UT pitcher in 'zone' with 169 pitches

AUSTIN (KXAN) - While many said University of Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido left pitcher Austin Wood in too long during Saturday night's game against Boston College, the pitcher told Garrido's critics to back off.

Some said Wood's 169 pitch count was too high for the 12 1/3 innings he was in the game, but he said it was his decision to stay in. Wood said he was in the zone during Texas 2-3 win against Boston College , telling coaches on numerous occassions that he wasn't coming out.

"It's the best performance I've seen in 41 years of coaching," said Garrido.

Garrido said he knows he's responsible for the well-being of his players but that in this situation his responsibility was also to allow Wood to experience the magic he wanted to experience.

"If a player is in a zone and in the middle of something as magical as Austin, you just have to let it happen," said Garrido.

Garrido also added that as a captain, the magical part about all of this is that the baseball team is a different team now than it was last weekend.

Wood said he knew the opportunity and wasn't going to let his team down.

The UT baseball team said it is looking forward to the Super Regional this weekend against Texas Christian University .

Interesting fact: Wood only threw up once, even after having had two power bars and about 52 cups of Gatorade during the game.