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May 28, 2009

Head Coach Augie Garrido
Opening statement: As for the No.1 seed, the last time the No. 1 seed won was in 1999 so forget about that. There's no easy path in this. It's about a lot of ball games. All of them are important and it's about doing the right thing at the right time. The hardest part for teams is to stayed focused on the fundamentals of the game and not let the surroundings interfere with their performances. We'll try to use the confidence that I think we deserve as a result of the way we played during the season and continued to grow individually and as a team to stay balanced and look at our opportunities like the other 64 teams in the tournament. When Fresno State wins a national championship from a fourth seed from the regional, anything can happen. That's the beautiful experience of college baseball. Championships are typically decided by the unexpected, and nothing was more unexpected than the last two national championships by Oregon State and Fresno State. It's about baseball and all the adversity it creates for everyone involved. The teams that are motivated by the challenges will probably end up doing the best.

On managing the emotions of a young team: Being a ball player is not about age. Brandon Loy is a ball player. Taylor Jungmann is a ball player. Austin Dicharry is a ball player. It's not about age. Robyn Yount was a shortstop for the Milwaukee Brewers at 18 years old. If you know how to play ball, you play ball and we have some ball players that I have a lot of confidence in. They're not the same ball players they were when they came in. They're a lot more experienced and a lot more confident. The team has a much stronger character and identity and a sense of being that's not necessary to overcome the adversities. I'm not concerned at all with the ups and downs. Will they happen? Yes. Will we deal with them? Yes. But until they happen, we don't know how.

On playing Army: I would say they possess a strong ability to focus and mental toughness. What I hope is our players are themselves and bring their game to the ball park and play their best. If anybody can beat us when we're playing to the best of our ability, then they really deserve to win. It's as simple as that, and we're going to keep it that simple. How do they handle things? I would say they know how to handle environments by their training. As individuals, they understand how to stay focused and how to be mentally tough and probably not intimidated. The other nice thing is they have everything to gain. Whatever they do, I would expect them to be mentally tough and be able to play the game. They're playing a much bigger game on a much more important stage than when they go into Iraq and places like that. I admire them.

Junior 1B Brandon Belt
On playing Army:  I'm not sure what to expect, but we have to assume they're really good. We have to go out there and play our best game. We definitely can't let down now. It's a brand new season, and we have to get off to a good start.

On the offense: It seems pretty good to me. Especially over the past couple of weeks, it seems like a few more people have come into their own and started hitting well like Brandon Loy, Michael [Torres] and Travis [Tucker]. It seems like everybody's getting into their comfort zone. I think now all we have to do is go out there and execute. We have confidence that we can go out and hit. We know we can do it. It's just a matter of going out and doing it now.

Senior C Preston Clark
On practices in the postseason: I feel that we have to put more effort into it now. It's crunch time. We need enough effort to win games and be confident in ourselves. Our practices are going to be intense, they're going to be fun and they're going to be relaxed. That's key. That's basically we take the approach and we have to go out there and play same way tomorrow.

On playing at UFCU Disch-Falk Field: We're comfortable here. This is our home. This is our stadium. We practice here. We sweat and we do all the things we need to do to play off this opportunity. It's in our advantage. This is our comfort zone. This is where we wanted to play the whole time. We didn't want to go anywhere else to play in a regional and super regional. We took care of business early to get this far and the spot where we're in.

Senior LHP Austin Wood
On playing his last collegiate regional: We're just looking forward to tomorrow. I don't think there's any more pressure or anxiety. I know we're all looking forward to tomorrow. I know for Preston and I this is our last go around, so we do want to get to Omaha. But we can't look past tomorrow because if we look past tomorrow, it'll come back and bite us.

On the struggles of the previous postseasons: I think people are going to make up their minds regardless of what happens here. We can't worry about that. We just have to go out there and do our jobs. We go out there and bust our butts every day trying to reach our goals. If it happens, it happens. If not, so be it. We're going to do our best. We're going to do everything possible to try and get there.