I talked to Jewett on the phone yesterday. Here's what he had to say as Tulane prepared for its trip to Houston. The Wave left at 9 a.m. today.
Jewett joked that he was reading a book about coaching to learn how to do it again after missing the last two games due to suspension for re-entering the field of play--a definite NCAA no-no--after the umpires huddled and ruled Kody Hoese's home run a double on Friday night. Here's what he had to say:
Tulane is in a slump at the plate, having scored three or fewer runs in six of its last nine games after being in the top five nationally for scoring. Is it a big concern or something that always will occur at some point in a season?
"I think (it's something that happens), I do. Watching the game even last night certainly not a lot of runs and all that, there were still some good swings. I'm not trying to over-panic. The kids have put in data where it's OK, we've done this (hit well) for a length of time to still make believe this isn't a fluke, where we haven't done this data (the struggles recently) very much, which makes me think that it is a little bit of a quote/unquote fluke. No disrespect to the opponent, but it's a cyclical thing. Round ball, round bat, sometimes it doesn't go, and right now it's going a little bit slow.
Nicholls State's two biggest hits last night were a bouncer in front of third base that was nearly impossible to make a play on and a blooper to right field that was impossible to run down. How frustrating is that?
"Sometimes the ball just finds pockets of the field that are indefensible so to speak, and then other times your best bolt gets caught. It's all part of it, though, and the thing is, last night watching it from the TV, we've got to take the bloop and slash it and say, so what, big deal. It doesn't have to turn into a bloop and two beans. Those are just things we've got to try to contain. We're just not swinging the bats great right now. It seems like the last couple of days, too, and it's been a crutch of ours, we just have a lot of tendency to score and let score. We did it again last night. We go ahead 2-1 and then it's 2-2. We got ahead 3-2 and then all of a sudden they get it right back. We need a little bit of space there.
"The positive out of this whole thing, although the results haven't been there obviously, is we've found us a little stretch here with some pitching."
You had one walk last night.
"Imagine that. So that way, even when it's not going so good, at least we can stay in range."
Houston needs to keep winning to assure itself an at-large bid and you're playing them on the road. The Cougars are a good pitching team. What are the biggest challenges?
"Certainly they are pitching the ball well. They got a good, full rest this week because they just played two games against UNLV and got rained out today, so they'll be rip-roaring in that way. That will be a challenge and because they are a good pitching staff that will be a challenge. We're just going to have to bull-ride it. They are good, and if we want to be good, we have to get on the ride and not get bucked off. I think we have the ability to do that. Now Trevor (Jensen) has to get back in there (he missed his first game of the year because he is banged up). That was a big minus last night. It was weird writing the lineup up not using his name in there. He was pretty dinged up, but he's feeling better, so we anticipate him being ready to rock and roll on Friday night.
"We're pitching a little better and we're handling it pretty good, too. We're playing pretty good defense and our walks are decreasing. Those are going to be important. With the competition we're facing, we're going to have to win some games on pitching and timely hitting."
Justin Campbell's errant pickoff throw last night was your first error since last Tuesday, and your infielders are making every play they can make. You are first in the league in fielding percentage. How good do you feel about the defense?
"Good, and particularly the inside-the-diamond defense, from Hoese, to Sal to 'Tigues to Jensen. It's a pretty zipper-tight group. and I think our outfielders will catch the ball when it's hit to them. They probably could cover a little bit more ground. You hate to keep bringing up Ty Johnson, but you'd like to see him running around out there because he's a ball sniffer. We'll get better that way. The (Ethan) Graff kid we have in the program is going to be a talented outfielder."
Any concern about Hudson Haskin's hand? Daniel Latham said he was fine Tuesday, but he not only went 0 for 5, he had no good swings.
"When you saw him swing last night you would think that his hand was hurting because we're just so accustomed to something so different. Probably just chalk it up to a bad night. We watched some tape and he was kind of raising up to the ball all night. He wasn't really using his hands to hit it up. He was climbing up to it and pulling off. We took some time today on it. He'll be fine."
What is preventing Josh Bates from getting into the mix?
Just probably internal confidence. Just the ability to do what he does over and over again in a quality setting. I think he's getting close. He's going to be with us this weekend. You kind of made mention we're at least thinking we can get something out of some of these guys, he's getting maybe close back to getting an opportunity to show he can be one of those guys as well."
Despite his 2.16 ERA, hIs walks and hit batsmen per innings pitched this year is 19 to 16.2. Is that the dilemma?
"Yeah. It's unacceptable, and that's a little bit of it, and even some of the successes, there's a lot of free traffic and then a pitch to get them out. But he's putting his head down. I get it, why wouldn't you pitch the guy with the lowest ERA, but he's working hard with coach Latham and hopefully before this thing is all over we can get a chance to see him again."
Is Pellerin on the weekend roster?
"He is."
Jewett joked that he was reading a book about coaching to learn how to do it again after missing the last two games due to suspension for re-entering the field of play--a definite NCAA no-no--after the umpires huddled and ruled Kody Hoese's home run a double on Friday night. Here's what he had to say:
Tulane is in a slump at the plate, having scored three or fewer runs in six of its last nine games after being in the top five nationally for scoring. Is it a big concern or something that always will occur at some point in a season?
"I think (it's something that happens), I do. Watching the game even last night certainly not a lot of runs and all that, there were still some good swings. I'm not trying to over-panic. The kids have put in data where it's OK, we've done this (hit well) for a length of time to still make believe this isn't a fluke, where we haven't done this data (the struggles recently) very much, which makes me think that it is a little bit of a quote/unquote fluke. No disrespect to the opponent, but it's a cyclical thing. Round ball, round bat, sometimes it doesn't go, and right now it's going a little bit slow.
Nicholls State's two biggest hits last night were a bouncer in front of third base that was nearly impossible to make a play on and a blooper to right field that was impossible to run down. How frustrating is that?
"Sometimes the ball just finds pockets of the field that are indefensible so to speak, and then other times your best bolt gets caught. It's all part of it, though, and the thing is, last night watching it from the TV, we've got to take the bloop and slash it and say, so what, big deal. It doesn't have to turn into a bloop and two beans. Those are just things we've got to try to contain. We're just not swinging the bats great right now. It seems like the last couple of days, too, and it's been a crutch of ours, we just have a lot of tendency to score and let score. We did it again last night. We go ahead 2-1 and then it's 2-2. We got ahead 3-2 and then all of a sudden they get it right back. We need a little bit of space there.
"The positive out of this whole thing, although the results haven't been there obviously, is we've found us a little stretch here with some pitching."
You had one walk last night.
"Imagine that. So that way, even when it's not going so good, at least we can stay in range."
Houston needs to keep winning to assure itself an at-large bid and you're playing them on the road. The Cougars are a good pitching team. What are the biggest challenges?
"Certainly they are pitching the ball well. They got a good, full rest this week because they just played two games against UNLV and got rained out today, so they'll be rip-roaring in that way. That will be a challenge and because they are a good pitching staff that will be a challenge. We're just going to have to bull-ride it. They are good, and if we want to be good, we have to get on the ride and not get bucked off. I think we have the ability to do that. Now Trevor (Jensen) has to get back in there (he missed his first game of the year because he is banged up). That was a big minus last night. It was weird writing the lineup up not using his name in there. He was pretty dinged up, but he's feeling better, so we anticipate him being ready to rock and roll on Friday night.
"We're pitching a little better and we're handling it pretty good, too. We're playing pretty good defense and our walks are decreasing. Those are going to be important. With the competition we're facing, we're going to have to win some games on pitching and timely hitting."
Justin Campbell's errant pickoff throw last night was your first error since last Tuesday, and your infielders are making every play they can make. You are first in the league in fielding percentage. How good do you feel about the defense?
"Good, and particularly the inside-the-diamond defense, from Hoese, to Sal to 'Tigues to Jensen. It's a pretty zipper-tight group. and I think our outfielders will catch the ball when it's hit to them. They probably could cover a little bit more ground. You hate to keep bringing up Ty Johnson, but you'd like to see him running around out there because he's a ball sniffer. We'll get better that way. The (Ethan) Graff kid we have in the program is going to be a talented outfielder."
Any concern about Hudson Haskin's hand? Daniel Latham said he was fine Tuesday, but he not only went 0 for 5, he had no good swings.
"When you saw him swing last night you would think that his hand was hurting because we're just so accustomed to something so different. Probably just chalk it up to a bad night. We watched some tape and he was kind of raising up to the ball all night. He wasn't really using his hands to hit it up. He was climbing up to it and pulling off. We took some time today on it. He'll be fine."
What is preventing Josh Bates from getting into the mix?
Just probably internal confidence. Just the ability to do what he does over and over again in a quality setting. I think he's getting close. He's going to be with us this weekend. You kind of made mention we're at least thinking we can get something out of some of these guys, he's getting maybe close back to getting an opportunity to show he can be one of those guys as well."
Despite his 2.16 ERA, hIs walks and hit batsmen per innings pitched this year is 19 to 16.2. Is that the dilemma?
"Yeah. It's unacceptable, and that's a little bit of it, and even some of the successes, there's a lot of free traffic and then a pitch to get them out. But he's putting his head down. I get it, why wouldn't you pitch the guy with the lowest ERA, but he's working hard with coach Latham and hopefully before this thing is all over we can get a chance to see him again."
Is Pellerin on the weekend roster?
"He is."
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