The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Postgame quotes
06.04.2010 | Baseball
June 4, 2010
Postgame Quotes: Game 2 of NCAA Baseball Austin Regional
Texas 11, Rider 0
UFCU Disch-Falk Field
TEXAS
Head Coach Augie Garrido
Opening statement: I thought that the game was controlled by Brandon Workman and his teammates on defense. I think that the two double plays in the first two innings were huge in turning those innings around, and then the rallies that we put together to spread the score to 4-0 and then to 6-0 were huge. All 11 of the runs came after two outs, so the rallies were good, and we sustained them. We got our bunts down on offense, we took our walks, and we played a good, solid game against a real good pitcher and a team that played good defense. I think that Brandon kept their bats under control with the help of his teammates, and he felt more relaxed when we got the runs. He actually got stronger and more consistent toward the end. All in all, it was a good start-and important start-for the tournament.
On the team's performance during the Big 12 Tournament: My honest opinion is that we really did not have that much to play for in that situation. You can tell when a team is out there and it has that competitive edge. That is deep inside, and that is instinctive. You cannot manufacture it. You have to have it, and every guy has to have it. It is hard to do when you are not playing for much. We knew we were going to be in this position, and we knew that we were looking forward to it. I just think that we lost our competitive edge.
RHP Brandon Workman
On rebounding after the Big 12 Tournament: Up in Oklahoma, we knew that we were going to be one of the top eight seeds, and we knew that we would be hosting all of the way to Omaha, so we did not have that much to play for. We just kind of showed up, and you can't really win games like that as you saw with us. This week, there is a huge difference. We have everything to play for. We showed up more focused and more ready to go, and that showed tonight.
On how important defense was, especially early in the game: It was huge because I was walking guys and could not really throw strikes early in the game. When I was able to get a couple of double play balls and then hard hit ground balls to the infielders, they made all of the plays, and that was big in keeping my pitch count down and keeping runs off the board.
SS Brandon Loy
Coming back after injury: It was kind of tough for me to sit out those past five games. I was anxious to get out on the field tonight, and good things happened. I played hard and had fun. We competed a lot better tonight, and when you have that competitive edge, you win more ballgames.
On mindset of beginning NCAA Regional play: You just have to come out and play hard every day. Things are going to happen, and you cannot control what happens. You just have to put the bat on the ball, play the game hard, and have fun doing it, and hopefully good things will happen.
RIDER
Head Coach Barry Davis
Opening statement: It's a tough loss and we're obviously competing against a great team. I thought Mike Thomas did an excellent job. We gave up 11 runs with two outs. That's tough to take, I thought we competed and our effort was there. We had decent at-bats, Workman is a great pitcher, and I thought we had some real good at-bats against him. They scored in three big innings and that's what you try to prevent. We battled for a while and then Mike Thomas ran out of gas. I thought he did an excellent job. I'm proud of my team, I thought we competed, the score doesn't reflect that but I felt like they had to compete and battle for their runs and I think they played a great game.
On Texas changing its approach with two strikes: Not necessarily. A couple times we fell behind in the count and we didn't want to walk them. Our philosophy is that we would rather force them to hit. On Brandon Workman's performance: We couldn't seem to put two or three hits together at a time. It was odd because in the beginning he seemed to have command issues. He fell behind 3-0 or 3-1, we would get the green light and then hit a ground ball. He settled down a little bit later in the game, but we had opportunities through each inning to get a big hit and we just didn't do it.
On the atmosphere: I thought it was a very professional crowd. When Mike came off the field I thought it was very classy how they treated him. After seeing how hard he battled I thought the fans were very classy, especially knowing how proud they are of their team. I was very excited to hear that.
2B A.J. Albee
On the atmosphere: It was pretty new to all of us. I was pretty excited and it was really cool to play in front of that many people.