June 1, 2007

Recap | Box Score

Head Coach Steve Smith

On today's performance:

"The game was a very close, well played game; TCU won."

On Jeff Mandel's performance:

"His outing in Oklahoma City last week was probably the best I've ever seen him throw in terms of his stuff, and today was very close. He pitched extremely well. There were only a couple of balls that were well hit."

On the two seventh inning home runs Mandel surrendered:

"They've got some pretty strong, physical kids in the lineup. He's out there and they're seeing him for a third time, and I considered getting him after the sixth inning when we tied the ballgame up. (Bryan) Kervin was his last hitter regardless of what happened there. I've tried to let the opposition dictate when to take a pitcher out of a game, and they really hadn't done much to force a move, so I stayed with him."

On TCU reliever Sam Demel's performance:

"I'm sure we didn't see him at his very best. He looked terribly uncomfortable and under a great amount of stress, but he got it done."

On Ben Booker's strikeout that ended the game:

"Ben (Booker) laid off some good pitches. That guy (Demel) is a strikeout pitcher out there. He's got a good, hard slider, and you've got to give him credit that he was going to win or lose that game with his best pitch. Today he decided his best pitch was a slider; he threw it down and we chased it. There were other pitches in that at bat that he laid off of, and that was a good at bat."

On if he was surprised to see Demel come in during the seventh inning:

"I'm not any more surprised than me going with (Nick) Cassavechia with us behind. The first game is important to both teams, and if you're going to lose that game, you want to make sure that you do it with your best guys on the mound."

Baylor sophomore SS Beamer Weems

On his home run to lead off the ninth inning:

"I was just trying to stay on a pitch because I was pulling off all day. I just tried to go up the middle with something, and I stayed on a change-up."

On bouncing back from a close loss:

"It's tough, but we've done it all year. When we've lost a tough one, the next game we come back stronger than ever. That's just the way this team has been playing. We're not going to give any games away. The next game that we play we'll play just as hard as this one, and hopefully we'll come out on top."

On what it will take to come back and win the regional:

"If we play like we did today and have pitching, I think a couple of more balls will fall for us and we'll be right back there."

Baylor senior RHP Jeff Mandel

On how he felt in the seventh inning:

"I had a little bit more energy in that inning just because we had a long at bat the inning before. I came out and felt pretty good, but I just kind of left some stuff high. The two-seam that the lefty (Kervin) hit out was probably the worst pitch of the day."

On what was working for him today:

"My two-seamer was working really well, but I was just locating the fastball away most of the game and mixing in a slider to try to change some eye angles."

On how his last start helped him today:

"Our team has kind of put their game together the last couple of weeks, and it's kind of inspiring to see the way our young guys have come out. The last couple of times I've just tried to give it everything I had and not worry about going so many innings, just trying to go as hard as I can for as long as I can."