us off balance a little bit. But we were still putting the bat on him and stuff. We didn't get those timely hits when we needed them. Q. Paul, have you made a decision on who will pitch tomorrow? PAUL MAINIERI: Well, we'll see how Jared feels. If Poche' feels good, it will be him, but we'll wait and see how he feels tomorrow when he's playing catch. Q. The hitting of Coastal Carolina, you said earlier in the week you were very impressed with their hitting. Did you think the fatigue was going to kick in, and the hitting was going to get to your pitching in the fifth and sixth inning? PAUL MAINIERI: I'm not sure I quite understood, the fatigue? Q. The fatigue factor; a little bit with your pitching. PAUL MAINIERI: For our pitcher? Q. Yes. PAUL MAINIERI: I think Alex answered. I don't think he was really fatigued. He missed with a 2-2 breaking ball and then the kid fouled one off and then he walked him, and then we had an unfortunate passed ball and put the runner in scoring position and then their kid got a ground ball single up the middle; and after that they started to string some really good at-bats together. They are a very good hitting team. We knew that going in. They have got a lot of veteran players that have played a lot of college baseball, and Alex was battling them hard and I thought he was doing great. And then it just, that one inning, I don't know that he was fatigued as much as -- he probably got fatigued as the inning was drawing on I would guess, but I don't think that's why they got to him initially. I think it just -- they beat him, you know, on a few plays, pitches, and that's the way baseball works sometimes. Q. How do you feel about what transpired during that last play that potentially could have kept the game going? PAUL MAINIERI: Well, our players are taught to hustle and never give up on anything. Obviously that didn't work out that way on the last one. So I'm sure nobody feels worse than Jordan. Q. If Jared does go tomorrow, he's a guy that's been here three years, I'm sure -- what's your confidence level in him going out there? ALEX LANGE: It's the same as it's been all year. There's a reason why he's won 27 games here. He goes out there, he's a competitor and he battles. Looking for him to get us back on the right track tomorrow. Q. You've compared this team quite a bit to 2008. Does this feel at all like Cal Irvine? PAUL MAINIERI: I'm glad you brought that one up, thanks. I was trying to give some examples to the team after the game when we lost the first game of the series and came back and won two. I don't know why I didn't remember to bring that one up. We are used to playing tough three-game series' in the SEC every weekend, and sometimes you win the opening game and sometimes you don't, but you have to treat every game individually. In this particular case, obviously winning the series allows you to continue your season, whereas during the regular season, not necessarily that way. Our backs are against the wall. There's no hiding that fact. We know that. But we're giving the ball to a kid we have a lot of confidence in, and I know our kids are going to be tough-minded. They are going to go to sleep tonight and wake up tomorrow and know that we have a tough ballgame and they are going to be ready to play. If we can find a way to win tomorrow, then all of a sudden, we're even and you know, one game for the marbles, and I like our chances. Q. Offense kind of scuffled the last two games of the regionals. Did you like the at-bats you put together? You scored eight runs and had 11 hits. PAUL MAINIERI: I've been looking around the country and I've been seeing a lot of these host teams have lost, and I've watched a lot of the games, and a lot of them looked really tight, really nervous. I didn't think our guys looked that way at all tonight. I thought they played very loose, very confident, very aggressive. I thought they played really well. And obviously so did Coastal Carolina. And it was really a good ballgame. The sixth inning, they got to Alex a little bit. The seventh inning, they hit a couple of home runs, but the hits were almost even. I think the difference was they hit three home runs; we hit one, and I think they took advantage of a few scoring opportunities. But overall, I thought our guys really competed hard at the plate. They hustled most of the time on defense. I thought Alex was pitching tremendous ball until the sixth inning, and obviously you know, we didn't -- Parker did a good job out of the bullpen but after that we didn't really have an outstanding performance out of the bullpen and the game kind of got away from us. Wish we could have kept it close. I thought we did a good job against their closer. Probably forced him to Rev #1 by #167 at 2016-06-12 06:08:00 GMT page 2 of 3

throw 60 pitches. I don't know how many exactly he threw. But we competed hard, and tonight they were just a little bit better than us. Rev #1 by #167 at 2016-06-12 06:08:00 GMT page 3 of 3

College World Series: Baton Rouge Super Regional Sunday, June 12, 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana Gary Gilmore Connor Owings Mike Morrison Seth Lancaster Coastal Carolina CCU - 11, LSU - 8 GARY GILMORE: Proud of my kids. Best starters in the country, very proud of them. THE MODERATOR: Two big at-bats in the sixth and seventh inning, two-run homer in the seventh. Talk about those two at-bats, please. CONNOR OWINGS: The double off Lange, he had been throwing well all night. He had my number the first two at-bats. Trying to get something to drive. The home run, pitch out over the plate, put a swing on it and good things worked out for us. SETH LANCASTER: The starter, he was mixing it pretty well. Got an early fastball. Got lucky, just fell for me. I was seeing the ball well all night. Just got lucky. THE MODERATOR: Mike, came in in the seventh and closed it down. Is that your longest stint on the mound? MIKE MORRISON: No. Had some better ones. Bobby did a heck of a job tonight. Got two quick innings there. Pitching with a six-run lead -- inaudible -- it was a good night out there. Q. Connor, how good was Lange through the first five innings and what changed? CONNOR OWINGS: First five he had really good command. He was dumping his breaking ball in for a strike at will and they had it down in the dirt later to get you to chase and he was moving his fastball around to both sides of plate. And it's really hard to hit against a guy like that because you have to divide the plate up and you know if he didn't throw what you're looking for, you've got to tip your cap. Q. Seth, the ball in the stands down the right feel line, did you know anything going on? What were you thinking at that point? You probably thought it was fair. SETH LANCASTER: Yeah, I watched it. I hit it, glad I got a bat on it. It was a pretty good pitch. It landed right on the line, came around second, looking -- he didn't know what to do. He wasn't stopping me so I just kept running. Worked out. Q. This is the closest you've ever been to the College World Series. I know it's not done yet, but what are your emotions right now and what's going through your mind? GARY GILMORE: For me, I'm tired, it's way past my bed time. We've got a long way to go to get another win here. That's a very talented and proud team, and I'm sure they are going to come at us tomorrow way harder than they came at us today if that's possible. So I know we've got a lot in front of us to be able to accomplish that. CONNOR OWINGS: Like Gary said, that's a very goo ballclub, and the arms they've got, they definitely have the arms to get the job done and we're just going to try to do what we've done all season and stick with our process and take it one pitch at a time and trust each other and pick each other up like we've done all season and just stick to it. Q. As you guys bounced back from that three-run home run down 4-2, what was the conversation in the dugout? SETH LANCASTER: Picking people up, going to go out there -- he got three really quick outs right after the home run and he got us back in the dugout and guys have been swinging it like this all year. Q. How big was it for y'all to get out of LSU's fifth just 1-1? GARY GILMORE: Absolutely. It's those moments that when you're able to get out and keep it close, that's what I kind of felt like all game long, if we could just hang around, hang around and hopefully put a swing or two on the ball. I'm sure didn't expect it to be what it ended up being on either side. I thought it was going to be way more of a 3-2, 4-3-type game. Both teams Rev #1 by #167 at 2016-06-12 06:34:00 GMT page 1 of 2

scored more runs than they probably expected to. Q. What's your pitching plans for tomorrow, and what is Mike's availability tomorrow? GARY GILMORE: He won't throw tomorrow no matter what. We'll see. We'll talk about it when we get back to the hotel and kind of figure out exactly where we're at. Q. How much of an impact did he have on the guys that went today? GARY GILMORE: Well, we're trying to counteract those -- inaudible -- we're going to have our own little thing. It's kind of caught on to our whole ballclub and believe in it just like you guys do. We're just excited to be where we're at right now to be honest with you. We'll see how tomorrow and the next day go. Q. You rallied in the sixth and seventh inning and it seems like your team has a lot of spirit and don't give up, and it seems like your experience in the past is starting to payoff now, especially with the sixth and seventh inning. Do you think the rallies and the experience in the past, especially in the NC State regional has helped you so far? GARY GILMORE: Absolutely. I honestly think the point in time that turned us around that really made us the cohesive ballclub that we truly are is the three defeats we took at Georgia Tech. Coastal with that type of deafening cheering that they were doing for their team when things were going well. So you know, it is; it's a unique atmosphere. Q. Coach Mainieri described you guys as kind of a scrappy team, the way the balls were flying out of the yard and alleys, I'm not sure that's the right adjective to describe your team; how would you describe yourselves? CONNOR OWINGS: I think that's actually spot on. The guys in there, it's definitely close to scrappy than anything else. Mark and Anthony -- day-in and dayout, all those guys, they just have so much fun, man, it's more of a brotherhood-hype scrappy mentality than anything else I would say Coach Mainieri is right on. Q. The last play of the game. SETH LANCASTER: I had no idea what was going on -- inaudible -- looked up. Probably the weirdest ending to a ballgame I've ever been in my career. But we got the win and that's all that matters. Q. How are you keeping this up at this pace? SETH LANCASTER: Just come to the park every day -- God makes it really easy to go to work and do what we love, and that's play ball. And to get an opportunity to come out in this stadium in front of these fans, it's a true blessing. I'm just blessed to be able to have a little success and help these guys out. Really made us all, coaching staff and players, we all had a long look at ourselves in the mirror and realized that we had to play better and each guy had to pick each other up and from that point on, these guys have been unbelievable where they compete and battle. I'll say it, no matter what happens, the next two days, it was an unbelievable brotherhood amongst these guys that they won't let each other down. Q. LSU is a tough place to play. What does it say about your team that you come in here, first time you've ever played here and you were able to overcome the atmosphere and intensity here? GARY GILMORE: I tell you what, the atmosphere, I've been in a lot of ballparks and college baseball, and the atmosphere here is as good as anywhere I've ever been. As noisy and loud as it was, I didn't hear one person say anything inappropriate. I wish every ballpark was like this to be honest with you. It was an incredible experience. Their fans are unbelievable. Those guys that play for LSU are so blessed to have this type of atmosphere to play in every day. It's a privilege to come here and play, and I'm glad our guys were able to block out the noise. We've never played in front of that in my career here as Rev #1 by #167 at 2016-06-12 06:34:00 GMT page 2 of 2