March 28, 2009

Recap | Box Score

Coach Steve Smith

On Logan Verrett being the ace of the staff so far

"He has done a good job. I don't know if he has earned the title of ace yet. We got a pretty good guy on Fridays as well. He has done a great job. He got us through six innings tonight. He came out with the lead, but the guy that followed him (Aaron Miller) was every bit as important."

On the game

"This game was every bit as close as the score. It is as close as one pitch away in the eighth inning from being nobody out and runners at first and second and next thing you know it's two outs and nobody on. You know a 3-1 count double play ball. That probably was as big a play in the game as there was."

On the inability of Baylor's hitters to get hits

"The wind has been blowing in, so that has a lot to do with it. Their pitching has a lot to do with it. I really think our offense has been pretty good, considering those two factors. You are not just going to come out here at this level of the game and just wear it out everyday. This is ain't high school anymore. That wind is like having two or three extra players out there. The outfielders are all playing in. I mean was there a single extra base hit tonight? Shaver (Hansen) hit one down the line, but it is just a pitcher's park right now. That would be my answer to that question."

On Baylor being aggressive tonight

"I think the one mistake they made on the bunt wound up being pretty big. It was a lot of pressure on them. (Brooks) Pinckard can really go and they threw it away and it opened the door for us. We had a couple of other opportunities where we could have played the game a little differently. We could have moved a runner and didn't. I let him (Pinckard) hit and run with a guy at first base and nobody out. They throw a fastball and he can't get on top of it, so it winds up being a fly out. You know if we lose this game, I go home tonight not questioning our hitters, but questioning me on some of those decisions. Those kinds of things in a close game like this can come back and bite you. I was just glad to see our pitchers particularly Miller be able to answer the bell, where I am going to go home and sleep good."

On the makeup of his team

"We have power. The one thing that this offense has is some pop. There is a bunch of pop, but when that wind is blowing in it really negates a lot of that. I would either like it (the flag) hanging straight down or blowing a little out. I think it works against us big time when it's (windy). Even though we can handle the short game a little bit, it is not our forte. I didn't bunt it with Miller there and probably should have. I mean left on left, but he has been hitting the ball pretty good and you don't want to bunt a guy who might hit it in that river out there. They got through us pretty good. Their guys threw pretty well."

Freshman Logan Verrett

On his pitching performance tonight

"I just felt, like I had to leave a lot up to my defense, because they are good hitters right there. They are very disciplined. They did not chase a lot of pitches. With the wind blowing in like that, it is going to hang up a lot of fly balls and my outfield be able to run most of them down, so I just left a lot up to my defense."

On the importance of bouncing back from a loss yesterday

"Yesterday we didn't feel like we had much energy out here. We were just kind of going through the motions and it is always tough when it is cold and the wind is blowing hard like that. We came today ready to play. We were ready to get a win, because we definitely feel we are the better team out of the two and we definitely need to win this series if we are going to compete in the Big 12. We came with a lot of energy to the park today and I felt that we used that to our advantage."

On battling on the mound tonight

"Like I said, they are very disciplined hitters and I didn't feel like I had my best stuff working for me today, but I knew I could count on my defense. They are great players out there, so like I said, with the wind blowing in like that it is going to hang-up a lot of fly balls, so I relied on my outfield for those. Then the ground balls, I know my infield are going to make."

On his success in Big 12 play

"I have the mindset that I am going to go out there and win the ball game. I think my teammates get pretty up when I am on the mound and they will back me up. I feel pretty relaxed after two wins in the Big 12 like that my first two starts. I am really coming into my own and I feel like I am going to be able to get us some good outings."

Junior Aaron Miller

On his three inning save

"I'll take it. I will take whatever I can get. Last time I threw, I think was Friday and I had a little groin strain Saturday and Sunday, so I really haven't been able to get on top of the mound since then. (I) didn't really feel that great out there, but we were able to pull it out."

On what he did right tonight on the mound

"I just got to throw strikes. It's a continual process to keep on throwing strikes, keep on attacking the strike zone. The pitch thing, I am still kind of on the curve, trying to get into the regular groove of everything. I just got to continue to pound the zone and see what happens."

On being frustrated with the team's inability to hit

"Yeah, especially coming off the TCU game where we swung the bats really well. That is about the best we swung the bats in a long time. I mean we have really been swinging the bats well the past couple of weeks. So coming in we didn't do well at all. I mean their ace, you got to give it to him, he threw well. Didn't do really well there. I mean today we kind of struggled just to get the ball out of the air on the ground, so we just got to come out and work on that tomorrow. It is going to be a good day and we just got to out hit them."