With the 4-3 win on Sunday, TCU secured its second conference series win of the season off the back of some quality pitching performances. Saarloos also talked about the winners mentality the team had this weekend as well.
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00:00I think we're still trying to figure out, we're bringing in Coyier and
00:06Abel in the games earlier, right, give us a little bit more length.
00:12Because not every game is decided in the ninth inning and
00:17sometimes we don't get to that spot.
00:20So those guys have been a little bit of a pain in the ass to get to that spot.
00:26So those guys have been really good, I think, Coyier went two and
00:30two-thirds, obviously the ninth didn't go the way he wanted it to go.
00:35But with Klecker now being in the bullpen for the first time,
00:40we're trying to figure out in terms of how to best utilize him.
00:46And not use him too much.
00:52And I felt like Caveman threw the ball extremely well on Friday when he came in
00:56in a bases loaded situation, I was actually first and second, 2-0 count.
01:01I thought he threw the ball extremely well, two infield hits.
01:04So I felt like it was a good matchup and really haven't given him the opportunity
01:09to pitch in that situation very much in his career.
01:12And he's probably grown the most in our program over the last three years in
01:16terms of just being more consistent both off the field and then on the field.
01:20So I think his consistency is paying off in terms of what he's doing away from
01:24here, and I think he's way more consistent in terms of his outings here.
01:29So when you do that, you give more trust to guys like that, and
01:33so it ended up working out great, and like I said, big series win for us.
01:39What was your message to the team after the win today?
01:42Well, we went back to what we talked about, thinking and acting and
01:45behaving like winners.
01:46And both ninth innings, the last two games,
01:51the games in which we won, it was first and second and nobody out.
01:54And Clecker did what he did, and Kaven did what he did.
01:58So I think the message was, it's exactly what you act and
02:04behaved and thought came to fruition in terms of
02:08making things happen in the ninth inning to win a ball game.
02:11When you're not thinking like winners and acting like it,
02:14next thing you know it comes up and bites you in the rear end and says, poor us.
02:17No, here we go again.
02:19But both of those got squashed, and
02:21I think especially because of what Clecker and Kaven came in and did.
02:25Ben Hampton with two two-thirds innings,
02:27was the thought process bringing him in just speed difference?
02:30Yeah. Or was there something else?
02:31No, I mean, again, we have to utilize our experienced players.
02:36And he's got a ton of experience in this league.
02:39And most of it, obviously, being out of a starting role.
02:42And so with Mason getting his first opportunity in Big 12 weekend and
02:47starting a game, I thought it was a great change of pace in terms of seeing
02:519,900 miles an hour for Bixby.
02:55And then Hampton coming from the left side,
02:58more in the 87 to 90 mile an hour range with a big overhand breaking ball.
03:01So just kind of speed him up, slow him down, and then bring all your in.
03:05And then got it to Parker.
03:10I'm not gonna say that, John.
03:12Cats to jams.
03:12How did you feel about Bixby's start today?
03:16Gave you three good innings.
03:17Yeah, I think he's right there, I think.
03:22If he can get a little bit more killer instinct.
03:25And he's a very mild-mannered young man.
03:30He's pretty steady at A.
03:31I've never really seen him mad.
03:33I've never really seen him super happy and excitable.
03:37He's just kinda like that.
03:39And so I think working on tempo a little bit and being a little bit more of
03:43a presence in terms of being six foot nine and throwing 100 miles an hour.
03:47And that's with opportunities.
03:49I mean, that was his 11th, 12th, and 13th inning pitch in his career.
03:53Coming off an injury where he didn't pitch his senior year.
03:56He had Tommy John in September of his senior year.
04:01So we're bringing him along slowly, and I think the next part of that is
04:05kind of putting his foot on people's necks, I think, and
04:10being a little bit more of a big presence on the mound.
04:13I think that's the next step for him.
04:14And some of that comes from just going out there and
04:17proving that you can do it, and confidence.
04:21Is that DH spot still for grabs, or
04:24is there kind of one or two guys that are pulling ahead of anybody?
04:27I mean, if anybody wants to keep getting hits, we'll keep putting them in there.
04:31A lot of it comes with injuries.
04:33Obviously, Maxwell didn't play today.
04:37Limited him in terms of his hamstrings.
04:39We can't have him go down like Brody.
04:42So it's kind of somewhere, yeah, we're giving a ton of people opportunities.
04:46You've seen Wattis in there.
04:47You've seen Toley in there.
04:48You've seen Ingersoll in there.
04:50You've seen a lot of guys get chances.
04:53And sometimes it's difficult when you only get three or four at bats.
04:56And then it's the next guy, I understand that.
04:57But it's all about what you do with your opportunities.
05:00I thought Fisher was, for the most part, he had a base hit.
05:04Base ran really well and scored on a close play at home plate.
05:08So his athleticism paid dividends in terms of him in our DH role.
05:12Probably more on the base pass than anything else.
05:16Sixth inning there, Ryder tries to take second on a walk.
05:18Is that a called play?
05:19Did you guys notice something?
05:21Well, I mean, it's just something that we're really,
05:24we're kind of burning the ships, man.
05:26It's anything and everything of coming across and touching home plate.
05:31And we didn't run it the way we probably wanted to run it,
05:35in terms of you don't get tagged out before the guy at third base has
05:38an opportunity to score.
05:40So that's something that we can get better at.
05:41But yeah, there's certain times in games where you try to surprise people and
05:45do things that are a little bit abnormal just to scratch across to run.
05:49And it ended up not working out.
05:51You look stupid when it doesn't work out.
05:53But everybody would be going nuts if it did work out.
05:56And so it's just something that we've talked about doing,
06:00is making sure that we're giving our guys the best opportunity to
06:03put as many runs on the board as possible and try and win games.
06:06And he responds to the top of the next inning with a 4-3 double play.
06:10Makes a nice play.
06:11Unbelievable play.
06:12On a hard hit ball.
06:13Yeah, the guy's stealing second base and
06:14slides right in as the ball's getting to him.
06:17That takes a lot of concentration because there's a lot of action going
06:20around where he's trying to feel the baseball.
06:22So I got confirmation, though, if he doesn't feel that baseball,
06:27the runner's out and the batter's safe.
06:29Cuz the base runner has to give the defense an opportunity to feel the baseball.
06:35And so that would be considered interference.
06:36So I ended up getting both guys with a great play.
06:39How do you carry this weekend forward?
06:43Yeah, I mean, that's the way the guys handle and
06:47what they learn from the weekend.
06:48You go after Friday night, losing your fifth game and
06:51falling to whatever we were, 5-11 in league.
06:54I mean, I think, just like I said, just as fast as it disappears.
07:00It can be just as quick to come back.
07:03But it's gotta be done by, and the belief and carry over effect by our players.
07:09And I thought they did a really good job of taking over.
07:14We wanna take a back seat on game day, coaches do.
07:17And I felt like we, for sure, could do that today.
07:19Cuz we had a lot of guys kind of coaching each other.
07:25Our older players were, kind of took it over, which was,
07:28that's what we've been looking for.
07:30That's your best teams.
07:30Your best teams are the ones where your players are the ones that are leading.
07:35And it's not always the coaches having to talk about different things.
07:38When things go wrong, we have players discussing that with other players,
07:41as opposed to it always coming from a coach.
07:43So I thought they did a really good job of that, and pitched good,
07:47played really good defense, and got timely hitting.
07:49That's what we've talked about that all year.
07:51If you do two of those three, you're gonna have a chance to win games.
07:54If you do all three, you're for sure gonna win.
07:57So I thought we did that.
07:58We played just enough offense, played really good defense.
08:01And I thought we pitched the ball good.
08:02Thanks, Coach.