Completely dominant performance last night as winwave predicted. An incredible defensive play by Colin Tuft to start the game, a home run by leadoff hitter Connor Rasmussen in the bottom of the first and nine straight strikeouts from Chandler Welch added up to an evisceration of FAU. Jay Uhlman and Rasmussen spoke on zoom afterwarrd, and Welch talked on the phone.
UHLMAN
"What a tremendous effort by our club. Chandler Welch was brilliant. Henry Shuffler was outstanding out of the bullpen but really just offensively we were tenacious and focused. I'm really proud of how they were--their aura, their being, their mentality. Those are really cool things as a coach to watch your team do those kinds of things. It's one down. We'll compartmentalize and evaluate the game, but just really pleased with how we came out tonight and just took the fight to them."
On what learned from first meeting with FAU pitcher C.J. Williams:
"Give that kid credit. That was a career game for him (the five-hit shutout in April). I'd love to tell you we were still trying to find a little bit of an identity, but I don't want to take anything away from his outing. He went complete game and shut us out. He was tremendous that weekend. It's the same thing I always say. Momentum and past performances kind of matter, but they don't. Our guys were just determined to avenge that feeling that they had and just really tried to get to him. When you're short-rested after 100-plus pitches (101 against UTSA last Thursday), it's advantage offense. We were aggressive to him and I thought we frustrated him. Just really pleased with their effort."
On Chandler Welch's performance:
"He had eight strikeouts against Charlotte last weekend in four innings, and I thought he was actually better tonight than he was at Charlotte, and he was really impressive at Charlotte. He was tremendous tonight. Once we got him the lead, when your best boxer's out there in the ring and you get him a lead like that, Chan's the kind of guy that's going to take that and run with it. He's not going to try to over-pitch, but he's going to be really aggressive and feel pretty free with his stuff. He was absolutely tremendous."
On secret to success in Clearwater:
"I'd like to think as we continue this journey and continue to get better, hopefully you'll say we played in the tournament like we played all year. In some cases that's true and in some cases it wasn't, and probably the overall record reflected that. What I do know is our guys are believers. They are tough. They are competitive. When you get to the finality, every game means something in college baseball, but when you get guys to a point where they believe in each other and they believe in the coaches and the coaches believe in them and the way we treat them and coach them consistently I'll use the analogy of a horse race and the Kentucky Derby when you're coming down the stretch and it's neck and neck and the jockey's going to the whip to get that horse to go. I think that's what we have when we get here. I'd like to think that our guys believe in what we do and who we are and believe in themselves. When you have that and there's extra motivation there, you see the focus that shows up. It showed up tonight. Our responsibility will be a day off tomorrow, get refreshed and this game's over. This game's going to do nothing for us moving forward. I'm going to remind them of that, but they're not going to need reminding. They're right there with me, so they are very focused on what their mission is and how they need to do that."
On advantage playing seven innings when next opponent, Charlotte, played 12 innings:
"When you're short rested, you try to take every advantage that you can get. Charlotte played us tough. We had three really good games against them and we just happened to come out on top in two out of the three there. They had the win tonight against a good UTSA and hung on. From where I sat watching it, there were a lot of similarities in our games (against Charlotte) and that game. Charlotte showed tremendous toughness, so I'm not going to expect anything different when we see them on Thursday. They are going to have a day rest and they'll have some of their pitchers back and it's going to be a competitive event again. If it ends up being an advantage, so be it, but I don't think we're going to take anything for granted or likely."
On likely matchup of Luke Fladda versus Adam Stanton (Fladda pitched the opener of last Thursday's doubleheader, throwing 57 pitches, while Stanton pitched the nightcap, throwing 77 pitches):
"I would say you're probably barking up the right tree."
RASMUSSEN
On taking pitch over the middle of the plate on 3-0 count leading off and then clobbering the next pitch in the same spot to set the tone for the night:
"Had a similar approach that I had against him the last time. I was looking for a fastball down and kind of reacting to everything else. The first pitches were off the outer third, and we know that's where he was trying to go. The 3-0 pitch was more middle, and he threw it again 3-1 and I was able to put a good swing on it. We felt like last time even though he went a complete game, we had some good swings off of him. We definitely put a rally off of him tonight. We knew what he was going to look like and we were just able to jump on him early."
On not relaxing with early lead and finishing it in seven innings:
"That's huge, especially in a tournament like this, we know our offense can score in bunches. Our goal once we got up early was to put them away and save some pitching for later in the week."
On Colin Tuft's spinning throw after field leadoff bunt:
"That's huge. He's been tremendous back there for us all year. He's made that play a couple of times, and every time he makes it, I'm still speechless. That's huge to start an inning with one out versus a lead-off single. That was big getting us some momentum, and Chandler just rolled from there."
On Welch:
"He's a workhorse for us. He's been that all year, and we have all the confidence in the world in him every time he takes the hill. He's fun to play defense behind just the way he works. We know he's going to go out and compete for us every day. He shows his emotions and we love that. It fires us up behind him."
On importance of second game:
"It's big. The day off is super important for us. We are going to get a good practice in tomorrow, but we've been a focused group now for the past couple of weeks. Coach has stressed it's playoff time for us, and we've been in that mode for these past couple weeks. We're comfortable, and we love playing when the lights are the brightest."
On no easy outs in lineup:
"Yeah. This offense is relentless 1 through 9, and we know that. We know if we don't get the job done, someone behind us is going to pick us up. This offense is clicking right now and it's really cool to see."
WELCH
On how he felt:
"I felt great. Obviously waiting that long to get started at 10 o'clock was a little bit stressful, but overall it was really good. It was awesome to get the energy going out there for game 1. I had to channel it back a little bit early on in the game, but it was just a great night."
On how quickly he knew he would be in total control:
"I think in the first two hitters, I went right at them and then a two-out walk, but once the second inning hit and we had a couple of strikeouts, that was probably the moment where I knew this was going to be a game where I had a lot of things going right. And fortunately enough, I had the slider going really well, a good fastball and multiple pitches going tonight. That's all it took."
On nine strikeouts in a row:
"I think maybe four was my highest ever. I hadn't done that before."
On playing well in Clearwater:
"I think it's a lot about just the environment. You come here to a great place. It's great energy. It's great vibes and we kind of use that to how we play. Of course we're locked in and we're dialed and focused on the game, but we're also enjoying and having fun with each other. That's why when it comes to tournament time, we turn it up a little bit and it brings out the best in us whenever it matters the most."
On if he will be available later in the week:
"I don't have a specific timeline. We'll probably talk about that more, but if it happens we get to an elimination game, I'm ready to go. And if we go 3-0, I'll be ready for Sunday for sure."
UHLMAN
"What a tremendous effort by our club. Chandler Welch was brilliant. Henry Shuffler was outstanding out of the bullpen but really just offensively we were tenacious and focused. I'm really proud of how they were--their aura, their being, their mentality. Those are really cool things as a coach to watch your team do those kinds of things. It's one down. We'll compartmentalize and evaluate the game, but just really pleased with how we came out tonight and just took the fight to them."
On what learned from first meeting with FAU pitcher C.J. Williams:
"Give that kid credit. That was a career game for him (the five-hit shutout in April). I'd love to tell you we were still trying to find a little bit of an identity, but I don't want to take anything away from his outing. He went complete game and shut us out. He was tremendous that weekend. It's the same thing I always say. Momentum and past performances kind of matter, but they don't. Our guys were just determined to avenge that feeling that they had and just really tried to get to him. When you're short-rested after 100-plus pitches (101 against UTSA last Thursday), it's advantage offense. We were aggressive to him and I thought we frustrated him. Just really pleased with their effort."
On Chandler Welch's performance:
"He had eight strikeouts against Charlotte last weekend in four innings, and I thought he was actually better tonight than he was at Charlotte, and he was really impressive at Charlotte. He was tremendous tonight. Once we got him the lead, when your best boxer's out there in the ring and you get him a lead like that, Chan's the kind of guy that's going to take that and run with it. He's not going to try to over-pitch, but he's going to be really aggressive and feel pretty free with his stuff. He was absolutely tremendous."
On secret to success in Clearwater:
"I'd like to think as we continue this journey and continue to get better, hopefully you'll say we played in the tournament like we played all year. In some cases that's true and in some cases it wasn't, and probably the overall record reflected that. What I do know is our guys are believers. They are tough. They are competitive. When you get to the finality, every game means something in college baseball, but when you get guys to a point where they believe in each other and they believe in the coaches and the coaches believe in them and the way we treat them and coach them consistently I'll use the analogy of a horse race and the Kentucky Derby when you're coming down the stretch and it's neck and neck and the jockey's going to the whip to get that horse to go. I think that's what we have when we get here. I'd like to think that our guys believe in what we do and who we are and believe in themselves. When you have that and there's extra motivation there, you see the focus that shows up. It showed up tonight. Our responsibility will be a day off tomorrow, get refreshed and this game's over. This game's going to do nothing for us moving forward. I'm going to remind them of that, but they're not going to need reminding. They're right there with me, so they are very focused on what their mission is and how they need to do that."
On advantage playing seven innings when next opponent, Charlotte, played 12 innings:
"When you're short rested, you try to take every advantage that you can get. Charlotte played us tough. We had three really good games against them and we just happened to come out on top in two out of the three there. They had the win tonight against a good UTSA and hung on. From where I sat watching it, there were a lot of similarities in our games (against Charlotte) and that game. Charlotte showed tremendous toughness, so I'm not going to expect anything different when we see them on Thursday. They are going to have a day rest and they'll have some of their pitchers back and it's going to be a competitive event again. If it ends up being an advantage, so be it, but I don't think we're going to take anything for granted or likely."
On likely matchup of Luke Fladda versus Adam Stanton (Fladda pitched the opener of last Thursday's doubleheader, throwing 57 pitches, while Stanton pitched the nightcap, throwing 77 pitches):
"I would say you're probably barking up the right tree."
RASMUSSEN
On taking pitch over the middle of the plate on 3-0 count leading off and then clobbering the next pitch in the same spot to set the tone for the night:
"Had a similar approach that I had against him the last time. I was looking for a fastball down and kind of reacting to everything else. The first pitches were off the outer third, and we know that's where he was trying to go. The 3-0 pitch was more middle, and he threw it again 3-1 and I was able to put a good swing on it. We felt like last time even though he went a complete game, we had some good swings off of him. We definitely put a rally off of him tonight. We knew what he was going to look like and we were just able to jump on him early."
On not relaxing with early lead and finishing it in seven innings:
"That's huge, especially in a tournament like this, we know our offense can score in bunches. Our goal once we got up early was to put them away and save some pitching for later in the week."
On Colin Tuft's spinning throw after field leadoff bunt:
"That's huge. He's been tremendous back there for us all year. He's made that play a couple of times, and every time he makes it, I'm still speechless. That's huge to start an inning with one out versus a lead-off single. That was big getting us some momentum, and Chandler just rolled from there."
On Welch:
"He's a workhorse for us. He's been that all year, and we have all the confidence in the world in him every time he takes the hill. He's fun to play defense behind just the way he works. We know he's going to go out and compete for us every day. He shows his emotions and we love that. It fires us up behind him."
On importance of second game:
"It's big. The day off is super important for us. We are going to get a good practice in tomorrow, but we've been a focused group now for the past couple of weeks. Coach has stressed it's playoff time for us, and we've been in that mode for these past couple weeks. We're comfortable, and we love playing when the lights are the brightest."
On no easy outs in lineup:
"Yeah. This offense is relentless 1 through 9, and we know that. We know if we don't get the job done, someone behind us is going to pick us up. This offense is clicking right now and it's really cool to see."
WELCH
On how he felt:
"I felt great. Obviously waiting that long to get started at 10 o'clock was a little bit stressful, but overall it was really good. It was awesome to get the energy going out there for game 1. I had to channel it back a little bit early on in the game, but it was just a great night."
On how quickly he knew he would be in total control:
"I think in the first two hitters, I went right at them and then a two-out walk, but once the second inning hit and we had a couple of strikeouts, that was probably the moment where I knew this was going to be a game where I had a lot of things going right. And fortunately enough, I had the slider going really well, a good fastball and multiple pitches going tonight. That's all it took."
On nine strikeouts in a row:
"I think maybe four was my highest ever. I hadn't done that before."
On playing well in Clearwater:
"I think it's a lot about just the environment. You come here to a great place. It's great energy. It's great vibes and we kind of use that to how we play. Of course we're locked in and we're dialed and focused on the game, but we're also enjoying and having fun with each other. That's why when it comes to tournament time, we turn it up a little bit and it brings out the best in us whenever it matters the most."
On if he will be available later in the week:
"I don't have a specific timeline. We'll probably talk about that more, but if it happens we get to an elimination game, I'm ready to go. And if we go 3-0, I'll be ready for Sunday for sure."
