Texas' Joley Mitchell breaks down pair of home runs hit in Women's College World Series opening win

No. 6 Texas went on to win a 3-0 shutout in the opener of the Women’s College World Series on Thursday against No. 3 Florida. That margin was mostly created by infielder Joley Mitchell, who hit a pair of home runs to keep the Longhorns ahead from the third inning on.

Following the victory in Oklahoma City, Mitchell broke down the pair of homers she hit, making her the first player to hit multiple home runs in a game in the WCWS, with ESPN’s Holly Rowe. They came off a pair of different pitches, the first being up and in that went to left and the second being low and out, which went more toward right, but were hit with the same aggressive style from her perspective in the box.

“I kind of just was trying to keep my hands up,” Mitchell said of her first home run at the top of the second to open the scoring. “I was getting a few low pitches, just knowing that she was probably going to attack me inside still. So just staying my body up towards the middle and just attacking each pitch.”

“Honestly, I kind of just threw my hands at it,” Mitchell then said of her second one at the top of the sixth to extend the lead after it just escaped a robbery at the wall. “I knew that I was going to put a lot of effort into it and, if I get a little bit of it, they’re going to go. So just trusting myself to go that direction.”

Rowe also noticed the aggression in Mitchell just in her stance in the box. She said it’s all about winning her matchup against the pitcher, with her twice getting the better of Keagan Rothrock, with Katie Stewart doing so as well with a consecutive home run in the sixth to lead to a pitching change for the Gators

“I’m always up in the front of the box just so I can catch the ball before it breaks,” Mitchell said. “I trust myself on timing and just making sure that I’m going at her. It’s just me and the pitcher, so if I just make contact with the ball, I’m going to do good things.”

With that, Texas will advance in the winner’s bracket with a day off on Friday before playing the winner of No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 7 Tennessee on Saturday afternoon. That has the Longhorns with more than enough energy going into the weekend with one win secured, in large part due to Mitchell, in OKC.

“That’s huge,” Mitchell said. “We were loud the whole time. We had to get them in the middle of the game a little bit, saying, hey, we can hear you on defense, but we need you a little bit louder. We had a little bit of low energy in the middle, but we did a really great job. Everybody was keeping each other up.

“We’re just going to get our day off and continue to come back on Saturday.”