March 16, 2009

Head Coach Steve Smith

On Logan Verrett's ninth-inning:
"The thing that was amazing to me is that he did not throw a lot of pitches. In the ninth inning when they scored three runs, it only took nine pitches. That is unbelievable and I didn't think that could happen. Give (Texas A&M) credit as they decided all of the sudden to swing and not get deep into counts. When (Verrett) got two strikes on them he was striking them out so they just got up there and swung. He only threw 70 pitches or so for the entire time he was out there. That was the key."

On the Brooks Pinckard:
"There are so many ironies in this game. You don't let Pinckard hit in that bases loaded situation, but I needed him to pitch. He was the next guy behind Logan so I didn't want to take him out of the game. Low and behold he hits the ball out of the park. That is one of the cool things about baseball; a lot of interesting things happened tonight."

On the tonight's pitching:
"Both sides pitched out of some really tough spots tonight. Logan was able to get out of jams, especially striking out Parsons/ He made some big time pitches. It is almost like he reached back and had a little more in the tank. He bumped his velocity up a bit and made a few pitches."

On the Aggies last at-bat:
"The guy on their team that I don't like to see up at the plate in that type of situation is (Brooks) Raley. He is just a tough guy. (Verrett) got him out on a ground ball to second and you have to make pitches in order to do that."

On Texas A&M:
"They did not make any mistakes. Their three starters, in terms of ability, remind me of the three starters that we faced last year when we went to Missouri and had eight hits in three days. When you think about it like that we did a pretty good job with the bats against them. They didn't hurt themselves and there weren't a lot of missed plays. The few things that we did wrong, it all happened on the mound."

On Landis Ware's walk-off single:
"I like Landis up there because he is not a fly ball guy. They had everybody in the infield and I am thinking, `don't hit a line drive right at somebody'. He hit it hard on the ground, just not at somebody. I like the way the game ended. We would have taken ball four, but I like the way the game ended. You have to make your own breaks and I think that is what happened right there."

2B Landis Ware

On the walk-off hit:
"(My mindset) was to put the ball into play so that we could get a run. It was not necessarily getting the ball in the air; it was just putting the ball in play hard. Luckily it snuck through there and got us a win."

On the performance from Logan Verrett:
"The game was real up and down. Logan was out there and he has been lights out all year as he was tonight. He held (Texas A&M) enough and we finished it out there."

On the team's confidence in one-run games:
"We are playing with a lot of confidence. We feel like we are as good as anybody else in the late innings and that we have a better chance to when then they do, so it really helps us out a lot."

On the importance of avoiding the sweep:
"It was definitely tough going to Texas A&M. It is a tough place to play. Coming back here we knew that we had to get a win. We fought and found a way to do it, so it feels good."

CF Brooks Pinckard

On the approach taken at the plate prior to the grand slam:
"Actually on the first pitch the first baseman was back and coach told me if it was open to bunt. That pitch wasn't right for me and obviously the next pitch was up and I just got a hold of it. Honestly I was just trying to get the ball in play to score a run or two. Luckily it just went out."

On the team's confidence when Logan Verrett is in the game:
"He is one of our top pitchers. The way he has been going out there and dominating, we can't but help having confidence in him."

On the importance of getting a win to close out the series:
"We wanted to forget those games down there and we just wanted to bounce back. Luckily that is what we did. Hopefully we can just build off of this and keep going with it."

P Logan Verrett

On the Texas A&M offense late in the game:
"They are a good club and they are a good hitting club. Obviously if they see you for more than a few innings they are going to start hitting you. I made a few mistakes and they capitalized on them. I was able to get out of it with my defense making great plays to get me out of an inning. I really just counted on my defense."

On facing a bases-loaded situation in the 10^th-inning:
"I was just trying to remain calm up there. I knew if I got that punch out I could count on my defense to back me up and that is what they did. Landis (Ware) made that play on that grounder and it got the momentum back on our side a little bit."

On the importance of closing the series out with a win:
"Any conference win is huge because we are out here to win the Big 12 Championship. Any conference win is going to help us do that. Texas A&M is obviously a good club and we didn't want to go three and out against them. That would have totally killed our confidence. Being able to get at least one win against them is going to do a lot for us. It is going to give us some momentum going into this weekend against Texas Tech. I think it was huge to get that one win."

On winning another one-run game:
"It wouldn't be right to win it if it wasn't a one-run game. It is not Baylor Baseball if it is not one run."