NCAA Starkville Super Regional: Notre Dame Quotes (June 13, 2021)

NCAA Starkville Super Regional
Postgame Press Conference – Game 2
Notre Dame
June 13, 2021

Notre Dame Head Coach Link Jarrett

Q: What did you say to your team last night at the hotel, today before the game, and what did you say to Aidan [Tyrell] knowing that the season was on the line?
LJ: "You can learn from the mistakes and come out and be mad. Everyone was mad. It was a miserable day. We had a chance to win the game last night. Be mad. Come out and play the game mad. You are not going to shake that off. Learn from it and process it. Try and let that frustration focus you because we knew tonight was going to be another dog fight. Which it was. I know that we separated a little bit, but 9-1 does not feel safe against this team. Like I told you guys yesterday, sometimes we have rebounded and played angry and still were in control of ourselves. I had a heart to heart with AT [Aidan Tyrell]. He pitched a complete game last week and turned five double plays. We just needed him to be the cool, calm, and collected Aidan Tyrell and that was who he was. The first pitch of the game was center cut. He told me that. He said, 'coach it was right down the middle and a little bit up. Rowdey [Jordan] throttled it.' After that, he mixed. He had a couple innings where he punched out five guys out of six maybe and the slider was down and good. He mixed in his changeup and controlled the running game. If you have never seen our team play, that was us playing a good game."

Q: What is it about your team's composition that allows them to play mad in a positive way?
LJ: "I honestly do not know when you dig into it that deep. I don't know if it's the taste of seeing things go well or if something is not right. It's frustrating. If I had to bet $100 on it that is what I would say. They like seeing the game played the right way. I think that is why our defense has been like it was today, that they value and grind through. They do not let ground balls leave the infield or let fly balls land. That is just the way they are. They have tasted success; unsuccessful looking baseball makes them upset. They seem to harness that and move forward. They are able to apply that to the next task they have."

Q: Have you had a chance to speak to your son yet after NC State's victory in Fayetteville?
LJ: "I cannot tell you. My wife is in the top row of section 209 crying. He was on second base at one point when they flashed the game on the scoreboard, and I think it was tied 2-2. It was the first time in my career that I have actually looked at the scoreboard and realized what was happening. We were up 8-1. It was a moment to think that you are playing and coaching a game of this magnitude and your son is involved in a winner-take-all game. You cannot draw this up, it's fairytale-type stuff. My wife said that she was coming to my game because if they win, they are going to Omaha and if they lose, I did not want to be there anyway. So, she was here. That was her decision. All of the days of baseball and helping J.T. [Jarrett] in the off-season. NC State has a great program there. They coach the kids well and hard. They take care of them and develop complete kids. They are a great team. They got off to a 1-8 record in ACC play. We played them and told those guys and my son that you guys are a good team. Everybody knew it and they kind of caught fire. To think that I sat here in this stadium with that many people fighting and what was going through my mind was everything that I could have ever imagined. I am very proud of J.T. [Jarrett] and Coach Avent [Elliot Avent], Coach Hart [Chris Hart], Clint Chrysler, and Joey Halcomb. Those guys have pushed and held this team together and turned it into a championship team."

Q: What went into the decision to move [Zack] Prajzner up in the lineup today?
LJ: "He has handled left-handed pitching pretty well. Scott [Wingo] and I like to kick it around and play with the order. This time of year, different people get hot. It is good to get him involved. If you take out the first 10-12 games, he would be hitting with anyone in the country. With the big lefty on the mound, the big check swing in the bottom of the first was a critical moment. I do not know how many hits he winded up with. Just putting balls in play with two strikes and forcing them to handle it. Hitting hard ground balls and defense. I am sure that it was hard for him to come in and handle himself the way he did after the defensive game he had to endure. These are tough kids man. He is one of many tough ones that we have. Those double plays that we turned was impressive."

Q: Do you have a sense of what you want to do with your pitching tomorrow?
LJ: "I do. It lines up for [Will] Mercer to start. We've been so creative with our pitching. That's probably what we'll do. Chuck [Ristano, assistant coach] and I will talk about it, but if I had to start the game right now, it would be Mercer. He's started a lot of games for us. We're okay in the pen. We're not in great shape, but we'll manage it, piece it together and try to go lefty, righty, lefty. Maybe bring [Tanner] Kohlhepp back and our third basemen has pretty good stuff. We'll figure it out."

Q: What went into the decision to start Aidan Tyrell over Will Mercer today?
LJ: "There are times when Tyrell has a little more swing and miss. I thought his outing last time was very good and Mercer's was very good. Chuck [Ristano] and I both had the same gut feeling. Tyrell's stuff was the way to go today. You saw him get in that mode where he punched some people out. In this environment, in this setting with a smaller field, strikeouts definitely help the cause. He had a string of them, he struck out six. There was a moment when that game was still in balance, and he punched them second and third inning. He punched out a handful of guys. That built the momentum for us. It was just a feel thing. Mercer could have done the same thing, I suppose. It just felt like the right move."

Q: We heard a "Let's go Irish" chant. What does it mean to have fan support while playing a big stage on the road?
LJ: "They're hungry for it. The fans and the parents, people are hungry to see us play on this stage and play the way we played today. It was great, I heard it. I heard it then I heard 13,000 cowbells try to stifle it out. It was a fun combination. I can't say enough about the grit of our players."

Q: Zack Prajzner has been hot, but did you think you might get more of a pop in the bottom of the order with him?
LJ: "I've told you guys, our park plays tough at times so our home run numbers might be skewed early because you just simply can't hit balls out. There was a month that I told them I was counting barrels. I said, "You barreled up six balls and there is not much to show for it". The capability of the guys at the bottom exists when they swing at good pitches and are on time. They have the capability to hit some balls out. Moving Prajzner, I wasn't thinking power-wise, I was just thinking who has been on it. Dave [LaManna] seemed a little when he caught like he catches. He's not a huge, physical guy so we felt like giving him a breather [would be good]. Not that from 7-9 is a huge breather, but it gives you a little more time to catch your breath there. That was [Scott] Wingo and I breaking down.

Aidan Tyrell | Pitcher

Q: What has been key for you in throwing back-to-back career-long starts?
AT: "Just trying to get ahead of hitters. My fastball has been big the last two outings, so trying to get ahead and stay in the zone and keep that pitch count down and let the defense do the work. That's kind of the key there."

Q: How much was responding to yesterday's game talked about after the game and before the game today?
AT: "It was talked about a little bit. We were definitely pissed off yesterday after the loss. We felt like we had them and let them off the hook. It was really no different. Today, we were just trying to win one game at a time. That's all we've been trying to do all year. Mentality-wise, it wasn't so different, but we were definitely mad after yesterday's game, for sure."

Q: Were you feeling comfortable with your slider tonight, and what made that work well for you?
AT: "In the bullpen, it wasn't very good, and David [LaManna] just told me to just throw it, so that's what I did, and I was able to find it in the first couple of innings and throw it pretty well. I was able to mix in the changeup a little bit later in the game, which was good. So, it worked pretty well."

Q: What was your preparation like when you found out you were starting with the season on the line?
AT: "They told me last night around 6:00 or 7:00, so the preparation was the same it is every time. Didn't have to do anything different, just attack it the same every single time. It was a little weird with the weather, we didn't really know when we were going to start, so just trying to stay ready and stay focused."

Q: You showed a lot of composure today. How much did adjusting to the atmosphere help you today?
AT: "It definitely helped. Being able to see it firsthand, and then know what you're going into definitely helped. But after the first inning when I gave up the big hit, if they were going to score, they were going to score and that was going to be fine. We were going to score runs, too. So I just had to keep attacking the hitters and after that it went pretty well."

Q: What kind of confidence does this win give you going into tomorrow?
AT: "It gives a lot of confidence, for sure. Yesterday, we were in the same situation and let them off the hook, like I said earlier. We had to step on today and put up some zeros and keep hitting the whole game. It was great, a lot of confidence for sure, and we're excited for tomorrow."

Q: 103 pitches today, when's the last time you threw that many and when's the last time you had back-to-back starts throwing 190 pitches combined?
AT: "Been a while, probably since high school since I've thrown that many in two consecutive weeks. But I had a start earlier in the year where I think I threw 100 or 110 [pitches] or somewhere around there. I've done it before this year, but yeah it's been a while, especially two consecutive weeks."

David LaManna | Catcher

Q: How quickly did you know that home run was gone?
DL: "Once I hit it and saw it up in the air, I knew I hit it pretty well, so I knew it was out of there. But my teammates were excited about it, it was just an exciting moment in a great atmosphere. It was a lot of fun."

Q: What was the mood like the 24 hours before the game, what was the confidence level going into the game and coming out of the game?
DL: "We're a pretty tough group, we've shown that all year. To be honest with you, we were pretty mad yesterday because we felt like we let them off the hook, just like Aidan [Tyrell] said. We were coming into today pretty confident. We thought we were the better team, and we thought we could definitely pull out a victory."

Q: What did you see from Aidan Tyrell on the mound today?
DL: "Aidan has had great composure all year. He's been able to take in the moment and do his thing, which is working at the knees and using his slider and changeup off the bat, and that's exactly what he did today. He worked at the knees with his fastball and threw that slider right off of them."

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