The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
04.26.2014 | Baseball
Quotes from head coach Augie Garrido
Head coach Augie Garrido
On the Oklahoma State pitchers beating the Texas hitters today and the game in general: [Good pitching] always does if it is at the right level. The College World Series this past year with UCLA winning with a low batting average and an average number of runs [proves that]. When [the NCAA] brought these bats into play they brought them in for this reason, they wanted the games to be more traditional, more low scoring, and closer to wood bat baseball where it originally began. They have accomplished that. I am not asking for any mercy or making any excuses, at the end of the day we got outplayed today. However, the truth is we didn't play poorly. We had more difficult situations to deal with defensively than they did all day long. And, with one exception, we did a great job containing dynamic opportunities for them.
So, you can look at it a lot of ways, we lost the game that is the bottom line. We didn't outscore them, that is always going tot be the case. However, the process itself that existed showed our defensive capabilities and our will to perform. If you look at [Brooks] Marlow's last out of the game, I'm not saying it goes out [for a home run] because nothing does, but it might [another day]. The run that would have tied the game with Kacy [Clemens] on second base that Ben [Johnson] hit [was a tough break]. You you get your first hit with a runner on second base and he doesn't score because the ball was hit so hard and right at the fielder. Gurwitz's ball is a foot foul or it is a leadoff double, and we didn't have many [chances like that]. This was a rough day of baseball, it takes real grit, real mental toughness, it takes all of the kinds of things we talk about in developing this program.
I think that sometimes we forget when we lose these games that we are eighth in the RPI, we are the eighth rated team in the country. We are as high as ten in one of the polls, we have a chance to win this conference … if you look on that scoreboard and at who wins the National Championship, [those teams] have 15, 16, 18 losses, and they win, so, this is a process. If you want to get balance to it, we are in such an exaggerated environment based on winning the game every game all the time, no matter the age of the personnel, no matter the experience of the personnel, the fact remains that we must win the game, in a lot of people's mind, every time or we are failing. It has absolutely never been done, never will be done, and this team fought harder today.
Baseball is a lot harder to control than other sports because you attack the defense with hitting. One guy gets to hit and eight guys get to play defense … that isn't even fair. The point is, if I see the team quit, or you see the team quit, you'll know that, it didn't happen. We played it out, we had runners on second a couple times and in both cases we hit the ball hard. I understand that it is a loss, I understand what it means, the players do to, but we have accomplished a lot so far and have a very bright future. I am not making it up, I have seen this happen a lot of times.
On the tough loss today: When you lose, it isn't always because you are bad. Sometimes you lose to the scoreboard, we lost to the scoreboard today. They didn't do much more than we did today, they got on base more and had more opportunities, but we battled our way out with our pitching and defense and played the game pretty darn well. We were challenged a lot more by the game defensively than they were, not that it matters.
On if he is worried with the lack of runs in the past few games: No I am not worried about it, because, hitting is about getting on base, making solid contact, and having quality at bats. I didn't see us give away a lot of at bats today. We need to be more productive, but we go throughout these ups and downs, we hit the ball hard at people a lot, what I am proud of is that the team is not giving in because of that. They are not quitting, they are not getting frustrated, not getting their heads dow, their body language is right and they are showing their mental toughness. Yes, it is tough, but that is how this game goes, and you come out the other side a better team as a result of it fighting your way through it.
On the close conference race currently: If you really want to see a different conference, you look at the ACC, SEC, PAC-12, they beat [each other up] all year long. That is why they do so well at the end, because it makes them tough. Whoever survives, it makes them better.
