The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
06.02.2014 | Baseball
Quotes from head coach Augie Garrido and Texas players
Head coach Augie Garrido
On the game tonight: I thought their pitcher really dominated the game, it was an amazing performance. He threw strikes, he moved the ball around in the strike zone, he had really good command, didn't walk people and I thought that was the key to it. They played a good solid game of defense as well. And, they got the timely hit with two outs to drive in the go ahead run. We had a couple of base runners in scoring position that didn't score, and that was pretty much the game. There wasn't much to the game because of the way he dominated on the mound for them, and our pitchers did a good job as well.
On what he says to freshman Zane Gurwitz who struggled tonight: It can happen to anybody, the errors were kind of decision errors to begin with. Which, took his feet out of position to make the throws. On the first one, he had the runner caught between second and third and he looked at him and saw him, and his feet were kind of set up to go to first. So, he made a decision to follow his feet and throw to first and question whether he made the right decision in an instant, and it became a throwing error. On the bunt play he had problems with, his momentum was going towards home plate and he threw across his body. And, the pitcher was a part of that play as well. So, I think the confusion, and the quick decisions that he needed to make there, his feet weren't in line with his brain necessarily.
On Tres Barrera limping tonight after an at bat: He had a cramp. So, it is just hydrating and getting it rubbed out. It wasn't anything serious, it wasn't a pull or anything like that.
On the pitching plan for tomorrow: We don't have one yet. We're going to look at that. We've got some names, but TBA is on the mound right now … He throws with both hands.
On if the crowd seemed more laid back than when the teams met on Friday: I think a lot of that is based on success. The crowd gets the momentum from success, and you get excited from success. And, there wasn't a lot of success. There really wasn't a lot of success.
On the mindset tomorrow: I think we are a different team as a result of what we went through in the Big 12. I think when we talked in the dugout after the game my comments were focused on, "hey, we got off of our game," like Mark said. We wanted to win, we got result orientated. And for the last period of time, we have been focused on the process and doing a good job of staying with it. I think we got excited about winning and wanted to win. Our reactions to the first two runs, You had think we had won the national championship, you know. I think we were just so excited about winning that we got out of the process.
On what pitchers will not pitch tomorrow: Well, we all know Peters is out. Thornhill is out, he threw [117] pitches on Friday. We'll see how everyone feels, take their temperature tomorrow and see how they feel. You know, with my comment that I made … I think their pitcher, I don't want to say anything that takes away from the success of his performance. That was just a remarkable performance. So, anything we may be saying, about maybe we were a little out of character or something, but maybe he was the reason we were out of character too. Because, he pitched a great college baseball game at a time where they really needed it. If he had started walking people … he kept the momentum going for them.
On Ben Johnson competing in that final at bat: I think he showed the character of the entire team in that at bat. If we had competed from beginning to end like he did in that last at bat, it might had been a different story. But, I still don't want to say anything to take away from what their pitcher did.
Senior outfielder Mark Payton
On what he is gonna tell the team before the game tomorrow: Just get back to playing Texas baseball, we kind of got out of character today a little bit. We obviously didn't play our style of baseball, didn't play our best game. So we have got to come back and play relaxed. I kind of felt like we were playing to win instead of playing against the ball I felt like. We were really uptight when we went down a little bit. That comes with a little inexperience, with this team being so young, but we will get it figured out for tomorrow.
On what the opposing pitcher did to keep them off balance: He had tremendous command tonight, and he mixed his breaking ball in. It was kind of the opposite from last night where Fox was working breaking ball then mix in a fastball, [Stubblefield] was really locating his fastball then would mix in a breaking ball when you weren't expecting it. He had some run on his ball tonight which made him pretty fought. He is a good pitcher.
On if the crowd seemed more laid back than when the teams met on Friday: You just have to be focused on the baseball. You can't be worried about what the crowd is saying or whatever. Obviously, the ball just didn't bounce in our direction tonight.
On what he takes away from the similar position this team was in in the Big 12 Tournament: They are going to give us their best game. Coming out of the loser's bracket they have nothing to lose. They played nice and loose. We have to come out and do the same thing, play loose. Like I said we were uptight and hoping to do something, or expecting to do something instead of seeing the ball and staying with the process, like coach talked about all the time.
Sophomore pitcher Travis Duke
On why he fared worse against left handed hitters tonight: No, I didn't feel like I had too big of problems. I lost my focus a couple of times when I shouldn't have. I should have stayed more focused. But other than that, I feel like I hit my spots pretty well, and the spots I missed weren't too damaging.
On if this team is built for a game like tomorrow: This team is definitely built for this situation. We got out of our comfort zone a little bit today and we tried to do too much. Once we stay in the process, remain ourselves and play as a team, we are built perfectly for this kind of situation.
