The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
04.05.2014 | Baseball
Quotes from pitching coach Skip Johnson and players
Pitching coach Skip Johnson
On Dillon Peters nine strikeout performance: He had swing and miss stuff tonight, his breaking ball was really good. Baylor has a really good hitting team, their stats don't show it, but they squared up balls last night against Parker [French], and they squared up some balls every time they got in a leverage count tonight.
On why he left Morgan Cooper in to face a lefty in the seventh inning: They had some guys that were right handed behind him. You have to match up [with next few batters as well] … they had three right handers sitting right behind [the lefty]. You pick your poison in this game so to speak.
On the six sacrifices in this game by the offense (two sacrifice fly balls and four bunts): What was really good about the game was we scored early, and when [Baylor] scored we scored. I think that is really huge for us to come back and score … We got really patient and had really quality at bats in the fourth through seventh innings, and really got their starter's pitch count up.
On if the he felt lie the team was in control from the beginning of the game: In college baseball, you may feel like you are in control, but you are really not because you are dealing with amateurs, you are not dealing with professionals. We have a lot of faith and trust in our guys, and we try to put them in situations where they are going to succeed, but sometimes they fail because they are still amateurs. You look at Joe Nathan or Mariano Rivera, you know that game is locked at the end of a game. With these guys eighteen through [twenty-two] years old you never know, you have got to make sure they understand that they have been in [moments like that] before.
When Morgan [Cooper] came in with [runners on] first and third and punched the first guy out [with a fly ball], everyone said wow that is great. Well, he makes a quality pitch [to the next batter] and the ball gets just inside the line, and the next thing you know [Baylor] has second and third … That is the biggest difference [from college to professional], you get comfortable, but you kind of stay on the edge so to speak. You have to understand what you are dealing with because they are amateurs, not professionals. We try to treat them in a professional environment, because this is a professional environment where one pitch means a lot.
Junior pitcher Dillon Peters
On setting a career high with nine strikeouts: We worked in the bullpen and made some adjustments over the last two weeks, [since] I had struggled the last couple weeks. We figured out to get some depth on my curveball and it was effective tonight. I threw it early and often, and when they started sitting on that I went back to the fastball. Overall, it was just a well called game.
On if he was happy with his fastball velocity getting to 93 miles per hour tonight: I don't ever really worry about that. I would rather pitch easy at 90 miles per hour than go max effort at 93. If I happen to be that hard tonight that is great, but I am just trying to keep the ball down and limit the amount of base runners I have.
On if he realized early it was going to be a good night for him on the mound: Yes, obviously by secondary stuff, mainly my breaking ball was being located and they weren't hitting it. So, we kept throwing it and that was our game plan once we figured that out and it was effective.
On winning back to back conference series: We are a good team, we knew that coming into the season. Everyone was putting that monkey on our back to win that first conference series, but we weren't thinking about that. We were thinking about getting better everyday and we knew we were going to figure it out and we have figured it out. That is behind us and we are going to keep rolling.
Sophomore shortstop C.J Hinojosa
On helping the team out with sacrifice flies and bunts: We are winning, that is all that matters. It is fun wining obviously, and you have got to do whatever you can to help the team win … I knew from the first at bat, when I came out swinging on the first pitch change up, which was a great pitch. I knew [from there] they were going to attack me with off speed, a lot of people do, so I was just waiting on something up in the zone to hit deep enough to score the runners.
On winning his first career conference series at home: It never really occurred to me [we hadn't won a conference series], other than we weren't winning. It is awesome, we are coming together, it is a lot of fun being with this group of guys. It is a great atmosphere, everybody wants to be here, they show up early, and this is where everybody wants to be.
