College Baseball: An interview with Texas State OF Bret Atwood

I had an opportunity to speak with Texas State OF Bret Atwood last night at the softball game about his feelings on the Bobcats' first six games and an assortment of other things. Atwood is batting .130 so far through 23 at-bats with six strikeouts.

Texas State opens its 2010 home schedule tonight vs. No. 16 Rice at 6:30 p.m. The Bobcats were scheduled to play the Owls earlier this season, but the game was postponed due to a wintry mix.

On the team's low batting average through six games (.225) — "We’re just missing balls. We’re not too worried about our batting averages right now because we know they’re going to get up there and we know we’re going to start hitting people in the mouth like we have been."

On what leads to a low team batting average early in the season — "You want to start off well so a lot of people are pressing a little bit. If they’re relaxed, you know they’re going to hit it. We hit a lot more quality at-bats at Baylor and even though they’re not falling right now, they’re going to."

On the competition at the QTI Classic in Waco (Baylor, Texas A&M and Western Kentucky) — "It actually felt like a regional atmosphere, as far as the teams were. Our coaching staff was telling us, 'Take this as where you want to be in three months. You want to be playing in a tournament where these types of teams are.' Even though we got swept, we felt we were in all three games."

On what it takes to turn those losses into wins in that kind of atmosphere — "It's confidence. Coming off a sweep, it was a good confidence builder, but we didn't hit the ball like we knew we could, even though we swept them. If we have confidence, we get that extra-base hit that drives in two runs instead of popping it up and getting out of the inning."

On who is going to fill Paul Goldschmidt's spot in the lineup and bring the power — "Kyle Livingstone is doing a great job of providing some power in the lineup right now. Kyle Kubitza is just missing some balls right now. You can tell he's right on it, but fouling them off. He's going to be a big part of the lineup. Jason Martinson is missing balls too even though we watch him in practice hit a ball as far as Paul. We know it’s going to come around."

On how it feels to be back home (Texas State plays 9 out of its next 10 at Bobcat Field) — "We practiced (Tuesday) and it was like, 'Thank God, we're back at home.' We're really glad to start today and see what happens there."

On whether he'll be using 'The Circle of Life' as his batter walk-up music again — "I'm still going with 'The Lion King' this year. They gave it to us our freshmen year and I guess it kind of fits. It keeps our team loose. People start laughing, joking around and holding up the fake Simba in the dugout. It kind of keeps people loose to where it's a better atmosphere."

On some possible spoilers in terms of walk-up music this season — "There's a couple, but I guess you're going to have to find out (tonight)."