Here is the entire transcript from Travis Jewett immediately after Tulane's excruciating 3-2 loss to UNO on Tuesday. I was on deadline and did not have much time before racing up to throw in quotes for a 9:45 p.m. deadline for the Advocate's print edition (which made for a mediocre story, exacerbated by the fact UNO's coach and right fielder went up to the press box to do a radio interview and were slow to get back to the field.)
But enough about my difficulties. Jewett was in a ripping mode (which will anger some who point the finger at him) reflecting the frustration that was starting to boil over. I asked two questions, and he talked and talked and talked.
Do you feel snake bit after watching their right fielder make a sensational play to rob you of the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth?
“That happens to us all year long, but that’s not the problem. You have to just keep hitting the ball hard. The problem is when we do get a runner to third base with less than two outs, I want to bunt, and then I get the count in the favor and I back it off because the kids want to hit and then I think we’re going to get something to hit and then we swing at the ball over our head and we don’t make contact and it thwarts the inning.
"Or we take the one pitch in a situation where you have to look for something up and elevated out over the plate. That’s your fly ball zone. That’s what Artigues does. He hits fly balls to right field, and he swings at the first little soft curve ball down and in and the only place you can hit the ball in the yard that you’re not going to score is on the ground to the third baseman.
“We get the situation there at the end where I’m not going to watch the tappy tap ground ball, the strikeout, which we do really good or hit into a double play. I think I have a kid who has some conviction to what he’s doing to just put a team at-bat and put a safety bunt down. Game over. Their first baseman’s anchored into the base so any bunt down on the ground to that side, we take the lead going into the ninth inning.
“It’s not the pitch call. It’s the execution of the pitch. It’s not whether the play is right or wrong. It’s the execution of the play. Poor execution. Poor execution. And when you do that, you get what you get. Disappointed to say the least.”
The bullpen has struggled for most of the year but did not tonight. When you get that kind of performance, is that a game you should be able to win?
“We can’t find a way to get one more than them. It’s an in and out. It’s not consistent baseball. It’s either that (the pitching)’s not good and the offense scores some runs or it’s the reverse. What’s going on doesn’t add up to winning baseball, but I would say (Ross) Massey came out and settled the game. He was fine. He gave up the one double but everything else was just kind of soft and eyes finding holes. Between (Will) McAffer and Trent (Johnson), you don’t see that from McAffer or anyone else pitching too much. It was a perfect inning. Nine pitches and three strikeouts. That was good to see him do that. We wanted to lengthen him out.
“I would like to see Bates, too. I put him in the game. It’s just right on right coming down the pipe with a drawn in infield and have like the eye of the tiger. You are coming in this game to punch this guy out. It needs to be thrown hard. It needs to be convicted. It doesn’t need to be goosed and steered. You gotta just go for it. I didn’t see that look on his body language or his face today, so that’s disappointing. A wild pitch, they take the lead, they bring their closer in and what was the last inning—a 10 flight popup to left field, which we can do, and a strikeout, a strikeout. I don’t know.
“I do know this, there’s a difference between swinging and hitting. We’ve got to figure out the median between the two. Swinging’s one thing, but hitting is another. We’ve got to start hitting now. Any time we have any kind of success—we’re going to hit a home run here and there—but for the most part our success has been more hard on the line, from low ground to line drive. I don’t know. I can’t seem to drive that point home, so I’m going to have to try to figure something out. Something’s got to change.”
But enough about my difficulties. Jewett was in a ripping mode (which will anger some who point the finger at him) reflecting the frustration that was starting to boil over. I asked two questions, and he talked and talked and talked.
Do you feel snake bit after watching their right fielder make a sensational play to rob you of the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth?
“That happens to us all year long, but that’s not the problem. You have to just keep hitting the ball hard. The problem is when we do get a runner to third base with less than two outs, I want to bunt, and then I get the count in the favor and I back it off because the kids want to hit and then I think we’re going to get something to hit and then we swing at the ball over our head and we don’t make contact and it thwarts the inning.
"Or we take the one pitch in a situation where you have to look for something up and elevated out over the plate. That’s your fly ball zone. That’s what Artigues does. He hits fly balls to right field, and he swings at the first little soft curve ball down and in and the only place you can hit the ball in the yard that you’re not going to score is on the ground to the third baseman.
“We get the situation there at the end where I’m not going to watch the tappy tap ground ball, the strikeout, which we do really good or hit into a double play. I think I have a kid who has some conviction to what he’s doing to just put a team at-bat and put a safety bunt down. Game over. Their first baseman’s anchored into the base so any bunt down on the ground to that side, we take the lead going into the ninth inning.
“It’s not the pitch call. It’s the execution of the pitch. It’s not whether the play is right or wrong. It’s the execution of the play. Poor execution. Poor execution. And when you do that, you get what you get. Disappointed to say the least.”
The bullpen has struggled for most of the year but did not tonight. When you get that kind of performance, is that a game you should be able to win?
“We can’t find a way to get one more than them. It’s an in and out. It’s not consistent baseball. It’s either that (the pitching)’s not good and the offense scores some runs or it’s the reverse. What’s going on doesn’t add up to winning baseball, but I would say (Ross) Massey came out and settled the game. He was fine. He gave up the one double but everything else was just kind of soft and eyes finding holes. Between (Will) McAffer and Trent (Johnson), you don’t see that from McAffer or anyone else pitching too much. It was a perfect inning. Nine pitches and three strikeouts. That was good to see him do that. We wanted to lengthen him out.
“I would like to see Bates, too. I put him in the game. It’s just right on right coming down the pipe with a drawn in infield and have like the eye of the tiger. You are coming in this game to punch this guy out. It needs to be thrown hard. It needs to be convicted. It doesn’t need to be goosed and steered. You gotta just go for it. I didn’t see that look on his body language or his face today, so that’s disappointing. A wild pitch, they take the lead, they bring their closer in and what was the last inning—a 10 flight popup to left field, which we can do, and a strikeout, a strikeout. I don’t know.
“I do know this, there’s a difference between swinging and hitting. We’ve got to figure out the median between the two. Swinging’s one thing, but hitting is another. We’ve got to start hitting now. Any time we have any kind of success—we’re going to hit a home run here and there—but for the most part our success has been more hard on the line, from low ground to line drive. I don’t know. I can’t seem to drive that point home, so I’m going to have to try to figure something out. Something’s got to change.”
