TCU Baseball Explodes Against Air Force
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USAF ACADEMY, Colo. – The TCU offense exploded for 17 runs on 21 hits in a 17-2 victory over Air Force Saturday afternoon. Brance Rivera homered twice and drove in four runs, while Andrew Mitchell tossed five scoreless innings in the win.
Mitchell (5-2) worked five scoreless innings, allowing two hits, a walk and struck out seven. Tyler Duffie tossed two scoreless frames, walking two and striking out one. Travis Evans was touched for two runs (one earned) on three hits with a strikeout in his lone inning of work. Jerrick Suiter gave up a hit in the ninth.
Brance Rivera reached on a lead-off error and the Frogs turned it into a 1-0 lead. He was standing on second with two outs when Ben Bertelson uncorked a wild pitch. The ball ricocheted far enough away from the catcher, allowing Rivera to score all the way from second.
Three more runs crossed the plate for the Frogs in the second as TCU opened up a 4-0 lead. Keaton Jones and Derek Odell singled with one out to start the rally. With runners on the corners and two out, Josh Elander doubled down the left field line to drive in Jones. Jason Coats followed with a two-run single to center to cap the scoring in the inning.
TCU broke the game open in the third inning as it batted around, scoring five runs on six hits along the way. Cron led off the inning with a double and scored on a one-out double by Kyle Von Tungeln. Odell singled home Von Tungeln and moved to second on a Rivera single. Elander cleared the bases with his second double and scored on a Coats base hit to make it a 9-0 contest.
Von Tungeln started a two-out outburst in the fourth as the Frogs scored six runs on six hits to open up a 15-0 lead. Highlighting the inning were back-to-back-to-back home runs by Rivera, Elander and Coats.
The Frogs kept their streak of scoring in every inning alive in the fifth inning. Von Tungeln worked a lead-off walk and scored on Rivera’s second home run of the game to push the lead to 17-0.
Air Force finally cracked the scoreboard in the bottom of the eighth inning. Matthew Roberts singled to open the inning and Jake Schomaker hit a one-out single. A misplay in right field put both runners in scoring position for Ryan Kramer. The pinch-hitter came through with a two-run double to account for the final score.
TCU improves to 31-16 overall and 15-5 in league play. The teams will wrap up the series Sunday with first pitch slated for 12 p.m. (CST). Stefan Crichton will toe the rubber and face the Falcons’ Evan Abrecht.
