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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 14, 2014Augie GarridoMark PaytonNathan ThornhillOMAHA, NEBRASKA UC Irvine – 3 AUGIE GARRIDO: That's the true mark of a champion. He was even better in those situations. He got ahead on hitters, he used his breaking ball and fastball counts. He hit the outside half are the part of the plate. He located better than he did until he got the runners in scoring position. Just think about the pitches that he made. I think he had a lot to do with that. Sometimes we have a tendency, especially when you leave a lot of runners on base, to overlook the quality of why you left the runners on base, and I'm not so sure he didn't have more to do with it than we did. Q. Nathan, you really weren't hit hard at all until that one inning and you had two in a row. Were you getting tired at that point? NATHAN THORNHILL: I wasn't really‑‑ normal tiredness for the game, but we've been conditioned to do that. I wouldn't say I was tired. The first hitter turned on a fastball inside, then I hit my spot, then the next guy was probably their best hitter and he hit a cutter that was down, and he just sat on it, and great hit. Q. Augie, did you have any trepidation about making the switch on the mound when you did? AUGIE GARRIDO: No, I thought Nate had done a really good job up to that point in time, and the reason he went back out, if you think back to the seventh inning, he really sailed through the seventh inning, had a minimum number of pitches, got three straight outs, looked dominating at that point, and he's finished a 1‑0 game for us before, so we had confidence in that. Q. Mark, I know you care more about team victories, but the streak came to an end today. Your thoughts on that? MARK PAYTON: So what? We lost. It's something I didn't pay attention to. I think a lot of other people paid a lot more attention to it than I did. We lost today, so that's the end of it. Q. Augie, not to pick on one person's at‑bat, but Barrera's strikeout in the first, after watching several guys, two walks, and he was clearly shaky out there on the mound, were you surprised he went out there and was aggressive and swinging for the fences? AUGIE GARRIDO: Well, I don't know that he was swinging at the fences. He struck out swinging. He struck out a lot of times before. Q. Did you feel other guys were pressing out there, trying to‑‑ AUGIE GARRIDO: I didn't have a feel that they were pressing. I see what you're talking about in him. It could appear that way for sure. I didn't have that feeling, and I thought he would do it. He's been very reliable in those situations. I thought he'd get it done. That's why we bunted in the first place, and I wanted to show the team that we have confidence in everyone in the lineup. But the only reason I could do that was because I do have confidence in everyone in the lineup. Q. Augie, after the triple, you guys huddled, UCI huddled. How surprised were you that they didn't try to squeeze there? AUGIE GARRIDO: I'm surprised they didn't try to squeeze there because that would have been even more momentum that they took the risk to do what they‑‑ they just executed so well in that inning consistently, but I was surprised they didn't squeeze. But we were doing some things to help them understand we knew they might. Q. Both to Nathan and Mark, this same position you guys found yourselves in when you came here in '11. Talk about what you see in this team that might make things different when you come out on Monday? NATHAN THORNHILL: You know, this team has a lot of fight in it. We've seen that all year long, and you know, this is not the position we want to be in, but I don't think we're going to feel sorry for ourselves. We're going to try to find a way to dig out of it. We've got a lot of fight in us. MARK PAYTON: Yeah, same thing. I think we've actually came back stronger after our tough losses, so that's just been the attitude and the mantra of this team since day one, and I think that's what we're going to do again. AUGIE GARRIDO: Remember in '79 when Fullerton lost the first game in the double elimination? I said they were going to win? Somebody said, hey, it's only been done five times. Now it's been done six since '79. So we've got a chance, we've got the right attitude, we've got the right group of guys. Irvine played a really good game, and our hats are off to them. But I have confidence that we'll come back with the fight that Mark is talking about, Collin is talking about and Nate is talking about. This is a strong brotherhood. I think you'll see it. We have an opportunity now. Q. Augie, is that a prediction? AUGIE GARRIDO: Let me see. (Rubs water bottle.) I don't know. Call it whatever you want. You're going to anyway. Q. Mark, on your second inning at‑bat, if you could talk us through that at‑bat and your comeback to the mound and how good a pitcher you thought Morales was today. NATHAN THORNHILL: Obviously he's a real good pitcher are. He's a first round draft pick for a reason. He executed, he pitched backwards. He fell down 2‑0 on fastballs and then threw two sliders back to back, which not many pitchers will do, especially early in the game. They just want to get the outs as fast as they can, hit an inside fastball, but he's a first rounder for a reason. He pitched a great game, and that's about it. I mean, he threw the ball well today. Q. Nathan and Augie, what kind of a different dynamic does it present when their lead‑off hitter is also their best power hitter? NATHAN THORNHILL: To be honest with you I didn't really read the scouting report too much. I usually let Skip do that and him and Trace work together. I like to go out there and just pitch and trust their pitch calling. For me it's all about hitting my spot that's called, and if I execute that, it usually works out okay. AUGIE GARRIDO: I think that you're talking about an outstanding player, and we've played against a lot of them in our conference this year, not to take anything away from him, but we've had to hold runners, which we did with him, and we've had to pitch really well against him because we had to do that so many times during the year. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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