Game 6 Notes - TCU vs Ole Miss
NCAA COLLEGE STATION REGIONAL OLSEN FIELD AT BLUE BELL PARK COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS GAME 6: TCU 5, OLE MISS 2 JUNE 3, 2012 TCU NOTES • TCU improves to 39-‐20 and will face Ole Miss in the regional championship game on Monday at 6:35 p.m. • TCU, 1-‐1 against Ole Miss in the regional, improves to 7-‐5 in the all-‐time series against the Rebels. • TCU is 17-‐17 all-‐time in NCAA Regionals. • TCU posted its third win in a regional for the third time in program history (2009, 2010, 2012). • TCU advances to the championship game for the fourth time in school history. Previously, the Frogs advanced in 2007, 2009 and 2010. • TCU has scored 45 runs in its four regional games thus far. • The Horned Frogs have had a power surge at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park, hitting eight home runs in four games in the College Station Regional. They have now hit at least one home run in the last seven games overall. • Second baseman Derek Odell continues his hot streak at the plate with a hit in 16 of TCU’s last 18 games. He had two hits in tonight’s game, giving him 13 multi-‐hit games on the season. • Jerrick Suiter extended his hitting team-‐best streak to seven games. • Kyle Von Tungeln and Josh Elander have both reached base in a team-‐leading 10 consecutive games. • Kevin Cron recorded his 10th multi-‐RBI game of the year. • Starting pitcher Brandon Finnegan, who took the loss against Ole Miss on Friday in a relief appearance in which he did not record an out, threw 7.1 innings, allowing six hits and two runs and striking out seven. OLE MISS NOTES • Ole Miss falls to 37-‐25 and will play TCU again on Monday at 6:35 p.m. The winner will advance to the super regional and will play the winner of the Los Angeles Regional. • Ole Miss falls to 44-‐36 in NCAA post-‐season play, advancing to the NCAA Regional 17 times and the College World Series four times. • Senior R.J. Hively started for the 12th time this season. Hively appeared in all three of the Ole Miss’ games in the regional so far. • Two Rebels continued multiple-‐game hit streaks through their third game of the NCAA Regional: junior OF Tanner Mathis leads the Rebels with a season high 10-‐game hit streak, while Andrew Mistone now a has a three-‐ game hit streak. Alex Yarbrough saw his four-‐game hit streak come to an end. • Two Rebels’ on-‐base streaks have increase through their third game of the NCAA Regional. Tanner Mathis leads the way with a season-‐high 16-‐game on-‐base streak. Alex Yarbrough has reached base in seven straight games. • Mathis has been disciplined at the plate through 62 games this season. He has struck out only 18 times and has drawn a team-‐leading 38 walks and been hit by a pitch. • Senior Matt Snyder continued his assent up the standings on the Rebel record book with another RBI. His season total of 62 places him in a tie for eighth place in a single season. Snyder’s 171 career RBI place him third all-‐time behind only Logan Power and Matt Smith (183). Snyder had his 22nd multi-‐hit game of the year. • Ole Miss falls to 27-‐6 in games that a Rebel crosses the plate first.
NCAA COLLEGE STATION REGIONAL OLSEN FIELD AT BLUE BELL PARK COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS GAME 6: OLE MISS VS. TCU JUNE 3, 2012 Ole Miss QUOTES Head Coach Mike Bianco “The story of the game was TCU just played better than we did tonight. They pitched better, they hit better, and they fielded better. When you get to this point you are not going to sneak through. You have to go out and win the baseball game. I give them a lot of credit. I thought [Brandon] Finnegan was tremendous. We couldn’t catch up to the fastball, we chased some balls up, and he dumped enough breaking balls in there to keep us off balance. Obviously they got two great pitching performances today from both of their starters. [R.J.] Hively was a warrior, just like we thought he would be. He gave us a gutsy performance, but we have to help him a little more than we did.” On starting R.J Hively… “If there was a possibility to start him on the third day then we would. We didn’t know until about 5:30. We wanted to play catch and see how he felt. He said he felt great, but we knew from experience he was going to give us around five innings. He was going to give us about 75 pitches or so, and he did. He gave us a gutsy performance against a team that is really swinging the bat well. You have to credit them. I thought they had some great at bats, especially with runners in scoring position. [R.J.] gave us everything he had today. He did what he needed to do. We just didn’t do enough defensively or offensively.” On TCU’s offense… “They only got eight hits today, but they got the timely hits. They got the big home run from [Derek] Odell, and another big hit from [Josh] Gonzales to extend the lead to three. They had some great at bats today. Obviously they didn’t swing it like they swung it in the Dayton game and the Texas A&M game, but you can tell they are playing with a lot of confidence.” Senior Pitcher R.J. Hively On how he felt tonight… “I felt great. I told Coach [Bianco] I wanted to throw before to see how I felt, and that if I could go I wanted to go. The big key today was I was getting my fastball over. They had to honor that so when I threw my slider it was that much better. I was fine up until the later innings, when I started to tire and left some pitches up. When you do that against a team that is swinging the bat the way they are you are going to get beat. Throughout the game they made great adjustments on how I was trying to throw to them and it showed, because they put together some good innings.” Senior Infielder Matt Snyder
On what it will take to win tomorrow… “We have to come out with energy. We can’t just think they are a tired team who has played a bunch of games, because we have all seen how they have done the last couple games. They are going to be ready to swing it tomorrow. We have to be confident in what we can do, and know that we have a great opportunity to win a championship tomorrow. We have to keep our heads high tonight and be ready to play tomorrow.”
NCAA COLLEGE STATION REGIONAL OLSEN FIELD AT BLUE BELL PARK COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS GAME 1: TCU 5, OLE MISS 2 JUNE 3, 2012 TCU POSTGAME QUOTES Head Coach Jim Schlossnagle Opening Statement “Obviously that was an exciting finish to a really good day for TCU. I’m really proud of the way our guys competed throughout the day. They played with great energy – the guys on the field and the guys in the dugout. We certainly got two phenomenal pitching performances from [Stefan Crichton] and then Brandon [Finnegan]. I can’t say enough about Brandon, especially after taking the loss on Friday you you’re not pitching as well as you’re capable of out of the bullpen. To come give us what he gave us today was just phenomenal. I wish the day would have won us something but it hasn’t. It feels good, but certainly we have to forget about it really fast.” On timely hitting after struggling offensively during the regular season ”I know it’s hard to believe this but we’ve always felt like we had a better offensive club than we have shown. Our ballpark is predominately a pitchers’ park and sometimes that weighs on the minds of our hitters. I think when we get away from home our guys play with a little more confidence. In the game of baseball things can turn on a dime and you start having some success, you start seeing some balls fall in and it just feeds from one guy to the next. I’m excited about the way we’re playing but again, the past never equals the future. We’re just going to have to keep grinding it out for one more day. We’re playing for all of the marbles in this Regional tomorrow and I know Ole Miss will be ready to go as well, so it will be a dogfight.” On Brandon Finnegan’s performance on the mound “When he gets on top of the baseball and throws downhill he’s just really tough to beat. Obviously he has good velocity and he pitches with a good angle and throws off-speed pitches just enough to keep you honest. When he throws strikes he’s just tough to beat. There’s a reason why he was drafted by the Rangers and there’s a reason why we just think he’s an All-American type pitcher for us in time.” On the TCU freshmen “It’s neat to see them grow up before your eyes. They’re all playing well. They all had things to overcome, whether it be maturity away from the field or overcoming injury in the case of Kevin Cron. Keaton [Jones] – I’m really proud of him as well – and Jerrick [Suiter]. If [Jason] Coats doesn’t get hurt, Jerrick may not even be on the field or maybe [designated hitting]. Those guys are our core players for years to come. They’re cornerstone guys and as long as they continue to believe in our program and the things that we stand for, the sky is the limit for all of them.”
On Kevin Cron’s big catch in the camera well “Big, big play in the game. Two outs, they’d loaded the bases with two outs. I think [Finnegan] – I was real close to getting him. Huge play. If you ever come watch us take batting practice, we shoot pop-ups out of a machine during [batting practice]. We don’t necessarily practice that one but we practice a lot of pop-ups right on the line every day before a game starts. I told him that he should give a little credit to the coaching staff because we practice that. That was a great play. It was a very athletic play and the ump did a great job of staying with it as well.” On whether [Andrew] Mitchell will be pitching tomorrow “Other than Finnegan and Crichton, it will be all-hands-on-deck tomorrow. What order we go, I don’t know. But certainly anybody and everybody who is on our pitching staff with the exception of the two starters today are going to have to give us something tomorrow, likely.” On whether he’s made a decision on tomorrow’s starter “No I haven’t. I want to get back and get a shower.” On how long momentum will last “To me, momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher. That’s the old baseball saying. Momentum today was Crichton and Finnegan. We swung the bat well. I’ve always said this and I may be wrong, but the game begins and ends with starting pitching. When a guy goes out there and keeps them at-bay, that gives your hitters confidence. If you’re always fighting from behind, then it’s a nightmare. I’m hoping we can continue swinging the bat, but we’re playing one of the elite teams in the SEC and they have some guys that they haven’t pitched yet. Our pitching is going to have to give us a chance, and then hopefully we’ll get enough timely hits.” On Bobby Wahl likely pitching for Ole Miss “He’s a great pitcher and he’s a very competitive kid. We’re all playing for the same right to get a chance to advance to next weekend. I’m sure he’s going to give it everything he has and we’re going to do the same.” Freshman Pitcher Brandon Finnegan On his performance tonight compared to Friday “After Friday I was a little nervous because I got the loss. I was going to give it all I had because I knew our baseball team was. I’m not going to quit on my team and they’re not going to quit on me. I know they’re behind me 100 percent so I was pretty confident after that first inning.” Freshman Second Baseman Derek Odell On his home run “There were two strikes and it was a cutter down-the-middle but it cut in. With two strikes I was just trying to stay short with it and I guess since I was short with it, it got up in the wind and went over the wall. I used the wind to my advantage a little bit.” On whether he still feels like a freshman “I definitely still feel like a freshman. I’ll carry my bag everywhere and I’ll be ok with it. I do feel more experienced now that the season has gone by but I have definitely grown from this atmosphere, the Regional atmosphere. I feel like I’ve grown a whole lot from it baseball-wise.”
On how hard it is to play two games in a day “It’s hard but in these circumstances it’s not really that hard because you want to win so bad that you don’t really realize that you’re that tired. The guys in the dugout keep it fun. The games – I can’t explain how fun they are. It’s really not as bad as it seems until after the fact.”
NCAA COLLEGE STATION REGIONAL OLSEN FIELD AT BLUE BELL PARK COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS GAME 6: OLE MISS VS. TCU JUNE 3, 2012 Ole Miss QUOTES Head Coach Mike Bianco “The story of the game was TCU just played better than we did tonight. They pitched better, they hit better, and they fielded better. When you get to this point you are not going to sneak through. You have to go out and win the baseball game. I give them a lot of credit. I thought [Brandon] Finnegan was tremendous. We couldn’t catch up to the fastball, we chased some balls up, and he dumped enough breaking balls in there to keep us off balance. Obviously they got two great pitching performances today from both of their starters. [R.J.] Hively was a warrior, just like we thought he would be. He gave us a gutsy performance, but we have to help him a little more than we did.” On starting R.J Hively… “If there was a possibility to start him on the third day then we would. We didn’t know until about 5:30. We wanted to play catch and see how he felt. He said he felt great, but we knew from experience he was going to give us around five innings. He was going to give us about 75 pitches or so, and he did. He gave us a gutsy performance against a team that is really swinging the bat well. You have to credit them. I thought they had some great at bats, especially with runners in scoring position. [R.J.] gave us everything he had today. He did what he needed to do. We just didn’t do enough defensively or offensively.” On TCU’s offense… “They only got eight hits today, but they got the timely hits. They got the big home run from [Derek] Odell, and another big hit from [Josh] Gonzales to extend the lead to three. They had some great at bats today. Obviously they didn’t swing it like they swung it in the Dayton game and the Texas A&M game, but you can tell they are playing with a lot of confidence.” Senior Pitcher R.J. Hively On how he felt tonight… “I felt great. I told Coach [Bianco] I wanted to throw before to see how I felt, and that if I could go I wanted to go. The big key today was I was getting my fastball over. They had to honor that so when I threw my slider it was that much better. I was fine up until the later innings, when I started to tire and left some pitches up. When you do that against a team that is swinging the bat the way they are you are going to get beat. Throughout the game they made great adjustments on how I was trying to throw to them and it showed, because they put together some good innings.” Senior Infielder Matt Snyder
On what it will take to win tomorrow… “We have to come out with energy. We can’t just think they are a tired team who has played a bunch of games, because we have all seen how they have done the last couple games. They are going to be ready to swing it tomorrow. We have to be confident in what we can do, and know that we have a great opportunity to win a championship tomorrow. We have to keep our heads high tonight and be ready to play tomorrow.”
NCAA COLLEGE STATION REGIONAL OLSEN FIELD AT BLUE BELL PARK COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS GAME 1: TCU 5, OLE MISS 2 JUNE 3, 2012 TCU POSTGAME QUOTES Head Coach Jim Schlossnagle Opening Statement “Obviously that was an exciting finish to a really good day for TCU. I’m really proud of the way our guys competed throughout the day. They played with great energy – the guys on the field and the guys in the dugout. We certainly got two phenomenal pitching performances from [Stefan Crichton] and then Brandon [Finnegan]. I can’t say enough about Brandon, especially after taking the loss on Friday you you’re not pitching as well as you’re capable of out of the bullpen. To come give us what he gave us today was just phenomenal. I wish the day would have won us something but it hasn’t. It feels good, but certainly we have to forget about it really fast.” On timely hitting after struggling offensively during the regular season ”I know it’s hard to believe this but we’ve always felt like we had a better offensive club than we have shown. Our ballpark is predominately a pitchers’ park and sometimes that weighs on the minds of our hitters. I think when we get away from home our guys play with a little more confidence. In the game of baseball things can turn on a dime and you start having some success, you start seeing some balls fall in and it just feeds from one guy to the next. I’m excited about the way we’re playing but again, the past never equals the future. We’re just going to have to keep grinding it out for one more day. We’re playing for all of the marbles in this Regional tomorrow and I know Ole Miss will be ready to go as well, so it will be a dogfight.” On Brandon Finnegan’s performance on the mound “When he gets on top of the baseball and throws downhill he’s just really tough to beat. Obviously he has good velocity and he pitches with a good angle and throws off-speed pitches just enough to keep you honest. When he throws strikes he’s just tough to beat. There’s a reason why he was drafted by the Rangers and there’s a reason why we just think he’s an All-American type pitcher for us in time.” On the TCU freshmen “It’s neat to see them grow up before your eyes. They’re all playing well. They all had things to overcome, whether it be maturity away from the field or overcoming injury in the case of Kevin Cron. Keaton [Jones] – I’m really proud of him as well – and Jerrick [Suiter]. If [Jason] Coats doesn’t get hurt, Jerrick may not even be on the field or maybe [designated hitting]. Those guys are our core players for years to come. They’re cornerstone guys and as long as they continue to believe in our program and the things that we stand for, the sky is the limit for all of them.”
On Kevin Cron’s big catch in the camera well “Big, big play in the game. Two outs, they’d loaded the bases with two outs. I think [Finnegan] – I was real close to getting him. Huge play. If you ever come watch us take batting practice, we shoot pop-ups out of a machine during [batting practice]. We don’t necessarily practice that one but we practice a lot of pop-ups right on the line every day before a game starts. I told him that he should give a little credit to the coaching staff because we practice that. That was a great play. It was a very athletic play and the ump did a great job of staying with it as well.” On whether [Andrew] Mitchell will be pitching tomorrow “Other than Finnegan and Crichton, it will be all-hands-on-deck tomorrow. What order we go, I don’t know. But certainly anybody and everybody who is on our pitching staff with the exception of the two starters today are going to have to give us something tomorrow, likely.” On whether he’s made a decision on tomorrow’s starter “No I haven’t. I want to get back and get a shower.” On how long momentum will last “To me, momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher. That’s the old baseball saying. Momentum today was Crichton and Finnegan. We swung the bat well. I’ve always said this and I may be wrong, but the game begins and ends with starting pitching. When a guy goes out there and keeps them at-bay, that gives your hitters confidence. If you’re always fighting from behind, then it’s a nightmare. I’m hoping we can continue swinging the bat, but we’re playing one of the elite teams in the SEC and they have some guys that they haven’t pitched yet. Our pitching is going to have to give us a chance, and then hopefully we’ll get enough timely hits.” On Bobby Wahl likely pitching for Ole Miss “He’s a great pitcher and he’s a very competitive kid. We’re all playing for the same right to get a chance to advance to next weekend. I’m sure he’s going to give it everything he has and we’re going to do the same.” Freshman Pitcher Brandon Finnegan On his performance tonight compared to Friday “After Friday I was a little nervous because I got the loss. I was going to give it all I had because I knew our baseball team was. I’m not going to quit on my team and they’re not going to quit on me. I know they’re behind me 100 percent so I was pretty confident after that first inning.” Freshman Second Baseman Derek Odell On his home run “There were two strikes and it was a cutter down-the-middle but it cut in. With two strikes I was just trying to stay short with it and I guess since I was short with it, it got up in the wind and went over the wall. I used the wind to my advantage a little bit.” On whether he still feels like a freshman “I definitely still feel like a freshman. I’ll carry my bag everywhere and I’ll be ok with it. I do feel more experienced now that the season has gone by but I have definitely grown from this atmosphere, the Regional atmosphere. I feel like I’ve grown a whole lot from it baseball-wise.”
On how hard it is to play two games in a day “It’s hard but in these circumstances it’s not really that hard because you want to win so bad that you don’t really realize that you’re that tired. The guys in the dugout keep it fun. The games – I can’t explain how fun they are. It’s really not as bad as it seems until after the fact.”
