Media Turns Attention To Baseball At Annual Media Day Event

Just two days before their opening game against Gonzaga, the Oklahoma baseball team opened their doors and invited the local media to catch a preview of their upcoming season. Members of the print and broadcast communities in the state converged at the team's lockerroom facility and were allowed to interview all coaches and players about the 2004 season.

The following is the transcript for head coach Larry Cochell's opening comments and following question and answer session with the media contingency.

To kind of give you an overview of our ballclub, we think one of our strengths is going to be our pitching. Obviously, we have five to six guys that have Big 12 experience. (Mark) Roberts is in his fourth year, (Jarod) McAuliff and (David) Purcey are in their third years; we also have (Charlie) House and (Mike) Swindell. Plus our two new freshmen, (Ryan) Mottern and (Charles) Benoit, are going to be factors on our staff. So, we feel like our pitching staff is going to be one of the strengths of our clubs.

Also, our philosophy, and especially my philosophy, is defense. We will be vastly improved defensively from what we've been in the past couple of years. I feel like the area we've needed to improve was defense.

Offensively, we're going to be a type of club that's going to have the type of philosophy of manufacturing a lot of runs. Our offense will probably take a little longer to develop because it has less experience than the other parts of our game. Our pitching is going to be there early and our defense should be there, but our offense is going to take a little bit longer. I'm not saying that we're not going to have a good offensive club right out of the shoot, but I'm saying it may take a little bit longer to really play the way we want to play.

James Hale - WWLS

Your infield is kind of totally rebooted. Can you tell us about the options you have and how it might evolve throughout the season?

At first base we have Ole Sheldon, a junior college transfer, that is probably going to be our best defensive first baseman since Rick Park. He's an outstanding defensive first baseman.

Russell Raley, who was really out of position last year, was a shortstop in high school and will be at second base when he's healthy. Right now we're a little bit banged up with Raley.

Rohlinger, our shortstop, who is going to be an outstanding player for us, unfortunately has a broken arm and is going to be out 4-6 weeks. So we're anxious to get him back.

Fortunately we have Kyle Bradburry, a young man who we brought in at the semester. He's been playing shortstop at El Camino Junior College in southern California.

At third base, we have Matt Bose, who was a Freshman All-American at third base and we had him at first last year. Also, Eric Thornton, who was at Oral Roberts his freshman year and then went to Cowley County Community College, can also play at third.

Another really good infielder that we have is Brenan Herrera, a junior college kid from Lawton. He can play at second, short or third.

So we feel like we're in good position there.

Clay Horning Norman Transcript

Is it hard to win playing the kind of baseball that you want to play this year at the college level?

I don't think it is; not if you have good pitching. If you don't get anybody out, its not going to do any good. But I think if you have good pitching, which we think we do, and good defense, if you score one run an inning, then that's nine a game.

I think a lot of people got caught up, especially four or five years ago, with the long ball. If you look at what Texas has done, their going to bunt, they're going to hit-and-run and they have good pitching and they've won with that type of game. Fullerton does the same thing. They're going to manufacture runs. Small ball many times adds up to big innings if you just lay back and play for the big inning, I don't think you can do that the majority of the time with the type of athletes that we have. I think you have to play small ball hit-and-run, steal, start runners, those sort of things that put pressure on the defense -- and those can lead to big innings.

Its something that has to be taught and has to be ingrained and they have to adopt your philosophy. Everyone wants to stand up and swing for the fences and for most kids its just going to be 370 foot flyouts.

The successful coaches, they can get accomplished what they want to get accomplished. You look at Fullerton, Texas and Florida State, they have pitching and defense and they manufacture runs. We've got some guys that can get the ball out of the park, but by and large, when you get into a pitching duel, you're going to have to do something else to manufacture some runs.

James Hale WWLS

Defensively, you haven't been real happy the last couple of years. You set high standards and at times you've gotten while you were here. You seem confident that you'll get it this year. Can you explain what you've seen so far and why you feel that way?

Well, we've had them all fall and we've had them for four or five weeks here in the spring. We just think we have some better athletes in key positions. We don't have Rohlinger now, but Rohlinger had 176 chances last year and had two errors. That's playing defense. Russell Raley is an outstanding defensive infielder. Kyle Bradburry, (Matt) Bose those are all going to be good infielders. Herrera is going to be a good infielder, so we feel good about that. I think we've upgraded a little bit from what we had.

Is your catching situation settled?

Our catching situation we have three guys that we can catch: Brandon Lance, Josh Stinson, who's a freshman, and Matt Bose. We've worked Bose behind the plate some times. So, we feel that's a position where we're not locked into one guy. If one guy goes down, we're okay. At catching, you've got to have two guys.

Will you settle on one or will it be a platoon?

Well, we don't know. We're just going to roll it out and see what happens. We're going to play the hot hand. We may match up certain pitchers with certain hitters.

Defensively, Lance and Stinson have both caught -- Bose hasn't caught a lot -- but defensively they're okay. They're good catchers.

Clay Horning Norman Transcript

What's the dynamic like with Sunny (Golloway) back in the program and working with him again?

Number one, he knows me and he knows what I want and he knows how to get it.

The second thing is, he's been a head coach for eight years and he's been with Team USA. He's developed into one heck of a coach. He's really developed and he's learned. It's basically like having two head coaches in the program.

The third thing is he gives us a lot of energy. He's a good mix for our staff. I'm kind of a little more laid back -- he's a little bit more vocal -- so he's a good mix for our staff.

James Hale WWLS

Don't you have more depth in the outfield, too?

Yes, we feel good about our outfield. We've got some guys that can run and go get the ball.

You know its like in '93, nobody knew who our players were. I think in a very short time, some names that people don't know the names of are going to know their names. Nobody knew anything about Gutierrez, Hills, Glass well we think we've got some kids who can emerge and be those type of players.

We have some guys that can run and in this park, with that south wind and as big as it is, we need some guys that can run the ball down.

Starting right now, we'd go with (Andrew) McGuire in right, (Jeff) Scuderi in center and (Aaron) Ivey in left. That would be our starting lineup on Friday.

Brian Davis Dallas Morning News

Can you talk about the state of the Big 12 this year and what other teams seem good?

Well, obviously Texas is off to a great start. They're 6-0 and they've got (Huston) Street back and they've got a lot of their good players back and they're always going to be tough because they have a good program and Augie (Garrido) does a good job.

I think Texas A&M is going to be another factor. They've got seven or eight of their position players back and always pitch well.

Baylor has outstanding pitching and Nebraska's done a good job. I think the Big 12, with the improvement and the emphasis that people are putting on baseball, has really improved top to bottom. You have to be able to play every weekend; before it wasn't that way. Missouri's got a new ballpark, Nebraska's got a multi-million dollar ballpark, Kansas State's got a multi-million dollar ballpark and have a new coach. So all the programs are putting a little more emphasis on baseball.

Where do you think the sport is nationally in terms of the pecking order on a college campus? Do you think the sport is becoming fully-ingrained into now the big four football, both basketballs and baseball?

I think very definitely. In all the years I've been in it, I think it's the healthiest its been.

Probably the conference that showcased it was the Southeastern Conference 10 years ago. Every school in the Southeastern Conference has a nice stadium Vanderbilt has a new one. What athletic directors did at that time is that they looked at escalating budgets and gender equity and said, “Hey, we can't raise ticket prices at football and basketball anymore, so where's our other chance of getting revenue?” Larry Templeton, who's a friend mine who's the athletic director at Mississippi State, said, “Where am I going to get revenue?” Mississippi State really got after baseball and they have 40 sky suites now. That's an area that an athletic director looks to generate some revenue.

Are we ever going to be self-supporting? Probably not. Not many schools do, but being a parasite, which baseball is, we're going to be able to cut down the deficit.

So, I think out of all my years, and this is my 38^th year, there have been a lot of changes in baseball and this is the healthiest that its been. You can look at the figures and the dollars that we brought in from the World Series last year and that's another reason that they went to the Super Regional there's more dollar, there's more emphasis.

James Hale WWLS

Do you think you get the support from the student body that you're really looking for?

I think winning takes care of a lot of that. If you win, they're going to come out again like they used to, but we have to win. We have a good core that's stayed with us through thick and thin. The other ones that are on the fence who haven't been coming, once you start winning, they're going to come back.

George Schroeder Daily Oklahoman

What are your thoughts on being picked sixth in the conference?

Picking is a guess, an estimate, and that's fine. A lot of times the ratings are done off of what you've done last year and your players coming in, so we have a lot to prove, but that's why you play the game.

Brian Davis Dallas Morning News

Do you get any kind of extra motivation to get your guys going once you see what's going on in Stillwater?

What motivates us is ourself.

The question you're probably going to ask me on down the line is, “Do you still have a passion for the game?” and all those questions. Yeah, I've got a passion for the game. Yeah, we put pressure on ourselves. Did I put any more added pressure this year than last year? No, because I put the same amount of pressure every year.

The kids in this program know what we did last year, so I don't think they're concerned about Oklahoma State or Texas, we're concerned about us. We want to take care of business with us and then we don't worry about them. We can't spend time worrying about other people, we've got to worry about us. If we execute, it doesn't make a difference if we play to our potential. We've got to do what it takes to win.

James Hale WWLS

Earlier you were trying to make a decision if you were going to start (Jarod) McAuliff or not and what you were going to do with Mark (Roberts)? Have you decided what your starting rotation is going to be?

Right now its tough to take McAuliff, even though he's one of our best pitchers, out of that slot. I can remember when I played at Arizona State, (Bobby) Winkles would always take his four top pitchers and make one of the top four a reliever or the guy would close. Its tough to take a guy like McAuliff, who we feel like can shorten the game, at the end of seven innings and game over when he goes on the hill. Its tough to take a guy out of that position, although Roberts could do it, (Mike) Swindell could probably do it, there are people who could do it, but here's a kid who's done it for two years real successfully that likes to do it.

It was really my idea that I played around with the idea to start him and we still may start him on down the line. What we've done, we've prepared for that and got his pitch count up. It's a long distance route to answer your question, but its tough to take a guy out of that role that's been pretty good.

So, Roberts, (Casey) Brown and (David) Purcey will be our first three starters.

Rick Pendergraft KOCO (Channel 5 Oklahoma City)

There's some pretty good competition you're facing this weekend?

We don't know anything about Gonzaga. We know they've got a guy that's going to be a number one draft, so I'm sure they're not going to save him for the second game, so I'm sure we're going to get him in the first game. He's suppose to be a pretty outstanding pitcher.

Cal State Northridge is in the same conference as Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State and they have a good program. Then we've got Arizona State on Sunday, so it will be a good tournament.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Media Turns Attention To Baseball At Annual Media Day Event

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors