Postgame Quotes
5/3/2008 12:00:00โฏAM | Baseball
May 3, 2008
Baylor head coach Steve Smith:
On Shawn Tolleson's performance:
"He pitched himself into some trouble with the walks in the first, but he got out of it, and he had one more inning where they got (runners on) first and second, and he got out of that. He got better as the game went along, and I took him out about as far as I could take him. That was probably the biggest out he got - the very last one. It's a 3-2 count, they've got a guy with some pop in his bat, and he got the flyball. A base on balls there or a hit there and we'd be playing second-guess."
On the offensive output:
"We didn't strike out today at all, and that might be a first; I don't ever remember that. The guys put it in play, and we'll see what we've got left tomorrow. I liked a lot of what we saw today, and we'll see if we can duplicate it."
On scoring six runs in the final three innings:
"That ball that (Adam) Hornung hit was absolutely smoked. There were a couple of other balls that were hit pretty well earlier in the game. We benefitted from some things and got some two-out hits, and that's the way you win games. You get up there and compete and put the ball in play, and then you've got a decent chance of something happening."
Baylor freshman RHP Shawn Tolleson:
On his performance:
"It was good to get back out there and put up some extended innings and have a good game. I had a little trouble with my control and I couldn't really locate the fastball where I wanted to in the first few innings. I was just trying to throw strikes in there, and our defense was making plays behind me so I was just relying on them."
On bouncing back from a rough outing last weekend:
"It's tough, but I know that I have the capability to go out and have a good game, so it's just a matter of working hard during the week, throwing bullpens, and figuring out what I'm doing wrong."
On coming back from losing Friday's game:
"It was definitely huge for me to go out and give my team a good chance to win today. We need to win out the rest of our games."
On if he started to wonder if the offense would score any runs after six shutout innings:
"I knew they would. We did really well not striking out one time today, and our hitters were really up there focused. They were having good at bats, so I knew they'd get it done later in the game."
Baylor junior LF Ben Booker:
On snapping Texas' 11-game winning streak against the Bears:
"We finally beat these guys. It took three years, and there's no better feeling right now."
On coming back to win today after losing Friday night:
"There was a little soul-searching done in the locker room. We stayed after for a little while, and we got it handed to us by the coaches. We talked about it, and that's the good thing about baseball - you can come out one day and get slaughtered and the next day come back and show what kind of team you are. We did that pretty well today."
On Shawn Tolleson's performance:
"Shawn threw a beauty. He didn't have his best stuff, but he competed well.
On the offense scoring six runs in the final three innings:
"After five or six innings (with no runs) I started thinking, `there's no way this is going to happen.' Then Adam (Hornung) stepped up and hit one 430 feet into the wind, and I think it sparked the ballclub."
On his seventh-inning, two-run home run:
"I was getting beat by fastballs all day, and I was thinking that I can't get beat by another fastball. They threw a middle-in fastball and I was sitting on it. I was trying to blow it and make it stay fair because I thought it was going to hook. Thank God it stayed fair. It was a good day for us altogether. It was a well-played game on both sides, and I'm really glad we got the win. It starts here and we've just got to play the best we can."
On trying to win the series Sunday:
"If we get this next win we'll have the tie-breaker over them, and that's a pretty big thing. I don't know who we're going to start tomorrow, but I'm sure they'll get the job done. Today was the spark the team needed."
Baylor junior 1B Adam Hornung:
On breaking a scoreless tie with his solo homer in the seventh inning:
"It definitely didn't go 430 feet. I think it might've scraped the back of the wall on the way down. I hit it well, and I thought it had a chance, but with the wind blowing today I didn't know if it would be off the wall. I was glad it went over and got us going."
On trying to win the series Sunday:
"This was a big game for us. We've had to adopt a do-or-die attitude from here on out, so to win the first one was a good start."
On bouncing back from a tough loss Friday night:
"Last night was a tough loss. All aspects of the game were not good, and for us to come back today and hold them to one run while putting up six was big."
