TCU Baseball Prevails Over UTA
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FORT WORTH, Texas – TCU scored four runs in its final three at-bats to rally for a 5-1 victory over UT Arlington on Wednesday night at Lupton Stadium. Brandon Finnegan earned his first career victory and Kevin Cron’s first career home run in the sixth proved to be the game-winner.
Stefan Crichton got the start for the Horned Frogs and allowed a run on four hits in four innings of work. He struck out four in the no-decision. Finnegan (1-3) pitched two scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out two. Justin Scharf fanned two and gave up a hit in 1 2/3 innings. Kevin Allen walked one and struck out one in 1/3 of an inning. Travis Evans retired both batters he faced in his first career appearance and Kaleb Merck gave up two hits in 1/3 of an inning to close out the inning.
The Mavericks jumped in front early, scoring a run on three hits in the first inning to take the early lead. Jordan Vaughn started the one-out rally and scored on a Preston Beck base hit. With two on and only one out, Crichton worked out of the jam with back-to-back ground balls to minimize the damage.
TCU saw three opportunities to tie the game go by the wayside as it stranded four runners in the first three innings of the game.
The Frogs finally got the game tied in the fourth inning as they took advantage of a two-out error by the Mavericks. Josh Elander worked a lead-off walk and moved to second on a base hit by Cron. He was standing on third with two outs and scored on an errant throw by the third baseman to tie the game at one.
With one swing of the bat, Cron untied the game as he connected for his first career long ball, driving it over the left field fence for a 2-1 TCU lead after six.
A two-run seventh inning gave the Frogs some breathing room with a 4-1 lead. Keaton Jones led off the frame with a base hit and stole second. After a walk to Brance Rivera, Kyle Von Tungeln laid down a sac bunt to move both runners into scoring position. The Mavericks went to the bullpen and while attempting to intentionally walk Jantzen Witte, the pitcher committed a balk, allowing Jones to score to make it a 3-1 game. The Mavericks inability to execute on a bouncer to third had runners on the corners with one out and Elander made it count with a sacrifice fly to push the lead to three, 4-1.
TCU tacked on another run in the eighth inning to make it 5-1. Josh Gonzales led off the inning with a base hit two center and scored on a two-out single from Rivera.
The Horned Frogs improve to 17-13 overall with the victory. TCU returns to conference play this weekend when it hosts Air Force for three games. Friday’s series-opener is slated to begin at 6:30 p.m.
