The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
04.18.2014 | Baseball
Quotes from head coach Augie Garrido
Head coach Augie Garrido
On a tough loss tonight: I think the story in this is, they got the run in the first inning with two-strike hitting and two-out hitting. They did a really good job of two-strike hitting in that inning to keep that rally alive to get that run. The run they got on the ball Ben didn't get to was that high sky, so when he went back he had a bead on it, he didn't lose it to begin with, but when he looked to see where he was in relationship to the fence he couldn't find it again. That was a tough time of night as you who have been around this thing know. So, that's just one of the intangibles you have got to overcome, you can't control that kind of thing, there is going to be some of that in all of these games.
I thought we had our chances in the seventh and eighth for sure. The [TCU pitcher, Preston Morrison] pitched a very good game, just the opposite of [last night's starter, Brandon Finnegan]. Meaning, [Finnegan] the power pitcher really took it straight to you, and this guy finessed you. So, two different styles, both equally effective in taking us out of our hitting plan and out of our game. The failure to execute the sacrifices to get the runners over became huge, if we just get one run out of each one of those we tie the game at that point. Still a big play, the runners were on the move, when C.J Hinojosa hits the line drive the second baseman makes a nice play on. That was the difference, Dillon pitched great, our second pitcher, Chad [Hollingsworth], got out of a real jam and did a good job with his role in that, and [Morgan] Cooper was very very good in his role. The two runs did stand up.
The next thing you go into is how do you go 18 innings without a run, and we just saw how. So, I don't need to explain that. We failed to execute and get our runners into scoring position. We missed three bunts to get them over, we failed every time we had a chance with base runners on to get them over, so the result is no runs.
On facing a finesse pitcher the night after facing a power pitcher: That is exactly why they do that. The contrast is significant, I hate to use this word, but we are a young team and making adjustments is not the easiest thing when they have never seen a power pitcher like that. They have never seen the power pitcher on [Thursday], they have never seen the finesse pitcher [until today] … You taker that power pitcher that pitched last night, he took it to three different levels. He started at one level, I think we did well with him in the first three innings. Then when he went through that lineup, he went to another level the second time around, and then when they got the three runs he went to another level and pitched at a major league level. Tonight was about finesse and just the opposite. So, the players had trouble making the adjustment, there is no questioning that.
On the line drive that C.J Hinojosa hit that was caught in the bottom of the eighth inning: C.J hit the ball great, he did well. He hit that ball hard and we had the runners moving on that play. Like I said, we have a good team, we have to keep working to get better. [TCU] found a way in the last two games to create a problem for us offensively.
On if the hitters were pressing a little at the plate tonight: Yes, [the TCU pitchers] distracted them from their hitting plan, and that's what you saw. They started swinging at pitches outside the strike zone, they got disoriented, they have never seen pitching like this. By far [the best pitching they have seen all year].
