NCAA Super Regional Press Conference
Thursday, May 31
LSU coach Skip Bertman
“I think it’s a wonderful thing for me personally that a game is between two Louisiana schools with 12,000 seats, and you still can’t get a ticket. Eighteen years ago, we couldn’t give them away, so I feel great about that. There’s no region in the nation where they will draw more people or more money. I wish it could have been in the Superdome, where they could have had 30,000 fans, because it would have attracted a lot of positive attention for Louisiana college baseball.”
(on playing an in-state rival in the super regional)
“The first year (of the super regional in 1999), we had to go to Alabama. The best way to put is that the committee members don’t have a lot of time, and they rush through this thing. They don’t have all the information, so they have to do it and then fix it; so if it works, they do it again. First, we had to go to Alabama, but now there are no conference teams playing each other. Last year, we had Miami and Florida State, and now there are no in-state matchups except this one. But I doubt if it’s possible both to avoid conferences and in-state teams when scheduling all the time.
“For instance, there are regionals that are set up as budget regionals, which is what we had last year, when we had two Louisiana schools and everyone took a bus. This year, we had the “gumbo regional”, where they wait until the end and throw in whoever is left. They’ve got to get some where they have to offset the lack of income, and this was picked because no matter who won, there would be no lack of income.”
“I think what plays a part in it is that Lafayette had a chance to host a regional last year as Tulane did this year and turn in little revenue. Somewhere along the line, they have to make that (shortfall) up. Mississippi State is a good team to do that with, because they draw a lot, and so are we, and in this case, Zephyr Field can hold a lot.”
(on the size of the crowd)
“There’s no school in Louisiana that we haven’t gone to where we haven’t set a record, and then every time we’ve gone back, there’s been a new record. There’s no SEC school that hasn’t set a record (against us), either. We’ve played in front of the largest crowds at Alabama, Arkansas…Louisiana Tech, McNeese, wherever we’ve gone. But this is the largest crowd that they can have, because it’s the biggest stadium.”
(Underdog?)
“Whether we like it or not, we have to be the underdog because Tulane has earned the seeding. We didn’t get seeded in the top eight, and they earned that, but we should have won more ball games. I don’t think it makes a difference.
“The great thing about sports is they can argue for a millennium whether Tulane’s medical school is better than LSU’s medical school. But on Friday night, after nine innings or extra innings, one team will be better that night. That’s what makes it all great-they have to play the game.
(on both teams starting freshman pitchers in Game 1)
“It’s very unusual to start two lefties, both freshman, both best pitchers at this time for their respective teams. What’s very unusual for (Tulane’s Michael) Aubrey to be such a great hitter and have such a great year. For Mestepey to be Freshman of the Year in the SEC is unusual. But then again, the whole setting is unusual. At Fullerton and Mississippi State, the most Fullerton can draw is 2,500, because that’s all they’ve got. Somewhere down the line, the NCAA has to have a stadium to pick that up, because the NCAA nearly went to Mississippi State, but they stayed consistent with the seedings.”
“Johnnie Thibodeaux will start, but Zeph Zinsman will also be in the lineups.”
(on facing left-handed pitchers)
“We’ve faced so many left-handers, and (Pitching) Coach (Dan) Canevari has thrown so much that we’re probably better against left-handers. For example, (LSU 1B) Bryan Moore (a left-handed hitter) is well above .400 against lefties, and Mike Fontenot and Wally Pontiff also hit well against left-handers.”
(on pitching depth)
“We would be at a definite disadvantage if the pitching depth was a factor. That’s been an area where we haven’t stepped up, and our pitching beyond the starters has really been questionable and has cost us several games, especially at the end.”
(on the upcoming end to his coaching career)
“Probably I have reflected more upon it in the last week, especially at the regional. The fans, opposing coaches and players have been very, very warm and wonderful. It was a tremendous decision to make the change up front and allow (future coach) Smoke Laval to be here all year, recruit his team for next year and learn all the players for next year. But it was incredibly difficult with the media. There used to be dozens (of reporters), now there are hundreds, and we’ve had more national media around. Autographs used to be in the hundreds, now they’re in the thousands. They realize I’ll be here next year, but some of the people want me to sign the ball now, and it’s been tiring. But it’s been wonderful.”
(confidence in Lane Mestepey)
“He’s been the most pleasant surprise and best step-up this year, and he’s going to be an even greater pitcher over the next year or two and play professional baseball. He’s getting better and better, and I was happy to see that.
“He’s been to our camps before and we’ve recruited him, but we didn’t expect him to be as big of a force as he has this year. He started out as a mid-week pitcher, but he moved to Sunday, then to Saturday, and now to Friday in all the big games. He’s always responded well, because he has a lot of poise and confidence.”
(on the ticket situation)
“People have been very sensitive about that to leave me alone and not bother me about it. There have been a lot of calls to our ticket office from outsiders and others from the university. But people have been very good about leaving me alone and letting me coach. It doesn’t mean they’ll do that when I’m the AD, though.”
(dimensions of Zephyr Field)
“Some coach might be able to play a center field with more range because this park is a little more spacious. But both teams have center fielders that can do that, so there’s really not that much strategy. It’s a fairly big park in the power alleys in center field, so you have to pull it to get a short homer. On the other hand, balls have been hit out of here by college teams all the time.
(regular season series a factor?)
“Normally, I’d say Tulane beating us twice in two regular-season outings is generally not a factor. But if I were to factor something in, I would say that our advantage is that it’s harder to beat a team four times than it is twice. Naturally, it’s probably an edge.”
“We’ve played here with 11,600, and even if they fit a few more in on the levee, even at 12,000, I don’t think there’s a significant difference. As far as the number of people who root for Tulane or LSU, that really isn’t a factor for the boys or myself. When we take a team on the road to Alabama, we may have 200 or 300, and then there are 4,500 against you. Mississippi State is a better example; they had 8,000 and we had a few hundred in the series that weekend. That tells me it’s not a big deal.
“I hope the fans behave themselves. There’s been a lot of talk, and I hope everyone shows the class the players have and leave the battling for the players on the field. The players and coaches don’t get into that stuff, but the fans do, and I hope the fans do a real good job.”
“I’m familiar with the rivalry, as are the guys who have grown up here, but the guys from out of state were surprised. I’m not surprised about the excitement because the stakes are high. We’ve played them in regional play to go to Omaha, but this is different, since this is only the third of the super regional, and this is the first time we’ve every played Tulane in the super regional. Of course, the winner moves on and the loser stays here, so there’s a lot at stake.”
(Big game atmosphere)
“There’s a lot of pressure on Tulane, but they’ve handled it well all year. They’ve come back late in games, and they have a great blend of experience and an infusion of youngsters. Most of all, they have a tremendous base of just enough pitching, just enough hitting, just enough baserunning and just enough defense to where they don’t have any real weaknesses. Therefore, they’ll find many ways to win a game.”
LSU LHP Lane Mestepey
(on his arm after the regional)
“My arm feels fine. There’s no reason it shouldn’t be 100 percent.”
“Minnesota was a good team. They came out swinging the bats and got some hits. It wasn’t my best game; it’s going to happen, so you have to find a way to battle through it. I’m still not throwing the way I like to, and there’s room to improvement.”
LSU SS Ryan Theriot
(on ticket requests)
“It’s hard to turn people down, especially those you’ve been associated with in the program for three years. But I’ve had many calls, both yesterday and today, and early in the morning. But we’ve got to take care of our families first, and it’s tough for us, because we get only six. Luckily, we have some guys from out of town, and they won’t fill all their tickets, so we try to scratch a few here and there to get the family members is.
“Normally, seniority plays a big role in this, and you would think I would get some as long as I’ve been here. It was weird, because this year everyone who was there first got the tickets, and it was tough on me, because I usually don’t get there early. I’ve had great family support all year, and they’ve been consistent in coming to the games all year. It’s tough, because I’d love for everyone to be here, and I would want the same thing if I were in their shoes, because it’s going to be an exciting weekend.
“I didn’t get any one-liners for tickets. The fans were mostly apologetic, but it was weird to tell people no.”
(on being the underdog)
“It’s going to be exciting. I think this team has done well out-of-town when our fans are outnumbered. Of course, it’s always better to have more fans, but sometimes, when teams come into The Box, they feed of the emotion of our fans, so hopefully we’ll do the same.”
(on Bertman’s last year)
“In the beginning of the year when he made it public, the initial thought was that we wanted to send him out on a high note, because he’s done so much for this state and college baseball. But after you think about it and listening to coach Bertman talk, you can’t play it for one person, you have to play it for yourself, the university and your family, because you represent everybody. Skip has emphasized to us not to play for him, but to play for ourselves and represent ourselves better. I think a few of us got caught up in that because we wanted to send him out a winner, not only because he’s made us better ballplayers, but he’s made baseball better in the state of Louisiana. This super regional wouldn’t have been possible without him. It would be great to send him out on top, but we have to decide for ourselves and each person has to decide how badly they want to win, and we can’t do that if we try to win it for coach.”
“Tulane swings the bats; 1 through 9, they’re similar to us in that way, as well as other SEC teams. They really swing the bat and hit the ball more so than in years past. They have good pitchers and their good pitchers are hot, so that presents problem. They also have a group of older guys who have been around the block; they’ve seen us go to Omaha, they’ve been there and watched us growing up. It’s an advantage when you have guys that know what’s going on and know what it takes to get there. A lot of them are friends with us and have heard the stories, so it’s definitely an advantage.”
Tulane Coach Rick Jones
(on being relaxed and focused)
“This is not a team I need to tell that to; in fact, it’s probably in reverse. They’ve been a relaxed but focused team all year, and in every situation, they’re confident-from practice to pre-game meals to meetings. I haven’t noticed any difference whatsoever, and that’s one of the most encouraging things in the post-season so far.”
(How do you keep it in perspective?)
“I’m really excited to be a part of this, because I was a junior high coach at one time. To be part of something that is unprecedented in this country as far as college baseball super regional play is concerned, you can’t help but say, ‘Well, this is something you wish you were a part of,’ and hopefully, we’ll make the most of it. I’m sure our club is as prepared as it can be, but it hasn’t been lost on me how fortunate I’ve been.”
(on the crowd size)
“I think it will be unprecedented, but I think we would have packed the venue no matter how big the stadium is or could have been. It tells you about the college baseball fans in this state and some long-time rivalries that have been rekindled.”
(on tickets)
“I think everyone has some great stories about that. I’ve taken my voice mail off this week, because I only have one ticket to this game, and that’s for my wife. I’m no different than anyone else, because I want to give or fans the best chance we possibly can to get into the ball game.”
(on the Wave’s comeback ability)
“I think we feel pretty confident in most situations. But at every level, the stakes rise and the level competition rises, and we came back from a pretty big deficit against a fine Oklahoma State club Sunday (in the regional championship game). When you’re playing in a situation where you know someone has to beat you twice, you may not have that same incentive to do what we did in that first ballgame. We did it in a regional situation there, so it was encouraging and a confidence boost.”
“Obviously, you only have to win one more, but we’ve had three-game series where we’ve won the first one but didn’t win the next two, and we’ve also had three-game series where we’ve lost the first game and won the next two. I wouldn’t want to put any more importance on the first game than I should.
“You have to look it as if you win the first one, then you have to win only one and the other team has to win two, so you look at that as a positive. Then again, if you lose the first one, it’s certainly not a one-game series, so you can win in the second game and transfer it back to a positive situation again. We’ve played a lot of three-game series this year where we talked about this scenario and this situation. Obviously, there’s no guarantee you’re going to get to it, but when we did, we were more prepared for that situation, because we tried to put ourselves in those positions as best we could.”
(on the regular season series)
“I don’t think it has a lot to do with it right now. That question is so old right now, and the players can answer that questions better than me. From my standpoint, I’m not looking at it as any sort of advantage, just that the fact we’ve played them.”
“This is the second time this has happened, because they (Aubrey and Mestepey) started the game here in April. We’re not talking about your average freshman; but rather guys who have performed at a high level and guys who have carried themselves and handled themselves as mature, experienced players. I don’t think the freshman factor has any factor right now, especially at this time of the year.”
(on who will start against a left-handed pitcher)
“We have only one interchangeable situation, and that’s in the outfield (left field). Normally, when we see a right-handed pitcher, we start Jay Heintz, and when we see a left-handed pitcher, it’s either James Burgess or Aaron Feldman. That’s not etched in stone, but we’ll wait for the matchups to come.”
(on starting pitchers for Saturday and Sunday)
“It’s really up in the air right now. We’ll make that decision prior to Saturday and probably after the game tomorrow night, we’ll announce that. Right now, it’s between Nick Bourgeois and Beau Richardson. I think Nick is getting his legs under him and he had a good bullpen today. Beau had a good simulated game yesterday where he threw very well. I feel confident either way, but we’ll look at it again tonight and make a decision tomorrow.”
(on Nick Bourgeois’ injury)
“He cut his wrist and had an artery injury that was capped off. He’s fine; it was just a case of getting his stamina back and he’s very close. He was trying to open a window in his house, and that’s all I’ll comment on that.”
(on the importance)
“I wouldn’t think I would have to explain to them the importance of this game. We haven’t been living in a vacuum, so everybody understands the importance. I think the good thing is that if you have a club that looks at it as our club does, which is that we’re anxious and excited to play this game, but we’re not putting any undue pressure on houseflies. That’s rare, but I think it’s genuine and valid with us.”
(key to beating LSU)
“I think the key in any game is that you have to do three things, and at least two of them-good pitching, sound defense and timely hitting. It sounds like “coachspeak”, but that’s exactly the way it works. Sometimes you can win with two out of three and sometimes with one out of three. But you want to have all three.
(on use of RHP Barth Melius)
“His role will be the exact same as it has been, and it could be in long relief, short relief, starter. He keeps the stopwatch when he’s not pitching and lets us knows the time of other pitchers. His role has been multi-dimensional and it will be again, because he’ll do whatever we need him to.”
(bullpen an advantage?)
“I really don’t want to comment on the other team, because I don’t know enough about them, and I didn’t coach that club. I only know my guys, and I don’t have problem putting the ball in Barth’s hand or Joey’s (Charron) hands in any situation.”
(Is LSU the underdog?)
“That’s a hard one for me to comment on, because either way I say it, it will come out wrong. I don’t know how you can do what they’ve done in the last 10 years and ever be an underdog. At the same time, we’ve had a good year, we’ve had a couple of big wins and we’ve done some things. I think what helped us last weekend was the fact that my senior class was going through its fourth NCAA tournament, and was the third for the junior class. It was something that they were used to. I also felt our home fans were a major plus for us. I thought our fans energized our club and kept us going, and it was a positive thing. I think the fact that this is our super regional, but at the same time we’re playing in front of a big crowd of Tulane fans, there will be some positives here for us, but we have to continue to set the bar higher each time. We’ve played a lot of home games in this park, and we’re the home team.”
(meaning for the entire Tulane athletic program)
“I know our fans our excited, but I told them that when Rick Dickson came as our athletic director, I knew we were about to make some positive changes, and everything that’s happened since then has been that way. We put in a great bid for the regional and then took care of this situation. He and his staff have worked hard to make it happen and have helped us, and I think this will be one of those things you’ll look back on and have things come positive from it. But at the same time you have to have great leadership for the department to maintain itself and flourish, and I think we have that.”
Tulane 3B Jake Gautreau
(on tickets)
“I’ve given up a few tickets, but I’ve got a lot of family coming and a friend coming from New York. It’s been a real circus from what I’ve heard.”
(when did the season come together?)
“I think it’s been throughout the year. When you win 17 games on your last at-bat, you start relying on guys. These guys don’t give in, and I think we know someone will step up each day, and when you have different guys doing it each day, you have something special. It’s not one or two guys, but it’s been 1-through-9 in the lineup and a bunch of guys in the bullpen. I think that’s made us realize how special this is.”
(comfortable in Zephyr Field?)
“We play here a lot every year, so we’re used to it. Obviously, it’s a bigger yard than most, so you can hit some balls pretty well and they’ll stay in the park. But it’s not going to affect us; we’re going to go up there and try to do the same thing every at-bat, and hit the ball hard somewhere. If you do that, you’ll be alright. But if you change your approach in a big yard, it sometimes causes problems in your swing and your mechanics. You just have to treat it like any other game anywhere else.”
Tulane RHP Barth Melius
(On beating LSU twice)
“I don’t think it’s an advantage to have beaten them twice, because year in and year out LSU is going to put a high-quality club on the field. Just by playing them, they know a lot about us and we know a lot about them, so both teams are going to get after it this weekend and the best team will come out victorious. We just need to make sure to put ourselves in the best position to be victorious at the end of the weekend.”
(on the LSU-Tulane rivalry)
“I grew up with it-it’s everywhere. I turn on the TV and they’re talking about, I read the papers and those guys are talking about it; it’s everywhere. Everywhere we go it seems, if you talk to anyone on the team, we here about it everywhere-in a store, a restaurant, someone will recognize you and talk about it. But it’s great for college baseball and great for Louisiana. Everyone knows how important it is and you’re going to play your best.”
Tulane LHP/OF Michael Aubrey
(on going into a big game)
“It’s going to be a big game, but you can’t treat it as one. You’ve got to go in and treat it the same as all the other games. It’s just like any other game, because you’re looking to win. We’ve just got to go out there and do the things we’ve been doing all year.