University of Oklahoma Athletics
Game 5: Quotes
May 31, 2009 | Athletics
May 31, 2009
2009 NCAA Baseball Norman Regional
Game 5: Oklahoma 7, Washington State 2
OKLAHOMA HEAD COACH SUNNY GOLLOWAY
Opening Statement:
“I think, going in, we talked to our club this morning about how hard we have worked to get to this point. We reflected a little bit about our 2006 club that came through the loser's bracket here in the same way at L. Dale Mitchell. We really challenged our guys about what we invested in this season and now is the time. One thing we knew going in, we didn't say this, but everybody in our clubhouse knew, unspoken, was that we were going to have to have something special out of Garrett Richards today. We taxed our bullpen to the kitchen sink last night and we wanted to be able to go with him as long as we could. One thing we talked about was not relinquishing the lead. Let's get the lead and let's keep our minds positive.”
“Garrett was terrific. Aaron Baker also up here with me seems to always be terrific during the postseason. He always stands up to the challenge and I thought our whole club did. We have some baseball ahead of us and we are looking forward to continuing to play.”
On not having anyone warming up in the bullpen:
“With 2-2, getting late, you have things going through your mind. We had two guys picked that were going to get up if we thought we needed it. There were several times we were watching Garrett closely when he got to the 100 pitch mark. The grand slam kept Ryan Duke in our dugout. It kept him out of the sun, kept him from getting up, and he is going to have some strong innings in him, we know that. That gave us an opportunity to keep him in the dugout and keep him fresh. I thought Garrett again was terrific. When the ball left the yard it allowed us to think complete game with him and gave us a little bit of room to keep guys in the dugout and out of the heat.”
On tonight's game versus Arkansas:
“The kids will be fine. The adrenaline gets going and they will be ready to go. Our guys are in great shape and they have worked very hard. I really believe that this time of the year the little aches and pains are not a factor. They have worked extremely hard, they have a lot invested and they believe. We are looking forward to the challenge, we are looking forward to the game and we love to compete. We are very blessed to be able to do that right here at home at L. Dale Mitchell Ballpark.”
JUNIOR PITCHER GARRETT RICHARDS
On what it felt like to pitch a complete game:
“It felt great. My job as a starting pitcher is to get us off to a good start and give us a chance to win the baseball game. The guys played great behind me all day. Aaron hit a home run to put us up by a few and I just tried to go out and seal the deal to give us a chance to keep playing.”
On what he was thinking when Baker hit the grand slam:
“I am extremely happy first of all. When you get some runs like that, late in the game, you just have to start pitching for contact and let the guys work behind you. You can't over throw and you can't try to be to perfect.”
JUNIOR FIRST BASEMAN AARON BAKER
On hitting grand slam:
“It was a fastball. Really, I was just trying to square the ball up and drive in a run. I wasn't necessarily trying to hit a home run out but when you have pitchers on the mound like Garrett to my right, it makes it easy to go out and perform. You know he is going to bring his stuff and pitch is heart out for us.”
“It's is always a great feeling to pull through for your team like that but like I said this is a team effort. Great pitching by Garrett, and we really played well on defense also. A lot of guys hit the ball well today. Some found holes, others didn't but that's baseball. The main thing for us is that we are moving and look forward to facing Arkansas tonight.”
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HEAD COACH WASHINGTON STATE DONNIE MARBUT
Opening Statement:
“Congratulate Oklahoma for wining a good ball game. Obviously this is the end of the road for us and we wish that we were playing another ball game. We played a decent game but had the one tough inning and (Aaron) Baker put a big swing on it and changed the game. I just want to congratulate Oklahoma for staying alive in this tournament and congratulate our guys for playing hard for the entire year. I am real proud of our group. ”
On the Aaron Baker home run in the seventh:
“We put in a lefthander to face (Aaron) Baker and a freshman against that guy, OU has to like their chances. (Adam) Conley did a really good job for us this season and we put him in a tough situation. We tried to go away on it and it went in and he hit it a mile. You have got to tip your hat.”
On Oklahoma pitcher Garrett Richards:
“He was unbelievable. I had got to believe that (Oklahoma head coach) Sunny (Golloway) was going to throw him yesterday and not today. We saw him in the first of the season and he had some command issues. If he pitched like that all year long than I don't think that Oklahoma would be 43-19, they might be about 53-10. He was as good today as I have ever seen him and I have only seen him three other times. He was pretty special today.”
On Washington State pitcher David Stilley
“It is not easy to play against a host team and they our really god offensively. We have played against a lot of good offensive teams and I don't think that there is a better offensive team than Oklahoma. They can really swing the bat. We gave up the first home run to (Bryant) Hernandez in the second and Dave (Stilley) cruised the rest of the way. David did a great job for a freshman in this situation. I am really proud of him.”
JUNIOR INFIELDER MICHAEL WEBER
On Oklahoma pitcher Garrett Richards:
“He was bringing some good velocity all day today. For beginning to end, I don't think that his command was an issue today like it was earlier in the year when we faced him. He had good command of his curve ball as well because he would keep you off balance and then he would spot up his changeup. You just had three pitches to worry about up there and he could throw all of them for strikes. He was very effective.”
FRESHMAN RHP PITCHER DAVID STILLEY
On the game:
“I didn't have my off-speed stuff going very well early. And when (Bryant) Hernandez hit that home run I went into the dugout and made some adjustments and I did pretty well after that.”
“I think that it was a confidence issue and I think that when I went out there for the first time it was not what I expected and wasn't what I really wanted for an outing. I couldn't think about it. I had to move on, have a short memory. Three starts is pretty hard to do but I got it back up and did as well as I could.”
