March 15, 2009

Recap | Box Score

Head coach Steve Smith

On Aaron Miller:

"I think they did a good job with Aaron (Miller) early in the game getting his pitch count up. He was at 90 pitches in the fifth inning, but he competed. We knew that if we could have gotten the same type of fire out of the guys that followed him we would have been in this game. We were outcompeted when Aaron was out of the game."

On the pitching over the weekend:

"It is always frustrating to see guys who are capable on the mound just not be able to perform and get out of character. That is the way the game is. Give (Alex) Wilson credit because we got after him early. He had not allowed a homerun this year and he gave up a couple so it was a day in which he had a choice to (get out of character). He could have folded his tent and he didn't. He was able to get them to the seventh inning and that was the key. Wilson was able to get enough outs without running up his pitch-count and then they just outperformed us when they got into the bullpen."

On the importance of pitching:

"It is very important particularly after coming here and just not pitching well. You need someone to go out there and control the game if you want to be successful and we haven't. We have not controlled the game on the mound here. (Texas A&M) really has not done a whole lot offensively in terms of swinging the bat with late today being a bit of an exception. When the game was still a game they weren't doing it with the bat; we were walking and hitting them nine times. Yesterday was much the same. We need to do a better job of controlling the game on the mound."

LHP/DH Aaron Miller

On his performance:

"As a starter I really let my team down only going four innings. I think that is a huge part in what happened today. I just threw way too many pitches and not enough strikes. As one of your main starters you have to have six or seven innings out of your guys. I just really let the team down today by not throwing enough strikes and didn't eat up enough innings. I went deep in too many counts. I was up to around 80 or 90 pitches by the fourth inning and that is just inexcusable. I couldn't really throw my off-speed stuff for strikes and that is something that we are continually working on I have to be better in big situations like this."

On tomorrow's game:

"We are playing well and we are swinging the bats well but we are really just out of character on the mound. Of course tomorrow is a big game because nobody wants to get swept. We just have to come out and fight. We have Shawn (Tolleson) starting and Logan (Verrett) still in the pen so we have ammunition on the mound."

3B Shaver Hansen

On the weekend:

"We just have to figure out a way to win. I know this team is different than last year and we are going to figure it out. In conference play we need to be able to get the outs that we need to, cut down on the free bases and cut down on our strikeouts. That is as simple as it gets."

On his homerun:

"We knew (Alex) Wilson had a good arm. We were told that he was going to come right at us so I was going to come right at him and was ready to swing if he threw that fastball and he did. I took a swing at one and missed but I thought I had a good look at it. The next one he left it too far over the plate and I hit it."

On the importance of Monday night's game:

"I think it is more important for our character to see how we come back and play. To lose a game like this and not compete like we should, we need to come out and redefine who we are."