May 25, 2001
Winning Team (Texas)
Head Coach Augie Garrido
Assessment of Game:
We were very opportunistic and made the most out of those opportunities fromthe offensive side and we sustained our rallies well. Our players did agood job of capitalizing on the unfortunate things that happened [to LongBeach State] like the two balks that tend to have an affect on youngpitchers.
On the Longhorns Offensive Performance:
The two runs put up in the ninth was important because it showed our focusand determination to not let the game get away from us. From the offensiveside, that is as consistent as we have been and the most successful in anyone game. We got timely hits, big hits, and homeruns, with things fallingin for us - the baseball gods were kind to us today. The consistency todayis a good sign as to how far we will go in this tournament.
On Gerrit Simpson's Performance:
The pitching has been the cornerstone of our team throughout the season, andGerrit has been the leading pitcher on the team and his competitiveness andhis talent prevailed today. It is to Gerrit's credit that we make it lookeasy. We were able to take away the momentum and keep the game undercontrol. When the game is as well pitched as Gerrit pitched, it makes thegame look easy.
Gerrit Simpson (Player)
Q. Did you have any extra motivation considering what happened last week atthe Big 12 tournament?
A. I try to take every game like they are all the same every time. I had alittle more motivation because I wanted to come out andprove myself again.
Q. How did you rate today's performance with your other starts this year?
A. It was definitely up there with one of my best, I was feeling really goodup on the mound and all my pitches were working.
Sam Anderson (Player)
Q. What made Gerrit so effective today?
A. We really tried to focus on his strengths and really work on what we feltwere their weaknesses because they are a really goodcompetitive team and Gerrit did a great job of mixing it up early and hecontinued that throughout the game. All his pitches were working real wellfor him and he did a great job of containing a good hitting team.
Q. Can you talk about the rally that put the game out of reach for the49ers?
A. Coach is always talking about sustaining our rallies throughout theseason. Things have been a roller-coaster ride all season and it has notalways gone the way we want it to but we really worked hard today in notletting our rally die. I was thankful that I was able to make the most ofmy opportunity with a double.
Jeff Ontiveros (Player)
Q. Can you talk about the rally in the fifth with two outs and no one oncapped by your homerun?
A. We told each other that we would be aggressive and sure enough we werewhen we had the opportunity.
Losing Team (Long Beach State)
Head Coach Dave Snow
Q. How do you view Paz's performance today?A. He started out with a lot of good stuff, and then I think he got a littleshook up They called a couple balks on him and he got the ball up. Pitchingwas the story of the day - I thought their guy was dominating. I thought thesixth and seventh innings, we had more competitive at bats and had a betterapproach. To me, Gerrit Simpson pitched outstanding and that was thedifference in that ball game.
Q. You've won here before, what do you have to do this year?
A. Well, every year is a new year. We'll see what we can do. We'll just haveto regroup and play better baseball. That's got to be my focus with thisgroup right now - we've got to play the game better than that. We mademistakes out there that you can't afford to make regardless of who you'replaying at this level of competition.
Matt Paz (Player)
Q. Can you talk a little about the balks?
A. Yeah, it was that I was starting and stopping twice, which kind of shookme up and threw me off a little bit.
Q. You were doing well in the fifth, two down nobody on, what changed?
A. I think I just got complacent out there. I was trying to get out of theinning too quickly - never finished it out. They took advantage of that andjust hit every mistake I made.
Bobby Crosby (Player)
Q. What made Simpson so effective today?
A. The fact that he had three pitches that were getting consistently calledfor strikes and one wasn't his fastball, which says something for him. He'sa good pitcher and we proved that to him. We didn't make any adjustments andthat's what hurt us. He's a good pitcher, but we need to make betteradjustments out there or we're not going to get too far.
Q. How was today's game relative to the Fullerton games last week?
A. In baseball, you're going to have setbacks and today was a big setbackfor us, but we can't look at it that way. We have to come out tomorrow likeit's a new day and hopefully we've got two games tomorrow and two games onSunday. We can't dwell on this loss or what we did badly, we have to keepthat good feeling going that we've had for the past couple weeks. If we comeout ready to play tomorrow, I think we're going to be a team out there.