TCU Head Coach Kirk Saarloos speaks about the team's pitching performance and the team's brutal stretch of games in the next ten days
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00:00 >> All right, 5-0, you wanna a little bit differently tonight of low scoring affair.
00:05 Talk us through your thought process, especially going to Ben in the eighth
00:09 there.
00:10 >> Well, I thought, well, first of all, it's well pitched on both sides.
00:13 And that's kinda what you know you're gonna get playing UCLA.
00:16 They're gonna pitch it really well and
00:18 they're gonna play good sound fundamental baseball.
00:21 And I thought we did a really good job with some traffic,
00:25 with Ayers doing a nice job getting out of it.
00:28 And then Zach Collier coming in following Kyle, kinda fell behind,
00:33 not the way you wanna do it, but got two fly balls and got out of the inning.
00:37 So I thought that was key.
00:39 I thought they had some momentum through the middle stretch.
00:42 And but I thought we took good at bats in the eighth.
00:46 I thought on the seventh Brody got a base hit with two outs, so
00:49 extended the inning.
00:51 And then again, Silva in the eighth inning,
00:54 extended the inning and having to bring in Delvecchio.
00:58 Which anytime on a Friday night,
01:00 you can spend some of their bullets on some guys, those are big innings.
01:04 Even though we didn't score,
01:06 I thought having to bring Delvecchio's warming up really since the third inning.
01:10 So to be able to get him in the game and hopefully spend a couple of his bullets
01:15 as the weekend kinda goes on, I thought was key.
01:17 But I thought, what an at bat in the ninth inning,
01:22 I don't know how many pitches it was, 14.
01:25 Which that's a pitch count killer, but
01:29 anytime you get locked in one of those, you wanna win it.
01:31 And I think that was a huge momentum swing in terms of winning that at bat.
01:36 And then just like baseball always does, you bring in Gabe Miranda and he's ready.
01:40 And Coach Bruce had him in position perfectly in terms of
01:44 ground ball right at him.
01:47 So just a really good Friday night.
01:49 >> Coach, 31 pitches for Adel on the night.
01:51 What's that mean for his weekend availability in the next two games?
01:54 >> He's gonna fight me if he's telling me he's not available.
01:57 So we'll see how the game progresses tomorrow.
02:00 But to go back to your question in terms of, I thought the game was in balance
02:04 after call your walk leadoff guy in the eighth inning.
02:08 So we had built Ben up leading up to the season as a starting pitcher.
02:12 So the amount of pitches didn't worry me.
02:15 It's just a matter of, kinda like you said,
02:17 where you think a little bit long term in terms, okay, what is Saturday?
02:21 What does Sunday look?
02:22 But those games don't matter.
02:24 You gotta win the game in front of you.
02:25 And I thought at that point, you gotta bring in Ben there.
02:28 And he did what Ben does.
02:31 But I thought they took some really good swings and
02:33 had a good approach against him.
02:35 And it's gonna be a tough game again tomorrow.
02:38 >> On the front end of things, you were looking for a longer start from your guy
02:41 tonight and totally gave you five.
02:43 Seven strikeouts, looked like he was a lot more comfortable in the second half.
02:46 >> Yeah, I thought his off speed stuff was a lot sharper.
02:49 And when I took him out, I just said, hey, we got to the sixth.
02:53 So the next time out, let's get through sixth and let's get into the seventh.
02:57 So that sets you up for a lot more success and
02:59 not having to run through a bunch of guys in the bullpen.
03:02 And so kind of our plan of attack was kind of the guys that we used.
03:05 And you gotta take care of Friday night first and
03:10 not worry about Saturday or Sunday.
03:11 So, but I thought he did really well in terms of, he lost it a little bit.
03:16 Probably a little too many walks than he'd like.
03:20 But again, you gotta give UCLA a lot of credit.
03:22 They had a good plan against them and he executed high majority pitches.
03:29 >> I know you're talking about one game at a time, but eight games in ten days.
03:33 How do you manage that?
03:34 Do you think about it?
03:35 >> No, not really.
03:38 You think about it in terms of, there's gonna be a lot of guys that haven't gotten
03:42 the ball that are gonna get the baseball.
03:45 In this eight out of ten stretch.
03:47 And so sometimes you like to do that at the beginning of the year.
03:51 Where you get more guys in there to give them opportunities just because there is
03:56 a lot of innings to cover.
03:59 And so the Tragers and Storm and a lot of guys down there that haven't got in.
04:05 Their time's coming and they're prepared for it and
04:08 looking forward for their opportunity.
04:11 And eight out of ten is, it's a fun stretch.
04:15 As long as you take care of business and play well.
04:17 But we're gonna have to have all hands on deck for the next nine days for sure.
04:22 >> We talked this off season about being able to win games in different ways.
04:26 And you talked about the versatility of this team.
04:28 How affirming is that to have seen that play out through these first five games
04:33 and have it on paper now?
04:34 >> Yeah, well I think after last weekend, our goal,
04:37 we talked about we're a good pitching staff.
04:39 And we're gonna get it figured out.
04:41 And I thought you saw a little bit better glimpses of it tonight.
04:44 I thought Kyle coming in there to pick up Toley,
04:47 I thought he was really, really good in the sixth inning.
04:50 And so it's kind of more of your West Coast type of ball game.
04:55 Not a lot of crooked numbers.
04:56 I think we rolled a couple, but
04:59 we limited them from getting the crooked number, which I think was big.
05:03 And it always comes down to, in my opinion, getting the leadoff hitter out.
05:07 When you get the leadoff hitter out,
05:09 the percentages, the numbers go down in terms of crooked innings.
05:12 So our goal is to make sure we do a really good job, ready to pitch and
05:16 play defense from pitch one of an inning.
05:18 And not allow, I think 18 out of 36 innings
05:22 last week resulted in the first batter reaching base.
05:26 That's tough to pitch with traffic.
05:28 So I thought we rebounded well from the pitching side of things.
05:33 I thought we took some really good bats.
05:34 That's a really good pitcher that we faced.
05:37 And he did a good job of mixing pitches,
05:42 a lot of breaking balls and fastball counts.
05:44 And so we have our hands full from an approach standpoint.
05:47 But I thought it was just a really good Friday night game.
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