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NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 20, 2014Augie GarridoBrooks MarlowMark PaytonNathan ThornhillOMAHA, NEBRASKA TEXAS – 4 AUGIE GARRIDO: Obviously the game was dominated by Nathan on the defensive side of it with good support from his teammates. We showed good patience early in the game and didn't‑‑ we took our walks that we needed to take. We'd have liked to have had more out of that rally, but glad to have the two. And then to get the two in the second inning really helped a lot, as well. From there on, it was pitching and defense, and we executed. Q. Nate, were you as surprised as we were early on, Vanderbilt just weren't swinging at pitches that were right there, and that seemed to be maybe part of their strategy was eat up pitches for you. NATHAN THORNHILL: I wasn't too surprised. They're good hitters. They're probably looking for their pitch because they are good hitters. I mean, if they're going to take them I'm going to try to get ahead and throw my pitches, and that's what happened today. Q. Augie, you said after that first loss that this team had what it took to come back through the loser's bracket and to do something special, and they've done that now to this point anyway. What did you see in this team that you knew this could happen? AUGIE GARRIDO: What they did early in the year was overcome all the adversities that they faced, but they never really faced serious adversities. It would be a one‑game or a two‑game loss and then they would turn it around and play better, and they continued to get better to a point at which we moved up to sixth in the nation, and we were off to a good start halfway through the league. And then like baseball treats everyone, it turned around on us for no apparent reason. We got outplayed by TCU and Oklahoma State, and we went 2‑7, and I think the bitter defeats that we went through in our highly competitive league helped them realize that we had to elevate the execution of our game both offensively and defensively to get to where we wanted to go. We weren't good enough yet, and we started trying to get better whether we won a game or lost a game. The goal was to get better every day, and they've stayed with that. Then they took over the ownership of the team. They are motivating and inspiring each other. It's no longer the coach's job to tell them what's right. It's the coach's job just to keep them balanced a little bit. But it's about teamwork. Q. Augie, along the road Nathan has stepped up for you guys every step of the way. Dissect his performance from your perspective today. AUGIE GARRIDO: I thought it was a dominating performance, and I do think they were trying to run his pitch count up because of the heat and trying to get him out of the game. I think that was an accurate observation. Both Skip and I thought the same thing and passed on the information to Nate, and he has the kind of command where he can capitalize on something like that. Anyway, that part of it is‑‑ going back to‑‑ I got lost on that one. Q. Just Thornhill stepping up. AUGIE GARRIDO: Well, this is who he is. I mean, this is why he came back, and this is who he is. He doesn't lead by telling other people what to do. He leads by doing it himself. He leads by example. He has a very fine skill set. He was a quarterback in high school, he's used to leadership, and he's committed. He's committed to the University, he's committed to the baseball program, he's committed to Austin, Texas, he's all in, man, and he's a first‑class citizen in every sense of the word. That's how he leads. And that's what has helped Hollingsworth and every other pitcher that walks out there. No question about his influence, and Mark has done the same thing. Q. Augie, four runs is kind of a weak supply of runs here. Can you explain the offensive explosion getting that many runs? AUGIE GARRIDO: Well, it was a combination of offense and defense. They made some contributions to it, and they had some really tough plays. Those two plays in the outfield, the balls were both sinking. They got on top of them, and they weren't as easy or routine as some people might think because of that. But it happened. It happened, and then we were able to capitalize on it and score the runs. Four runs is our limit. (Laughter.) Can't leave it all on the base paths. Q. Mark and Brooks, can you both speak to the comfort level and how it's increased in your dugout as this tournament has gone on? It seems to be something that coach Garrido's teams have shown in the past. Is there something in your explanation for why that might be with this group? MARK PAYTON: I think it's just the confidence level we have in each other on the offensive side knowing the guy behind you is going to get the job done, and that's our job is just to pass the bat back to the next guy, and on the defensive side it's just playing loose and the pitches that are thrown to the mitt, letting the defense work and throw strikes. That keeps the defense in the game and allows you to make plays. BROOKS MARLOW: I'd probably say in the mindset of the team, we've got that mind that it's either win or you go home. I think that's what everybody is taking in after that first game against Irvine, and everybody is just like we're here now, and if you lose you go home, and I think that's the mindset everybody is taking in. Q. Mark, when you see that line drive C.J. hits in the first, hit the umpire, sometimes funny things happen in baseball and you're like, this is going to be our day. Was that the mindset in the dugout after seeing that? MARK PAYTON: We knew we needed to score more runs. They're a great offensive ballclub. They put up a bunch of runs in game. Obviously that ball went in our favor, and the rule is the rule. But we needed to get more runs after that. It got us out to an early lead, which we always like, and that's our goal on the offensive side, to let the pitcher settle down, and we were able to do that today. Q. Brooks, first can you talk about taking I think it was a 95 mile‑an‑hour pitch to open the game? Talk about that. And then secondly, what was the mood in the first, he's kind of all over the place, they started pressing pretty fast it looked like. Just the importance of staying calm, working your at‑bats and all those things. BROOKS MARLOW: Well, I guess the first at‑bat, the first pitch and he squares me up and kind of got him rattled a little bit, and we've just got to stay with our plan after that, kind of set the tone. When you see kind of a pitcher getting wild like that you can't start chasing. You've got to let him come to you and compete against the baseball, not the pitcher. I think we did a good job of that early in the game and not just pressing and trying to get hits and just letting the game play itself. Q. Augie, you've seen Vanderbilt's aces. They've got them ready to go. How good are they? How can you battle them? AUGIE GARRIDO: They're very good. They're very good pitchers. But this game at the college level and in my mind the bigger the game, the more momentum determines the results, and if some things happen‑‑ I must really smell bad. This fly is all over me. (Laughter.) Anyway, my next comment was even worse. It's really important, but momentum plays a big key. We've had pitchers come in here with 15 wins and no losses, and boy, we've got it nailed down now and the guy throws the ball all over the place because it's the championship game, and that's what makes Nate's performance today so remarkable and Hollingsworth is it's pitch or go home. But they're very good. We'll have to try to take him out of his game by balancing out patience on the balls outside the strike zone and still be aggressive enough to hit them when they come into the strike zone. The best thing to turn around a pitcher's confidence are about three or four line drives off pitches he thinks are good pitches. Then they start to try to do too much sometimes. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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