TCU NARROWLY BEATS NEW MEXICO 2-0 IN THE CONFERENCE FINAL

With a busted radiator and three gallons of water in the back seat, I proceeded like an undeterred sheep to cross the border about mid day. There was the everyday three hour line to reach San Diego from Tijuana Mexico, and once there, I refilled my car with water once again and headed to Tony Gwynn Stadium for Day 4 of the Mountain West Conference Championships. The scouts equipped with radar guns, stop watches, and video cameras scoured the stands trying to take a peak at very specific players. It was a day filled with sadness for the parents of those students in eliminated teams and even more melancholic for those with sons in their senior year. Still, life continues and the idea that a bright future awaits them as grown men allows us to move forward to the final two teams in the tournament. It was a match up between the Lobos of the University of New Mexico, and the powerful 6 th ranked TCU Horned Frogs. I sat in the stands listening to rumors of the MWC possibly being dismantled in the near future, when suddenly the silence broke as TCU took the field with the intensity you’d expect from a team this highly praised. I could have expected many things from this game, but I never thought I would have been so satisfied.

Watching the Horned Frogs turn double plays, it looked like a bunch of professionals rather than student athletes. The defensive combination of shortstop Taylor Featherston and second baseman Aaron Schultz was classic and exciting. The offense from TCU was not much, as a team they banged out 8 hits and scored two runs off the bats of center fielder Brance Rivera (3for4), third baseman Jantzen Witte (2 for 3 1 RBI), and Catcher Bryan Holaday (1 for 4 1 RBI). Bryan Holaday was the tournaments MVP as well as a member of the All-Conference team. His style of play behind the plate was impressive, and his leadership was clear during the entire tournament. Pitching wise, the Horned Frogs are deeper than magma in the earth. On the first game against Utah, they sent freshman pitcher Matt Purke who struck out 14 hitters in 7 innings. Purke led the entire conference in strikeouts with 113. In their second game against UNLV they called on Kyle Winkler who struck out 12 in 9 full innings.

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On day 4 to close out their conquest of the tournament, they sent Steven Maxwell to the mound. He had the overall 2 nd best ERA of the conference and pitched 6 great innings against the Lobos. Although he was the winning pitcher, he was matched up against New Mexico’s Jason Oatman. Oatman was no slouch on Day 4. He tossed 8 innings and only gave up 6 hits and 2 runs. I don’t think Oatman has pitched this well in his entire collegiate career, and because the Lobo bats including Justin Howard who hit .463 during the season tied for 1st in the entire nation, had no answers for a dominate TCU arm, Oatman was forced to accept another loss. As a senior, he should hold his head up high as he leaves college baseball behind with the memory of pitching a gem against a team many expect to win a national title. If TCU would have won the game in a typical college fashion with a blowout, things just wouldn’t have been the same. Even though New Mexico proved TCU’s pitching prowess, New Mexico behind the shocking arm of Jason Oatman kept TCU hitters off balance and sweating for a whole game. This has to go down as an extremely memorable game for New Mexico, and the beginning of a long journey for a TCU team looking to win their first national title in their schools history. All fans of the Mountain West Conference will be represented very well by TCU on the national stage.

By: Adrian Nevarez
DFN Sports Staff Writer