OLE MISS POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Mike Bianco
“I thought we just played really well today. It always starts on the mound and Bobby [Wahl] gave us a great effort. He really had an electric fastball today and we stuck with it a lot to get us that deep in the game. Of course R.J. [Hively] has done what he’s done for the second half of the season at the end of the games. We’re very clean defensively, but probably the thing that especially our beat reporters have seen over the last three weeks – today we got the big hits. We were able to put an inning together and I thought Tanner Mathis had a tremendous game, just kept pressure on them the whole game. At the top of our lineup, we’ve got him hitting close to .350 and he walks. He’s just tough to strike out, and once he gets on base he makes a lot of things happen. Of course, in those two innings he gets us going. Good day for us.”

On Bobby Wahl getting out of a tough situation on the mound
“It’s always good, obviously, to minimize the inning but it really wasn’t that bad of an inning. You start off with their leadoff guy that does a great job. You always want to get the leadoff guy; you don’t want to walk him, a guy that can steal. He did a great job with a fastball up the middle and [Josh] Elander gets fisted with the runner running and gets to third base – it’s first and third – and then gets another fist job from [Kevin] Cron right to the first baseman, so he just didn’t have a bad inning. I thought they did some good things and really maxed out that inning. It was only two base hits but one hit well.

On Wahl’s pitching approach
“Bobby and I just talked after the game and he thought his slider wasn’t real good today. We went a lot with the fastball, but I talked with (Mike) Myers as we were calling the game to be able to still mix hits – to still throw a slider to lead off a hitter and dump a slider in there, to be able to throw one at 1-2. It really keeps people off of your fastball to make your fastball more electric. I thought today was all about his fastball, but he was able especially early on to make some changes and get some sliders in.

On R.J. Hively’s performance
“He was coming in, regardless. It would have been a big decision if we already had the four-run lead before we made a decision to go to R.J., but that decision came about and Bobby was coming out and his day was done. At that time the score was tied, we had already told R.J. he was coming in. Once [Auston Bousfield] took the ball four, we’re one ahead. Now it’s a save opportunity, we’re in a good situation. But then three runs later it’s 6-2. He’s already loose, he’s already ready to go so we just left him in there. I think he was vintage R.J. that he’s been the last half of the season for us at the back end.

On TCU pitcher Preston Morrison
“He was terrific. The approach was for the left-handers to hit him up the middle the other way. His ball sinks so much and you can see why he’s had so much success this year. He’s just terrific. Usually those guys have a lot of trouble with left-handers, but it almost seemed like today our left-handers had as much trouble, if not more, than the right-handers.”

Sophomore Pitcher Bobby Wahl
On getting into a rhythm
“I think the biggest thing was that going out there in the first inning I tried to do too much. I tried to make that one pitch that would get all three outs, but it doesn’t really work that way. I think after that first inning, I really settled in myself and just realized you’ve got to make quality pitches and then let your defense work and they did a great job.”

Junior Second Baseman Alex Yarbrough
On getting a timely hit
“It’s huge. It seems like we’ve been talking about the big inning for the last few weeks or so and now to get two runs in three batters with the top of our order in the sixth inning and then in the eighth to put up a four spot with huge at-bats by young guys. You know, [Auston] Bousfield works at the 3-2, fouls off a couple of pitches and then takes a high fastball – which is probably the toughest pitch you take in that situation, you know everyone wants to put the ball in the gap and clear the bases – but to take that high fastball was huge for us. And then Sikes [Orvis], the pitcher hadn’t thrown a curve ball since he’s been out there and then he dumps in two really good curve balls to him and I think he gets down to 1-2 and then I think he gets a base hit on a curve ball up the middle, on a barrel. Two huge at-bats by younger guys there. And then obviously Mathis was terrific today. A great day for the offense and something we look to build on.

On his second approach at the plate
“In my first two at-bats, he threw pitches that I thought were going to be thigh-high fastballs but they were about four inches off the ground. There’s nothing you can do with those pitches except ground out to second base and that’s what he was getting most of us to do with them. We’ve got some of the best left-handed fastball hitters in the conference and maybe in the country on our team, and he was doing a great job keeping us off balance.”

Freshman DH Sikes Orvis
On being down in the count working his way back
“Nothing really. Just showing up a little bit, trying to see the ball in deep, just stay on your legs with two strikes. First couple of at-bats I was really jumping on the ball, rolling over, not staying in my approach. With two strikes it’s really tough to see the ball in deep and go back on the metal with it.

On his second approach at the plate
“With me, I just didn’t have a very good at bat my first time out, so I wanted to take a purpose of trying to see more pitches and have quality at-bats.“

TCU POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Jim Schlossnagle
“Obviously it was a disappointing finish to the last three innings of the game. For the majority of the season we haven’t been an explosive offensive team. For the first half of the season our bullpen was really sharp. We didn’t throw enough strikes. We set the table for a good offensive team, throw in a hit batter, bunch that around a hit then an error, and you aren’t going to win regional games playing like that. It was a good ballgame for seven innings, but then it fell apart for us.”

On only scoring one in the first…
“We had a runner at second base and one out. I felt grateful for the run we got, because Bobby [Wahl] is a great pitcher. He showed that throughout the course of the day. He really competed well. I was hoping we could get a few more because I knew with Preston [Morrison] throwing and all their lefties stacked at the top of the order, they were going to make adjustments at some point.”

On facing Bobby Wahl again…
We had a good game plan going against him I thought, between the way [Bobby] pitches and I know Mike [Bianco] well. They dominated the outer half of the plate with the fastball. That’s what they have always done. We felt going into the game that every right-handed hitter was going to get a fastball away to hit. We didn’t do a good job of hitting the ball the other way, and he painted the outer half of the plate. He is a much better pitcher today. The first time we faced him he was just a thrower. He’s an elite SEC Friday night pitcher now.”

Freshman Infielder Kevin Cron
On his home run…
“The first at bat I had he busted me inside with a couple of fast balls. So I knew he was going to do something like that again. Once he got ahead, I was able to sit back on a breaking ball that he left up. It felt good off the bat. I got enough of it, and that’s all that mattered. It was left up, and I was able to get the barrel to it.”

Junior Outfielder Kyle Von Tungeln
On losing the first game of a regional…
“The key is we are going to have to put better at bats together and compete every pitch. You can’t ever take a pitch off mentally, and I felt like we did that a couple times tonight.”