The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Postgame quotes
06.05.2010 | Baseball
June 5, 2010
TEXAS
Head Coach Augie Garrido
Opening statement: It was a great college baseball game. Louisiana has a lot to be proud of. We were very fortunate to hit a couple of balls out of the ballpark. It kind of is who we are. They minimized the damage that we could do by not letting us get rallies or extending the ones we did have. The way we got our runs was off of homeruns, which is one of the skill sets that we do have and they kept it to a minimum. The pitching was outstanding. Cole Green was great and Chance Ruffin was great or greater. It was pitching, defense, and timely hitting with power that separated the two teams and there wasn't much separation. There were really limited chances for us to do things offensively. They minimized what we could do. We are fortunate to be sitting here the winner.
On Chance Ruffin's back-to-back strikeouts to end the eighth inning: I was more excited than he was. That was huge in the whole scheme of things. For him to pitch in support of his teammates the way he did and respond to the crisis situation we were in, and minimize the damage, was really critical and he thrives on it. That's why he's going to do that in the big leagues pretty soon.
On winning in the postseason: Whoever wins the National Championship will win games like this, and they'll come from behind to win games late. That's what has to happen to be consistent.
Right Fielder Kevin Keyes
On his homerun: It was a big part of the game. It was a hitter's count and I was just looking for something to drive. He was throwing a lot of off-speed pitches and was painting the corners, but that time he left one out over the plate and I got one.
On the top of the order's struggles: It's a whole team effort. The top of the order has been there for us all year. If they don't have a good game, then the rest of the guys are going to have to pick it up. The middle of the order did a very good job today. We battled and we picked it up.
Pitcher Chance Ruffin
On making the final out: It felt great. It was one of the more fun games to be in. It was a great situation to be in and just a lot of fun to have the opportunity to be in it.
On the postseason environment: It's a situation that you play for all year. We're not a regular season team where we just play the regular season and then we're done. We play for the postseason and we know the environment here. This is a big stadium and the crowd is going to be on their feet and into the game. The crowd gives you a lot of energy and in a close game like this it's a lot of fun to go out there in front of the crowd, do you your best, and lay it all on the line.
LOUISIANA
Head Coach Tony Robichaux
Opening statement: I thought T.J. (Geith) did a great job tonight. He gave us a chance to win. Our whole big pitching philosophy in handling our pitchers is to give the team a chance to win, and he did a great job tonight. Their guy did a great job, too. The big thing is that you have to keep out of the adrenaline. They used their adrenaline on 3-0 pitches and got two balls up and out of the ballpark on us. That hurt right there, but we fought back and kept it as close as we could. Still, bases loaded really did us in. We cannot come out of there with a sac fly with the bases loaded in that situation, so you have to give Texas credit. Their kid (Chance Ruffin) came in and minimized the damage. He came in and traded a run for an out, and then squashed the inning. We were one or two pitches away from getting back in it.
On facing Rice again tomorrow: I am sure they went to bed tonight feeling a lot better about themselves. We will have to hopefully get back in our pitching system. We are a team that has to pitch. We have to play defense. We have to stay away from the three-run inning. T.J. did a good job in a tough environment, probably the toughest environment he has been experienced in college baseball, and he handled it very well. We played good defense and turned a critical double play on a very good hitter when we needed it. Timely hitting just was not there for us, and that is kind of what did us in. We are going to go with the same approach tomorrow. That is what we have done all year. We are sixth in the country in pitching, so we are going to have to pitch, stay on our system, and try to get some timely hits.
LHP T.J. Geith
On facing Texas 3B Kevin Lusson tonight: I was supposed to go fastball easy, and he came in and got a hold of it, and it managed to fall down. For the homerun, I got behind in the count and tried to fight back. That's what hurt me - falling behind and throwing ball one and ball two, and then I had to come back and fight.
1B Justin Robichaux
On facing Texas RHP Cole Green: I think that all of my hits came with two outs. I got behind early, and I was kind of diving. He left the slider up in my first at bat, kind of left the fastball over the plate in the second, and for my third at bat I kind of got lucky, I guess. Other than that, he did not really bury me. He left some stuff up, and I took advantage of it.