FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NCAA TALLAHASSEE REGIONAL JUNE 3, 2017 GAME THREE: FLORIDA STATE / UCF Mike Martin, Head Coach Florida State Opening Statement: “I hope it doesn’t rain more than 12 inches. That would mean we’re pushing things back, we could use a little time. It was a good ball game, obviously. These two young men (Jackson Lueck and Tyler Holton) did a tremendous job giving our team a big lift. Certainly, Tyler (Holton) going out there and doing what he did is something that you don’t expect. You just got an outing from a young man that loves to compete and is always in control of himself and his emotions. It’s fun to literally watch him pitch. This young man here (Jackson Lueck) really set things in motion, kind of set a tone in the dugout when he hit the ball out. Three run home runs are hard to get and very tough on a coach when it happens. I’ve had a number of three run home runs against me. Good win for us, got a long way to go. We know it’s going to be an uphill battle, but as Seminoles we are looking forward to see what happens.” On the fast start the team got off to: “If you remember, we had a great at‐bat by Cal Raleigh. He hits a bullet right up the middle. The pitcher makes a nice throw‐catch‐throw double play. There was no ‘oh here we go.’ It was, ‘let’s play baseball.’ You can compare it to a guy that is wide open in the end zone early in the ball game and he drops it. It doesn’t bother us at all; we just keep battling. (I’m) very pleased with that, we didn’t start having pity parties, we continued to battle.” On how Tyler Holton controls his emotions on the mound: “Tyler (Holton) is the way you want every pitcher to be; he does not have the personality of Richie Lewis. Many of you may have heard of Richie Lewis, he had a nickname of ‘Rooster’, and it was appropriate. He never wanted to be taken out of a ball game, this guy (Tyler Holton) is the same way. That is the kind of athlete that you want, he wants responsibility. He craves to compete. There are some pitchers that will get to the seventh and kind of look out of the corner of their eyes of who is warming up. ‘I’ve done my job; I’ve gotten us here.’ That is not what athleticism is about; compare it to the two major sports (Basketball and Football). The guy wants a ball inside 10 seconds, ‘I’m going to take this shot.’ A football player wants to run the football or a quarterback wants to control the outcome. That’s what Tyler Holton is all about.” On appreciating the 40th straight year of 40 win seasons: “I’ve been looking at it, I got to admit. To say it doesn’t mean anything, that’s a lie. But if you compare it to where we are when we got the 40th, it doesn’t mean anything because I want these young men to experience what a number of other young men have experienced with Florida State baseball. I want to see their face when they get off that plane in Omaha (Nebraska).” Jackson Lueck, Outfielder: On his three run homerun: “It was huge. That was definitely one of my better jacks.” On the feeling that a homerun is enough to win with Tyler Holton pitching: “It’s baseball, anything can happen. You still got to go out there every inning, play for the fans, and get behind them. Same for the offense, have good at‐bats.” On for the lineup to produce more today than yesterday: “It’s definitely a nice feeling. I would never doubt this lineup. This lineup is very talented and we still have to put it together, see each pitch, and take it slow. Sometimes we get ahead of ourselves. The best way we can play is play loose and see the ball and hit the ball.” On the confidence the pitching staff brings: “It’s definitely a lot of confidence, but we still got to play loose. It’s do or die and obviously we got to go out there and play.” Tyler Holton, Pitcher: On if this is the best he has felt all year: “I felt good. I don’t know if it’s the best I’ve felt all year but I definitely felt in control of all my pitches. Whenever I have that going and my defense is making plays behind me, it’s fun to pitch. I’m seeing Jackson (Lueck) get that three run homerun pretty early in the game, that’s another confidence booster. If you can keep that momentum and keep playing downhill, getting quick outs, pitching to contact, not walking guys, not putting guys on base, making them earn everything, that is definitely the way we try to play. Steven (Wells) making a great play in foul territory. I don’t know if it was the same inning or not, (Taylor) Walls making a great play over in the shortstop hole. Getting those two great plays definitely keeps you rolling as a pitcher and the runs early in the game definitely helped.” On if the start felt like any other start or an elimination game: “It felt like an elimination game, I’m going to be honest. If it felt like elimination game to UCF, I can guarantee you they said that. We know what’s on the line and we know that you got to show up and play baseball. We rose to the challenge today and that’s just baseball, we got to do it in less than 24 hours. We’ve got to go home and forget about this win, but move on to the next one.” On the importance of throwing a complete game to rest the bullpen: “That was definitely in my head. There was no conversation between the coaches and me, but that was definitely in the back of my head as a response. You got to let me go, you got to save the bullpen hoping that we play more games this week. That was definitely in my head and getting those quick innings in the eighth and ninth, they were rather quick innings pitch count wise. That was important and I was glad to get the complete game for the sake of the bullpen to move on.” On the special moment of a curtain call after the game: “They (fans) actually called my name as a curtain call from a couple pitching outings this year. I didn’t know they did that, I thought it was only for homerun. I thought it was pretty cool and I’m pretty sure anytime Jackson (Lueck) hits a homerun, he loves hearing his name called too. Definitely in this situation the fans were awesome tonight. It seems as if the whole stadium was the Animal Section, yelling around and getting into the game. This crowd is always fun to play in front of and I’m excited to come back out here tomorrow and have that opportunity. Today was a big win.” On the progression he has made this year: “The biggest thing for me, and the coaches kind of break down with me, is the amount of strikes I’m able to throw with all three pitches. Early in the year, it’s been sometimes a two mix instead of a three‐pitch mix, and that’s a completely different approach if you’re a hitter. That might be contributing to some of my not as great starts, but definitely I’m working on that in the bullpen and at practice. Making sure I know how to throw three pitches for strikes. That’s what (Mike) Bell, our pitching coach, preaches and it’s true. If you can control three pitches for strikes, you’re going to be a tough pitcher. I definitely contribute that to recent success.” FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NCAA TALLAHASSEE REGIONAL JUNE 3, 2017 GAME THREE: FLORIDA STATE / UCF Greg Lovelady, Head Coach UCF: Opening Statement: “Obviously, you never want to lose your last game. It’s an emotional day; I’m proud of the kids. We didn’t do enough today. We didn’t pitch terribly bad, struck out a ton of guys, Jason (Bahr) did an unbelievable job but they were able to get some good barrels on balls and get homeruns and get some runners on base. That hurt us, we didn’t hit very well at all. We couldn’t figure out the changeup. We had a game plan going in and I thought it was a decent game plan, we just didn’t execute it very well. He (Tyler Holton) was able to do the things that he does well. Which is what we knew he was going to do well and we didn’t make any adjustments. We didn’t force him to get uncomfortable at all. He just kept doing what he was going to do, he’s done it all year. Every report and every person we talked too said all the same things and were pretty right on. Just have to commend him for being able to execute that changeup, it’s a tough pitch to pick up. You have to find a way to make him adjust off of it; one backside hit in the last inning, or whenever that was, and that was really it. When you do that you really put yourself in a bad position and put a lot of pressure on the pitcher. Their offense did a good job of beating the ball out of the park when they needed it.” On post‐game team talk: “We talked about the game for about five seconds. I thanked the seniors, told them how much I loved them, how grateful me and my family are that they took us in with open arms and did everything I asked. Set forth on a mission that nobody thought that we could do. Didn’t care, just went out every day, sacrificed, worked, believed in each other, believed in the staff and they are the ones that deserve all the credit. As a new coach comes in, the older guys determine everything. They determine if there’s buy‐in and if the young ones follow. If the old guys just say not interested, then you know you have a bad year and you wait until you get the players that you recruited. I told them from early on that I wasn’t going to be that way, if they sacrificed and committed that I would take them as my kids and they were my guys. They would go to battle every day. I just thanked them and told them I loved them and how excited I was that they got to win 40 games and experience a regional which they’ll talk about for the rest of their lives.” On Jason Bahr: “First, you have to give him a ton of credit and you have to give a ton of credit to Justin Parker (assistant coach) and to our pitching staff. To have the ERA and numbers that they had last year, and to have the success that they had and how much they developed him and this guy’s the leader. It takes a really tough person to go through the things he’s gone through, to feel like nobody believes in you. To feel like your career is over and to go out and be a part time life guard and part time summer ball player. Life’s about luck. There’s a lot of good timing that has to go about. The fact that Justin (Parker) got to see him pitch that day and called me after the first inning and told me this guy’s going to be a dude. Just to see the hard work, it’s not easy. The thing that’s most amazing about it is that he has zero experience to be a fourth year junior. To have zero experience and to go out and do the things that he’s done ‐‐ nothing against Robby (Howell). Robby Howell’s one of the most experienced guys on our staff and has gone though some of the lulls and the things that you go through in a season, the difficulties and challenges. He’s already gone through those and it’s a lot easier for him to go through those. This guy (Jason Bahr) is learning as he goes. To have the amount of success against really good teams, he’s made everyone look the same. Just being able to beat people with his fastball. To be able to do that with the lack of experience and the growth I’ve seen from him has been so rapid and so fast. I’m just really proud of him. Could have easily given up a couple years ago and just kept trying, putting fourth effort, never gave up, believed in himself when no one else did and then when someone finally believed in him, he’s really just taken off. Whether he’s back next year or playing pro ball, I think he has a chance to play this game for a really longtime. I’m excited to follow him and hopefully I’ll still be coaching him next year.” On what it’s like to plan and prepare a night before a game like this: “The toughest part is you like to game plan all week and say ‘okay here’s how we’re going to have to beat (Tyler) Holton.’ We’re going to have to hit the change up and we’re going to work on it for two or three days but it’s just like any other Saturday game. We play a team three times and you prepare for the Friday night guys and all of a sudden you have to turn around but you can’t prepare for two guys at the same time. It’s just counterproductive. It’s unlike no other game. Obviously, when you’re facing a guy like him who’s got the numbers he has and the success he has you probably need a couple more days so that’s probably the most unfortunate thing. We’ve faced a mini Roger Clemens yesterday and a mini Johan Santana today, that’s just the luck of the game. You have to be able to grind, fight and compete and do whatever you can to try to score runs and we just weren’t able to do that much.” On personal memories: “I’ve had a ton of great memories. I told the kids I’ll never forget this. I don’t think it’s possible to remember every team you’ve ever coached but I told these guys that I’ll never forget this group. The things that they’ve done for me and my family, taking us in and my kids around all the time. They’ve all fallen in love with everyone. To do the things that my family and I did to move down here it sure was a lot easier to have a group of guys that cared and believed and wanted to win as bad as they did. I’ll forever be grateful. I’m going to be there for the rest of their lives. Can’t wait to be at weddings and baby announcements and all that kind of stuff. This group will always be special to me, being my first year here and buying in. To do the things and to be picked in last, have no one in the country believe in you and to be able to do the things we’ve done ‐‐ it’s a pretty special group. We wanted more but when things die down and the kids get away, they’re going to be grateful for the experience they had and they are going to understand the magnitude and how difficult the things that they accomplished are to accomplish.” Jason Bahr, Pitcher On season memories: “I’ll remember everything. I’m just so grateful to be here considering where I was last year. I never thought I’d be in this situation or being able to play in the post season. It’s been amazing.” ‐‐#NCAABaseball‐‐