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.
Here are the quotes from TCU's head coach Jim Schlossnagle in regards to Mitchell's performance:
"I would say that considering the circumstances, this was probably his best performance of the year. His start at Baylor, his first start of the year, on the road, was pretty good too. I thought he set the tone early in the first inning. We haven't seen that kind of velocity from him in a couple of weeks, between 92-94, and strike after strike. With my freshman pitchers in the past, including Winkler and Purke, you know they have the stuff to do well, you just want to get them through the first inning. I also thought he did a great job of playing his position in the first inning. He is a good athlete."
The offensive star of the game goes to third baseman Jantzen Witte who went 3-4 with three RBI's and a run. For highlights of this game go here and ESPN3.com will have the replay available.
TCU now takes on Dallas Baptist who defeated Oklahoma in the first game by a score of 3-2 in 10 innings, whereas Oral Roberts faces Oklahoma in the elimination game.
Here is Saturday's schedule (times are ET)
Game 3, Oklahoma vs. Oral Roberts, 3 p.m., June 4 TV: ESPN3.com
Game 4, Dallas Baptist vs. TCU, 8 p.m., June 4 TV: ESPN3.com