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 from the offensive side and we sustained our rallies well. Our players did a good job of capitalizing on the unfortunate things that happened [to Long Beach State] like the two balks that tend to have an affect on young pitchers.

On the Longhorns Offensive Performance:
The two runs put up in the ninth was important because it showed our focus and determination to not let the game get away from us. From the offensive side, that is as consistent as we have been and the most successful in any one game. We got timely hits, big hits, and homeruns, with things falling in for us - the baseball gods were kind to us today. The consistency today is 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, and Gerrit has been the leading pitcher on the team and his competitiveness and his talent prevailed today. It is to Gerrit's credit that we make it look easy. We were able to take away the momentum and keep the game under control. When the game is as well pitched as Gerrit pitched, it makes the game look easy.

Gerrit Simpson (Player)
Q. Did you have any extra motivation considering what happened last week at the Big 12 tournament?
A. I try to take every game like they are all the same every time. I had a little more motivation because I wanted to come out and prove 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 good up 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 felt were their weaknesses because they are a really good competitive team and Gerrit did a great job of mixing it up early and he continued that throughout the game. All his pitches were working real well for 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 the 49ers?
A. Coach is always talking about sustaining our rallies throughout the season. Things have been a roller-coaster ride all season and it has not always gone the way we want it to but we really worked hard today in not letting our rally die. I was thankful that I was able to make the most of my opportunity with a double.

Jeff Ontiveros (Player)
Q. Can you talk about the rally in the fifth with two outs and no one on capped by your homerun?
A. We told each other that we would be aggressive and sure enough we were when 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 little shook up They called a couple balks on him and he got the ball up. Pitching was the story of the day - I thought their guy was dominating. I thought the sixth and seventh innings, we had more competitive at bats and had a better approach. To me, Gerrit Simpson pitched outstanding and that was the difference 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 have to regroup and play better baseball. That's got to be my focus with this group right now - we've got to play the game better than that. We made mistakes out there that you can't afford to make regardless of who you're playing 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 shook me 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 the inning too quickly - never finished it out. They took advantage of that and just 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 called for strikes and one wasn't his fastball, which says something for him. He's a good pitcher and we proved that to him. We didn't make any adjustments and that's what hurt us. He's a good pitcher, but we need to make better adjustments 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 setback for us, but we can't look at it that way. We have to come out tomorrow like it's a new day and hopefully we've got two games tomorrow and two games on Sunday. We can't dwell on this loss or what we did badly, we have to keep that good feeling going that we've had for the past couple weeks. If we come out ready to play tomorrow, I think we're going to be a team out there.