Childress, players meet media after NCAA selection show

Rob Childress

On the three teams coming in this wekeend...

"Well, we're obivously excited to be playing at home. This tournament's going to be as good a challenge as across the country. Dayton wins their conference tournament and, from an offensive standpoint, they're very similar to us — they've got 140 stolen bases and they're hot. That's why they're continuing to play. The other side of our bracket, Ole Miss and TCU, they're perennial powers and both head coaches are doing amazing jobs. It ought to be just a great weekend of baseball."

On the other teams' offensive games...

"They've hit some home runs, and they want to create pressure on the bases. We're going to have to do a good job of just keeping them off the bases and not allowing them to do that and hopefully we can grab a lead. If you're playing this time of year, you deserve to be playing this time of year; we've got a tough test coming on Friday."

On having an advantage at home...

"That's the reason you try to play as well as you can during the regular season, so you earn an opportunity to play at home. It's certainly an advantage. We've won 75 percent of our games here at home. But if they're playing this time of year, they bring something to the table. We'll have our hands full."

On weekends like this being the reason for building a new ballpark...

"It is. And, you know, hopefully we have great crowds this weekend. The weather will be warm, it'll be great baseball weather, and it's four great teams going at it."

On aiming to get back to Omaha and having postseason experience...

"They (the players) certainly didn't enjoy that bus ride home on Saturday and I didn't either. I wish we'd've been playing throughout the course of the weekend. It's an eye-opener for how fragile a season is. It's one pitch, one play, one hit and you could be on the bus going home. Maybe try to look at it from a positive — we got a few extra days of rest and got our legs back under us and ready to go, but certainly we haven't won anything yet this year."

On someone other than UCLA possibly winning the LA Regional...

"Well, we certainly have enough to draw from that experience. It doesn't matter who the top eight postseason seeds are until you win your first (group). We need to get through this weekend and, who knows, somebody will get an upset out there and we'll get the chance to play at home again. But (worrying about) those top eight seeds are for naught unless you take care of business this first weekend."

On Dayton and pitching back on the first day...

"I don't know enough about the other three teams yet to make a decision about pitching. Part of me says you go with your best, go with Michael Wacha on Friday night, but we'll dig deeper in that this afternoon and tomorrow.

"I don't know how big of an option (pitching back) is ... it's going to be small. I've got a hard time not rolling your guys out there. Hopefully you get to games three and four and your three and four are better than the other team's three and four. And you're playing at home, so that's the advantage. I don't know that I've given it any more consideration than I have the last five years."

On talking to the team about the Big 12 Tournament...

"No, that's something we'll talk about today. Our guys understand that. There's a lot of disappointment, certainly, but we've got another week to play. We're guaranteed another weekend. We've got to go earn the rest."

Ross Stripling

On his reaction to the College Station Regional...

“I follow the Perfect Game guys on Twitter and read their last projection a little after midnight last night and they had Arkansas and Sam Houston State coming, so I guess I was expecting that. It was a little bit of a surprise. It’s going to be a tough regional with TCU and Ole Miss.

"I don’t know much about Dayton, but as far as those two teams with their postseason experience, they’re not going to be intimidated coming into Olsen Field. Especially Ole Miss coming out of the SEC with the big stadiums they have (in that league). TCU is a tough Texas team and they played us well up in Fort Worth this year, so it’s going to be and we’ll have to take it one game at a time like we always do and we’ll see how it goes.”

On A&M's play in the Big 12 Tournament...

“That’s definitely the worst we’ve played since I’ve been here and the quickest we’ve been out. (We were) disappointed in how we played up there and we don’t think we necessarily played all that bad. We just had some things not go our way and you have to put it behind you and look next at Dayton and take it one game at a time.

"We know we can pitch, we know we can field and the bats can get hot at any time. We’re going to be in every game, but it’s just a matter of getting the big hits and making the big pitches when we need to and we should be doing fine.”

On the advantage of having postseason experience...

“We returned a lot of people from last year’s run through the postseason, so that’s going to be big. We’ve got to take Dayton first and see who comes out of that next game and just take it from there. We’ve got a lot of bats that returned, a lot of pitching that returned like me and (Michael) Wacha, (Matt) Juengel, (Jacob) House and everybody. They know what it takes to make a little run through the postseason right here, so we should be in good shape.

"I think we’ll be fine. We just need to play to our potential and take it one game at a time. That’s the way we’ve got to do it, especially with a tough regional like this.”

On having played on the road in the postseason last year...

“You don’t want to get too ahead of yourself, but just knowing that we have the guys returning that made the run last year through a hostile environment in Tallahassee lets us know that we can go on the road and get some wins. We definitely don’t want to look ahead there though. We’ve got to start with Dayton and then go through Ole Miss and TCU as well which are two tough teams. They’re going to know how to play in the postseason and won’t be intimidated.

"We have the experience, we know what it takes to go on the road to get to Omaha and these guys are hungry and want to get there, especially with how we finished in Bricktown. We have a bad taste in our mouth and we want to get after it and get after those teams to show that we deserve to be in the postseason and make a good little run.”

On playing at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park...

“It’s going to scare Dayton for sure. I bet they haven’t played in anything like this, ever. Ole Miss, who knows. It’ll be a little intimidating just because our fans, not many places have a student section like we do. With TCU, they know what it’s like to play at Olsen Field, but they don’t know what it’s like to play in Blue Bell Park. It’s going to be a little challenge for them. They have to get through those nerves first, and I think they’ll settle in for sure, but it definitely gives us an advantage early in the games and early in the regional.”

Jacob House

On gearing up for one last run in the postseason...

"It's good to go. I'm glad we're hosting and playing at Blue Bell Park. I'm excited with the teams we've got, so it should be fun."

On the three teams coming in...

"I've got a little experience with Ole Miss just with playing in the SEC before. TCU's got good pitching and Ole Miss has a lot of talent, so we'll be ready. Dayton will have a good squad, so we'll be ready for them."

On not getting Arkansas as a two seed...

"Personally, I was hoping the Hogs would come. But a good SEC team will be here. And you obviously can't overlook TCU."

On Dayton...

"I don't think they'll be intimidated. I think they'll be ready to go. So we've got to bring our A-game and throw strikes and be ready to compete with the bats."

On the Big 12 Tournament exit...

"I think if you were there, you would've seen balls that were really hit hard and just a couple pitches away from getting off the field in both games. A couple two-strike hits. They put the ball in play when they needed to and we didn't. It's one of those baseball things that happens. We feel really good where we're at. It may not look like that, but we have a lot of confidence going into the regional."