Mountain West Baseball
2011 College Baseball Tournament: TCU Falls To Dallas Baptist, New Mexico Eliminated
New Mexico's post season run came to an end as they were shut out 3-0 by Arkansas and were led by pitcher D.J. Baxendale who held New Mexico to four hits in eight innings. As for the other Mountain West team, TCU lost for the third time this year to Dallas Baptist 3-2. TCU started Matt Purke for Saturday's game and he had a solid game, but nothing spectacular like last year. Purke went five innings, gave up two runs, two hits, walked two and struck out six.
The first run on the board in game came when two wild pitches by Purke allowed Dallas Baptist Ryan Behmanesh to advance to second base on the first one and then he made it home on the second wild pitch. This was an exciting time for Dallas Baptist fans, and even those who were not particularly interested would have looked up from their books or games of Partypoker to see what happened next. In the third inning a RBI double by Jason Krizan put Dallas Baptist up 2-0. TCU then tied the game at two in the fifth inning when Taylor Featherston doubled in a run and then Brett Johnson had an RBI ground out. Then Landon Anderson put Dallas Baptist up for good in the sixth with an RBI single to make the score 3-2.
2011 College Baseball Tournament: TCU Vs. Dallas Baptist, New Mexico Vs. Arkansas
TCU advanced after rolling past Oral Roberts on Friday 10-2, and now they take on Dallas Baptist for the chance to move onto the regional final. TCU played Dallas Baptist twice during the regular season, first on March 1, where the Patriots picked up a 4-3 victory and then on April 24 they won again, 9-7.
On Saturday, Matt Purke starts for TCU and Jared Stafford takes the mound for Dallas Baptist. TCU is hoping that Matt Purke can relive his freshman campaign in the NCAA tournament where Purke was dominant. The loser of this game goes on to take on the winner of the Oklahoma vs. Oral Roberts game.
Game 3, Oklahoma vs. Oral Roberts, 3 p.m. ET, June 4 TV: ESPN3.com
Game 4, Dallas Baptist vs. TCU, 8 p.m. ET, June 4 TV: ESPN3.com
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2011 NCAA Baseball Tournament: Arizona State Hits Walk-Off Home Run To Defeat New Mexico, 4-2
The New Mexico Lobos were not even expected to make the field of 64 for the NCAA tournament, but they did and nearly upset No. 1 seeded and regional host Arizona State Friday night. The game was a pitching dual with the Lobos leading 2-0 in the eighth inning, but then fell apart in the eighth and ninth to allow Arizona State to advance. New Mexico starting pitcher Rudy Jaramillo gave up his second earned run to start the ninth and was then pulled for Gera Sanchez who had a tough night.
Sanchez had a passed ball that allowed runners to advance to second and third with one out, and in my opinion he should have intentionally walked ldesignated hitter Joey DeMichele. to load the bases and allow a force out at any base. DeMichele was 1-4 on the night so it was not a terrible idea to pitch to him, but with only one out the intentional walk seemed to be the better move looking back. DeMichele then hit a walk-off three-run home run for the Sun Devils to win 4-2 and move on to face Charlotte who upset Arkansas in the afternoon game.
2011 NCAA Baseball Tournament: TCU Cruises Past Oral Roberts, 10-2
TCU won their opening game in the 2011 NCAA baseball tournament by easily defeating No. 4 seeded Oral Roberts 10-2. TCU raced out to a quick 5-0 by a barrage of singles to take the lead after two innings and TCU never looked back. Freshman TCU pitcher Andrew Mitchell pitched seven scoreless innings, and here are his quotes from tonight's win:
[In reference to the first inning] "I definitely wanted to get out there and throw strikes to get out of there as quick as I could and have that first inning out of the way. It worked out pretty good."
"I felt like I had the same control. I was really trying to just hit my spots and not leave the ball over the middle of the plate and keeping the ball down. I didn't bury some sliders tonight like I should have, but I got away with it today, but I thought I had pretty good command tonight. I only had one walk, so that was good."
Not bad for his first NCAA tournament start.
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2011 NCAA Baseball Tournament: Previewing Fort Worth, Tempe Regions
The 2011 NCAA baseball tournament gets underway on Friday so I figured it would be good to scour some websites to provide a detailed preview of the games. So here it is.
TCU has played every team in their region in 2011 and has a combined record of 1-4 against Oklahoma, Dallas Baptist and Oral Roberts. That lone win came against Oral Roberts, and the only other matchup between teams from this region is a 3-2 Dallas Baptist win over Oklahoma.
The SB Nation site MLB Bonus Baby which focuses on the MLB Draft has recently taken to breaking down all the NCAA baseball tournament regions.
Here is what they say about the Fort Worth region:
Matt Purke is the ultimate X-factor, both in the MLB Draft and for TCU's post season hopes. If the 2010 version should show up - the one that had command of a mid 90s fastball, an above average breaking ball and an average change - TCU should have no trouble rolling through this Regional. If the 2011 version should show up - the one that showed little command of a high 80s fastball - TCU will need the rest of their starters to continue to pick up the pieces. Kyle Winkler has filled in as the de facto ace, bringing his game to a level that no one anticipated, and Freshman Andrew Mitchell has emerged as a very good starter. Oklahoma will be a tough out and has handled TCU during mid-week action this year. The outcome of this Regional likely hinges on Purke, and I'm not confident in his health at this point; I'll take Oklahoma to advance.
2011 NCAA College Baseball Tournament: Getting To Know Arizona State
New Mexico takes on Arizona State Friday at 6 p.m. MDT in the 2011 NCAA baseball tournament, and Arizona State's House of Sparky SB Nation site was kind enough to answer a few questions about the Friday's matchup.

1. Who are the playmakers for this Arizona State team?
ASU has an interesting identity. Joey DeMichele has been tearing the cover off the ball in recent weeks, and over the season he's hit seven home runs with 39 RBI. Most impressive is his .371 batting average. Riccio Torrez has been playing well at third base, delivering a team-high 46 RBI in 2011. That's the thing about the Sun Devils -- they come at you from a lot of different directions and it's hard to stop them.
2011 NCAA Baseball Tournament: New Mexico Heads To Tempe, TCU To Host Their Regional
The New Mexico Lobos had an amazing run by winning the Mountain West Conference tournament to secure an NCAA tournament bid. The Lobos have the worst record out of any team to make the tournament and join Arkansas-Little Rock as the only other team to have a losing record in the tournament.
The Lobos are placed in the Tempe Region and to no one's surprise is a No. 4 seed and will take on No. 1 seed Arizona State at their own park. The other two teams in the Tempe region are No. 3 seeded Arkansas and No. 4 seeded Charlotte. No one is expecting New Mexico to move on, but they are 4-0 in the postseason, so we will see if they can continue the magic.
As mentioned early, TCU is the top seed and will host a regional against No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Dallas Baptist and No. 4 Oral Roberts. None of the games are on television in this round for either region, so following along will not be easy. The CBS Gametracker is the way to go to follow these games.
2011 Mountain West Baseball Tournament Update: TCU Falls To Six Seeded New Mexico
The No. 6 seeded New Mexico Lobos are making a run in the Mountain West baseball tournament as they have upset No. 3 seeded BYU and now they defeated top seeded TCU 4-3. In other action Utah took out host San Diego State 7-3 and sent the Aztecs to the losers bracket. The other game had BYU sending home UNLV by defeating them 5-1.
With TCU losing to New Mexico their chances of hosting a regional and possibly even a super-regional round have been diminished by losing to New Mexico, but the Horned Frogs can rebound to regain solid footing by winning the Mountain West tournament.
Here is today's schedule and the loser of BYU vs. San Diego State is out of the tournament.
No. 3 BYU vs. No. 4 San Diego State 11 a.m. PT TV: CBS Sports and The Mtn.
Winner of BYU/San Diego State vs. No. 1 TCU 3 p.m. PT TV: CBS Sports and The Mtn.
No. 2 Utah vs. No. 6 New Mexico 7 p.m. PT TV: CBS Sports and The Mtn.
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