The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
04.25.2014 | Baseball
Quotes from head coach Augie Garrido and Texas players
Head Coach Augie Garrido
On Parker French's performance: He pitched his game. That was his game for five innings. He started to come out of it and think too much towards the end, and that's why Skip took him out. We wanted him to have that real positive experience and that's the longest he's been able to simply pitch the whole year like he did. It was a big step forward for him and the team.
On not being able to get runners on base home: You want to score more runs, but the hard part of this game is that there is a factor where you hit balls okay and they catch them and turn them into double plays. It is something you cannot control. What you can control is how you respond to it. You need to stay focused on competing and looking forward to next at-bat, or you will drag it out onto the field and so on. If you are not mentally tough enough, you are going to cave in.
On Zane Gurwitz: He provides leadership without saying a word, and by his presence on the field. He is really a gift. He is a ballplayer through and through.
On Tres Barrera starting to hit better: He is starting to get comfortable with the process of hitting rather than thinking about the results he wants to get from hitting. All of the hitters have been very successful in high school, so they have a huge level of confidence coming from their hits. That is not the way it works against great pitchers. You have to be able to accept that you must find a way to win against good pitching, because you are probably not going to get a lot of hits.
On what he thought he did well tonight: I attacked the mitt and when things were going where I wanted, I got to the next pitch very well. I thought I stayed calm and relaxed with guys on base, and just made pitched tonight.
On his feeling throughout the game: Honestly the bullpen session before the game was pretty bad. It was a blessing in disguise though, because it made me really compete from the first pitch because I wasn't comfortable in the bullpen at all. It turned my competitive senses on from the get-go, and that's what is was. I competed through, and the defense played a heck of a game, and things just went our way today.
On what he thought was the best thing he did tonight: When I would throw a ball, I would just go back to staying at the knees. It is a really aggressive team, and if you keep the ball up, they are going to make you pay. I didn't really get discouraged if maybe a call wasn't there or if I threw the ball in the dirt. I just said I am going to go straight back to knees and got ground balls, and I think that was a key to the game for me.
On Skip Johnson's message not to overthink things: I think I get a lot of stuff going on upstairs sometimes during the course of a game or a week, that he just says to take a deep breath, and to relax and just let it happen. His message is to just let it happen because you are good enough.
On close games keeping a pitcher focused: Yeah it does keep you sharp, and keeps you on your game for sure compared to if you had a five or six-run lead. We try to throw like it is 0-0 no matter what. That is a big thing that Skip instills in us, so that we will have constant performances no matter what the score is.
On the team's mood after the TCU series: The mood was the same. We had one bad weekend, but I think we are still a really good team. It was one bad weekend where we just didn't execute and it's as simple as that. We came out tonight and executed. We played our game, and that is how we expect to play and the kind of team we know we are no matter what the result is. We just got better tonight, and that's all we are looking for. It did not affect our confidence at all, especially this late in the season.
On his hitting tonight: Tonight I saw the ball well. Before the game, we worked on curve balls because we knew that is what we were going to see tonight, and I got some good pitches to hit.
On keeping the confidence up after the TCU weekend: You just have to stick with the process and not let one bad weekend effect your season. If you do, it can all go downhill. We worked hard all fall and spring, and we are not going to let it go to waste. We were ready to get back out there and show that last week wasn't us.
On moving from the outfield to infield: I played shortstop all throughout high school, so the hard change was going outfield. That was difficult, but moving to third was more comfortable.
