.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Baseball Practices at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on First Day in Austin
June 02, 2011 | Baseball
LINKS: Day 1 Photo Album
AUSTIN, Texas (6/2/11) -- The Ivy League Champion Princeton baseball team spent its first day in Texas on Thursday for the 2011 Austin Regional of the NCAA Baseball Championship. Head Coach Scott Bradley and players Zak Hermans and Sam Mulroy met the media at a press conference in the early afternoon and the team held a practice at UFCU Disch-Falk Field after that.
Princeton will take on Texas, the national three seed, on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast live and free of charge on TexasSports.com.
The full transcript of the press conference can be found below:
Head Coach Scott BradleyOpening statement: It's pretty obvious we're thrilled to be out here. For us, coming out of the northeast and the type of seasons we have and we try to challenge ourselves early on and play a lot of good teams is what we always do so that if we get into this situation where we get to play in a regional, we're not in awe of these types of situations and playing in these types of venues. It's interesting. We haven't played a game in four weeks now. We had to let our guys take exams and everything else, but over the four weeks we had plenty of guys trying to figure out where we were going to get sent to and who we were going to play and all the rest of that. We've always had a lot of Texas kids on our team so I think when we sat down and were watching the show we had a lot of people hoping and praying we'd have a chance to come to Austin and play in this environment here. So a pretty big cheer went up when the board was announced on ESPN last week. We have a young team and I think in a lot of ways that's good. I think it was that way in the Ivy League Championship. Everybody talked about experience and don't you need experience? Our young kids just don't know any better. As I said, we went down and played a three-game series at LSU. We played North Carolina. We always try and challenge our guys by showing them really elite-level teams, especially in the beginning of the year. When we play those teams in the beginning of the year we're really not even equipped to win too many of those games because we're really going to be careful with our pitchers. We're coming out of the gym and going and playing games. We might let our pitchers throw five innings, four or five innings and that's it. Zak [Hermans] threw four innings against LSU I think, and didn't give up a run but at that point it was time to get him out of the game and we weren't going to stretch him out any further than that early on. Now that we've played our 44, 45 games, we feel like now we're equipped, we can let our pitchers go, we can stretch them out, we can let the games dictate how we have to play. Early on, it's about getting guys opportunities and seeing who can do what. We had a terrific second half of the season. These two guys here were a very, very big part of that. Zak was without a doubt over the last two years has been our most consistent pitcher in all our games and he's a local kid from right here. He has several teammates from Coppell [High school] playing for the Longhorns. Sam was no doubt our best offensive player for us with the new bats and everything. He was still able to hit seven homeruns and double digits in doubles, double digits in stolen bases. Again, these guys are a big part and a big reason why we're here. As I said, we're thrilled to be here. We're very excited about the environment and being able to play these types of games.
On the down time after the regular season: We don't even get a lot of scrimmage work. We literally shut down after the Ivy League Championships. I've been at Princeton 14 years and this is the sixth time now we've come to the regionals. We've played surprisingly well in all the regionals that we've been to. These guys are going at it from the time they get to school in the fall they're doing something baseball wise all the time. When they get the Ivy League Championship, if you try to keep the guys sharp over a four-week stretch and have really intense, hard practices, it just doesn't work. So we, for the first two weeks until exams were over with, two and a half weeks, I told the guys, 'Look, if you get a chance, come down and make sure you play some catch, take some swings and then we'll gear it back up that last week.' In the six times we've gone away we've played really well. I think sometimes it's really refreshing for the guys to get away from it for two weeks. You don't lose any of your baseball skills you don't lose any arm strength at that point and it really mentally gives them a chance to get a little bit of a break and then you're back up again. I expect us to play really well.
On being overlooked: You know, of course. That's just the way it is. When you play in the northeast and you're coming from the smaller conferences and you're a four seed in these events, yeah we don't have the pedigree that these other schools do. But I can tell you, in the times that we've gone away into the regionals, and I'm sure [the other coaches] are letting those guys know, my first year we came out to Texas and we played Houston who was a national seed. I think they were ranked fourth or fifth in the country. They didn't know anything about us or anything and we happened to throw this big six-foot, 10-inch right-handed pitcher from Highland Park who took a perfect game into the sixth inning against Houston and they beat us late. We had a lot of nervous people sitting on their hands. We have kids that can play. We may not have the depth and we may need some things to go our way, but when we van run our top guys and our pitching staff is very good this year, when we can run some of our top guys out there, if we can play in some close games like we're hoping to by playing god defense, then it comes down to who gets a hit with two outs and who gets a big hit.
On starting Zak Hermans: He's been our most consistent. Zak sent me a text (the night of the selection show). He had to come back for Texas last weekend for a family wedding. After we found out where we were going Zak sent me a quick text that said, 'I know it's your decision but I'd love to have the ball.' For Zak, the experience of pitching against Texas on a Friday night in front of 7,000 people is an opportunity that I'd have a tough time looking at myself if I didn't give Zak the opportunity to do this. Plus he's deserved it. He and Mike Ford have pitched most of our big games. Having a kid that grew up a Texas fan, following everything that goes on here in Austin I'd have a tough time sleeping at night if I didn't give him that opportunity so it was a really easy decision.
On the hot weather: The last week back home we were all excited to get out here and get out of the humidity we had. We have terrific facilities so we have a couple of brand new turf football practice fields that are side-by-side and it's been mid-90s with 90 percent humidity over the last five or six days so we've practice one o' clock, one thirty on the turf each of the last four or five days. We had a nice little chance to get used to the heat and being on turf and the way the heat radiates off the turf and everything over the past four or five days which was very, very good for us.
On playing a lot of road games: We always play road games. We're chasing weather the first month of the season and it's every year. Our first 17 or 18 games are always on the road. It's the only way we can do it. It's always interesting when you get a chance to go to the regionals that teams try to figure you out by looking at your statistics. For al the teams in the northeast, you can't do that. You get no gauge of a team whatsoever. We were 3-13 at one point and actually thought we were OK as a team. You go down south and even when you come home from a weekend, we got to LSU for a weekend, we go home and go back indoors for practice. We go away for a spring trip we come back home. We literally did not get on our game field until the day before our first home game. We're just used to that. It's the only way in the northeast you can play baseball games is you have to travel.
On the size of the field: We have a pretty big ballpark back home ourselves. I think the better ballparks suit us much better. We have a couple of pitchers that really can attack. We've been able to do it this year a little bit, that can attack at the top of the strike zone. Whether we learned it from Chris Young, watching Chris Young pitch all those games. It's not like we're fly ball pitchers where we give up 390-foot fly balls, but we can pitch at the top of the strike zone and above the top of the strike zone and get pop ups.
Sophomore P Zak Hermans
On his relationship with Texas players Cole Green and Jonathan Walsh: I'm still real good friends with both those guys. Jonathan was my catcher back in high school so obviously a real good friend of mine. I still keep in contact with them all the time. When I found out we were going to be playing them, immediately that night we had a bunch of messages going back and forth about it. Cole green was two years older than me so I was a sophomore, still on the JV team at that time. I remember seeing him pitch on varsity and just hoping I could be like Cole when I'm a senior, trying to lead our team in the state playoffs. Seeing him go onto Texas and have great success and just try to follow in his footsteps at Coppell. It's really fun to be able to face both of those guys on Friday night. It's going to be a blast.
On family and friends coming to watch him: I got quite a few friends that go to UT and [Texas] A&M. I don't know if the A&M guys are going to be coming here or staying at their own regional, but I definitely got a lot of family and friends, somewhere around like 10 to 15 people are going to be coming down from the Dallas area.
On getting an opportunity to pitch against Texas in Austin: It's just going to be an amazing experience. Like coach said, as soon as I found out we were playing in Austin and the Longhorns, I told him right way I wanted the ball if you would let me have it. So to be able to come down here, I grew up obviously in the Dallas area but everyone dreams of playing for the Longhorns when you grow up in Texas and you're playing in middle school and in high school. To be able to come down here and be able to have the atmosphere with the fans down here in a big ballpark in my opinion, one of the greatest college baseball programs in the country, with the prestige that they have, with the head coach that they have and his history, it's going to be an amazing experience.
On head coach Scott Bradley texting him back about starting: It took him about a minute. I was in between flights at the airport so we were about to take off on our flight so luckily he sent it back so I didn't have to wait the whole airplane flight. He text me back it was already decided that I was going to have the ball on Friday.
On Jonathan Walsh being able to give Texas a scouting report: I think he can tell them kind of what type of pitcher I was my senior year in high school, but I think I've developed enough and changed and improved enough to where it shouldn't make that much of a difference I don't think.
Junior C/OF Sam Mulroy
On being overlooked: Yeah, but to be honest, if I was on Texas or something like that and Princeton was coming in, I can't say I'd behave much differently than they are. They're Texas. They're the number seven national seed. Of course all the attention is going to be on them and not the school from the Ivy League in New Jersey. That's something that we kind of expected and our not surprised by, it is what it is.
On the hot weather: I thought it would be worse. It's dry. It's not as humid as it is up in Jersey or where I'm from in the D.C. area. It's not too bad I think.
On the hottest game they've played: Nothing too bad. Nothing like this. It's going to be hot.
On the size of the field: I just hit the ball. I don't go up there trying to hit a homerun. I just try to put a good swing on it and get a good pitch to hit. Wherever it goes it goes. I'll just have to run a little faster if it goes in the gap and not over the fence.