Texas Tech University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
March 27, 2010 | Baseball
March 27, 2010
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Texas Tech Head Coach Dan Spencer
On his team's performance tonight:
"We had a number of opportunities to score more runs than the three we got. We'll take that again tomorrow. If we can get those kind of runners, we're going to score some runs. We had the right guys up; we had guys that we wanted to hit in those situations. I thought we even got some balls to hit and just didn't hit them. That's baseball. We made a lot of good pitches, but the ones we missed, they hit and hit hard. That's baseball. I felt good about the fact that once we got behind we stayed in the game long enough to force them to put their closer out there and extend him a little bit. That's good because now we've seen him. We need to do a better job of scoring men in scoring position. That was the difference in us getting three and them getting eight. Their guys pitched around some jams, they are veteran guys. Their starter, (Cole) Green, he's a very competitive kid and he made an adjustment after the first inning and went to some secondary stuff. He kept us off balance. He just pitched out of jams and looked like a veteran, a quality guy. We'll show up tomorrow."
On pitcher Bobby Doran's performance tonight:
"He wasn't as sharp. I thought his stuff was good. First of all, he had a hard time getting the ball into right-handers especially when they were making box adjustments. He couldn't make the adjustment enough to get it in consistently. When he did, he got outs. When he didn't, he missed it over the plate and they hit the ball hard. That's part of the learning process. It's a different deal. I would hope four or five starts into it, he would have that mastered because that's been an occurrence with him before but he's a young Division-I guy. He gave us a chance. He gave us six solid innings and kept us around. Brett (Bruening) did the same. He made a lot of good pitches and the ones he didn't, they hit-the home run and the double. We'll make more pitches, hit some balls hard and put some men in scoring position."
On the turning point in the game-the third inning:
"We had an inning set up to get at least two (runs). We had two in scoring position with one out. We had four and five holes up, in the middle of our order and we didn't go. You don't like to necessarily bunt in this ballpark but to get two, I'll bunt. To get two and to get back in it, in the middle of the order, yeah. It just didn't turn out for us. They made some pitches that we made last night when they had men on third. We just didn't capitalize on some of our opportunities."
On who will start Sunday's game:
"We're thinking about it (starting Chad Bettis). We'll know for sure, obviously in the morning, but we'll talk about it tonight. If not it would be Colt Farrar, I would assume."
"I feel good about either one of them. I feel good about having those guys rested. The only thing about Colt (Farrar) is the fact he hasn't started and us just saying, `hey go ahead, you have a tie-breaker game three against the Longhorns. Go ahead and make your first start.' He's been used in smaller roles so far. That'd be the strike against him plus he's been very effective out of the bullpen."
On Chad Bettis' ability to go five or six innings after pitching in relief Friday night:
"We'd keep an eye on the pitches. He's a guy that throws a lot. He would've been in the bullpen last night had he not been in the game anyways. It's not an issue and not something he hasn't done. We're going to get a good start whoever it is. Whack `em."
Texas Head Coach Augie Garrido
On his team performance tonight:
"Most competitive game of the year for us offensively. I think that as a result of last night, the team responded and had the `eye of the tiger'. They really battled hard on offense. And I was really pleased with our attitude and our competitiveness."
On pitcher Cole Green's performance:
"He really pitched well. You know this is a team that really puts the ball in play and really battles you. I felt good that he never lost his composure, his aggressiveness, or his focus on the met. He pitched his game."
"He really pounded the zone. He and Coach (Skip) Johnson have been working pretty hard on different routines that would get him focused right from the get-go. I think it took a lot of pressure off of him when his team rallied back and put some hits on the board and he came out and got a zero and then put another run on the board and we continued. We had a bit of a killer instinct tonight because we kept scoring hits all the way through. If we would have left it at three that last inning would have had a little different pressure involved. But we did a nice job to separate from the offensive side till we got ahead."
On the amount of base hits compared to the game Friday night:
"Tonight was our best game from the competitive standpoint at the plate. I thought we had a different level of determination and a different level of `eye of the tiger' tonight. I've trusted this team and have continued to trust their capability and their character. I think tonight was another step forward in overcoming a really difficult night last night and then coming out and making a better appearance tonight. That's what you want your teams to do, get better from the loss and the problems."
On his team's ability to hit with two strikes tonight:
"Well, you have to experience different things before you really understand how to handle them and I think last night's defeat led us to an experience of cutting down our swings, being more competitive at the plate, making better choices in our pitch selection and still not losing our aggressiveness. Of course, it helped to have Cole Green pitching the way he pitched and Chance Ruffin coming in and closing it out. Just a good experience of bouncing back from a difficult night and getting better as a result of it."
