College World Series: Pat Casey Talks Oregon State’s Win Over North Carolina

Following Oregon State’s elimination game win over North Carolina in the College World Series on Wednesday, Pat Casey spoke with the media and answered a few questions about the game.

Here’s what he had to say.

The words in bold are from the moderator of the media members in attendance.

Opening Statement

“Well, our club represented everything that I ask teams to be. They were resilient. They were tough. They fought. They scrapped. Everything -- put up with my emotions. And I ask guys all the time just be as competitive as you can possibly be and I’ll live with that, and they were.”

“So I gotta tell you, it was a great comeback and they stayed with it. Very, very proud of them.”

I know this is a completely different group of players from the ‘06 and ‘07 teams, but when you come to the ballpark and see UNC in that other dugout, do you almost expect a game like this, kind of classic kind of game?

“Yeah, I mean, I got a ton of respect for Mike and that program. They do it right. They play clean. They play hard.”

“And we knew that we were in for everything we had. We got ahead. They come back. They get ahead, we come back.”

“And I thought Muly probably was the difference in the game, when he came in, it was -- he came in at the right time did the right things and got them off balance a little bit. And we just got a little more momentum going, hit some balls where we needed to. And Rutschman’s hit -- once that ball got over his head and we got tied, the dugout got going pretty good.”

What is it that makes it so hard to put this team away? It seems like that guy O’Brien was mowing you down and all of a sudden they let up for one second and you score eight runs in two innings, what is it about this group?

“Well, I think that there’s some good hitters in that lineup. I think there’s some good players, obviously. But I think that we just started demanding that type of an attitude from the day they walk in the door.”

“Why else do you show up? I think there’s a difference in your mindset -- I think you can separate things and be a good guy, good student and everything and when you get between the white lines, we want to win.”

“And we want to be competitive. And I always tell guys there’s a difference between activity and achievement. Activity is shadowboxing and achievement is knocking somebody out. So and you’ve got to have the right guys. Everybody knows nobody’s getting here without good players. So we got great players.”

So in the eighth there, you put Andy Armstrong up to pinch-hit. And with two outs and the bases loaded, you have him put down a drag bunt. What went into that decision?

“Well, we didn’t have him put that drag bunt -- but I appreciate the question. You want me -- Andy felt like he had a good opportunity to do that. We had a great discussion about it afterwards. (Laughter) and the kid’s young and he wanted to do well and I’m supposed to say, yeah, I put the drag on. But anyway, it’s just something in baseball that happened.”

“And if he would have -- the other part if it would have got down scored a run it would have looked like he was a pretty smart guy. But it doesn’t work out that way.”

I think at this point everyone knows how special Adley is. But this performance tonight, I mean, this was really special. What have you seen out of this guy here on this stage?

“Well, you go all over the country. That’s why you’re asking the question, because there’s something special about in the way he catches, the way he gets the pitchers under his arm and gets them going and how he controls the game. And now the offensive pieces jump. This is the first time in his life he’s ever been a full-time baseball player and took the fall before he played football, really didn’t have a chance to work on things.”

“He’s such a worker. His aptitude to do things is off the chart. He’s intelligent. And it doesn’t hurt to be 6’3”, 215 pounds. So the gene pool is pretty good there.”

Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports