|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIESJune 20, 2011Augie GarridoCole GreenBrandon LoyOMAHA, NEBRASKA North Carolina - 3 University of Texas - 0 COACH GARRIDO: It is not good to be the first interview the first two times of the tournament. That's what we are. About the game: It was a brilliantly pitched game by their pitcher. He was terrific. He got three pitches over. He used them in different count spots where he would lead guys off of changeups. He'd lead guys off with breaking balls. He'd lead guys off with fastballs and he had command throughout the game from beginning to end. We had the four hits. We had a couple of opportunities, but they were limited. And in two of them they got the double-plays. We talked to the players about being aggressive. Both were judgment plays in which they were being aggressive, and it ended up being the wrong decision because of their athleticism. So that's how that all occurred. Best we could have done was tie with no runs, and that's what their pitcher gave them and their defense gave them. We didn't have very many opportunities throughout the game. I do feel we battled hard at the plate and we competed in the game as was exemplified by the number of at-bats where we fouled off multiple pitches. So I don't think it was something where he was so overpowering or so overwhelming that we were mis-swinging or confused or lacked confidence or weren't aggressive enough or doubted ourselves. I didn't get that out of this game. But we did get outplayed twice. That really is bottom line. Everybody can -- all of us saw the same game, so we can all take our own point of view as to what was the margin of difference. But I, for one, am proud of the leadership on this team, and I'm not just throwing that around. They took a team that was pretty scattered at the beginning of the year and pulled it together and kept it functioning like one, so that we had the opportunity to come here. They deserve to be proud of themselves, in my opinion, for being able to be that unselfish and that influential and do what needed to be done to be right to get here in the first place. You didn't see us overwhelm anybody with physical talent. It was about attitude and it was about their spirit. I think they also brought along with them 11 freshmen on this team, five of which played key roles in the games that we played. My feelings about that is in being here a few times, that until you've been here, it's harder to play here. With 11 freshmen coming back who have the right attitude, the right talent, and the right skill, the leaders of this team have given them an introduction to the College World Series as we now know it in the new ballpark, which is absolutely beautiful and a wonderful place to be playing. It embraces everybody by the way it's laid out, and it connects everyone in the ballpark to what's going on on the field and what's going on in the stands and what's going on. It has a great, positive energy. So it will take time to build a tradition, but it's a statement that college baseball is alive and continues to grow. THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Brandon, can you discuss Kent Emanuel and his ability to get the right spots and have command all day and how he frustrated you all? BRANDON LOY: He's exactly what Coach said. He mixed pitches early in counts and kind of had us on our heels the entire game. Like I said, anything overpowering. He hit spots and he could throw three pitches for strikes and where he wanted to throw it. That makes it tough on hitters. So we tip our cap to him. We fought throughout the game, he just made it tough on us. COACH GARRIDO: Q. Cole, you had a rough start. Were you just getting pitches up or leaving the ball up or what? COLE GREEN: Yeah, I think I was leaving the ball up early in the game. Just excited, the nerves were going. They were a good team. Any time I made a mistake, they took advantage of it. They put the ball in play, and they saw it well. So got to tip our hats to them, but we were just trying to compete. Q. How much has the game changed this year with the difference in the bats? COACH GARRIDO: It's a dramatic difference in the way the game has changed offensively and I guess defensively too. It's made a significant difference, but the good thing about it, for sure, is it's balanced for both teams. And the two teams that played in our bracket that beat us, both won the games. It wasn't about the bat. It was about their teams and their team work, and their ability to play baseball. The game of baseball is alive and well with this bat, is my opinion. Q. You like it then? COACH GARRIDO: I know it doesn't matter what I like. Q. Cole, would you respond? COLE GREEN: Yeah, I mean, it brings you back to fundamental baseball and a more complete offense in my opinion. It's something that you try to get a leadoff guy on, bunt him over and get productive outs and move runners over rather than just relying on the home run. BRANDON LOY: For us, it didn't affect us much. We're still going to bunt and play Texas baseball. But I wouldn't say we have a bunch of home run hitters on this team anyways. So for us, we just stuck to our game plan and what we were going to do anyways coming into the year. It probably would have affected the team we had last year because we had a bunch of power guys, but this year it didn't affect us much at all. Q. Augie, talk about the aggressive plays that didn't work on the bases and then there was an error in the outfield. Is that the kind of stuff with your style in low scoring games that you just can't have? COACH GARRIDO: Yeah, when you convert -- when you have two double-plays from the outfield, it's a little bit unusual. I gave the reason why it happened without blame. Someone can take a different point of view anywhere from it was stupid to anyway you want to look at it. But the truth about it was they were being aggressive, they got a read, and their athleticism got them to the ball and the runner didn't think they were going to get there. In hindsight, it doesn't look very good, but in reality, the player has the right to read the ball and read the play. Then, if they do make a mistake, then we all have a chance to overcome it. The best we could have done today against that pitcher is tied for some more innings unless we scored somewhere along the line. I don't think that stood in the way of on our scoring because we only had four hits. You know, the number of opportunities that they had to score, and the number of innings our pitchers had to fight their way out of it is what I'm proud about. They created opportunities for themselves over and over and over again, and the players battled out of it. That is something to be proud of. I know we lost the game, but still it's the truth about this game. The first game was different. We helped their offense more than we normally do, so it was a below-average game against an above-average team. Yeah, we contributed a lot to that game's win. But Florida still had to capitalize on their opportunities and they did. I think those two teams are going to battle it out to get out of this bracket and move on. I think Vanderbilt and Florida and this team are all really well structured teams along with South Carolina, and I think that's -- and somebody could break through and get the momentum like Fresno State a few years ago, because anything can happen. That's the beauty of it all. It could have happened for us, but it didn't. We never got the momentum, never. Q. Brandon, what are you guys feeling right now? Is it disappointment, frustration? Just take me through your emotions. BRANDON LOY: Obviously, we're disappointed. We didn't come here to be the first team to leave. You're never going to be satisfied, I don't think, unless you come out here with a National Championship. I mean, we fought through so much stuff, so we don't want to take that away from our team. We've fought through the past couple weeks with our backs against the wall. We did some amazing things with this team. It's tough to leave now. We obviously want a National Championship really bad, especially for seniors like Cole and people that don't get to play here anymore. It's tough to look at it that way. But we fought through some hard times and did some great things this year when people probably didn't think we could get out of our regional. We lose the first game against Arizona State, so what we've done and what we've fought through is kind of the stuff that I'm thinking about right now personally. But it's definitely tough that we didn't walk out of here with a National Championship. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|