TCU Advances To Super Regional
FORT WORTH, Texas — TCU freshman Tyler Alexander tossed a complete-game victory, while the Horned Frogs totaled 14 hits in posting a 6-1 Sunday night victory over Sam Houston State to win the Fort Worth Regional.
TCU (45-15) will host a Super Regional for the first time in program history when it faces Pepperdine next weekend. The Horned Frogs have won nine straight and 30 of their last 33 games.
Alexander recorded his second-straight complete game. In his previous start, he went the distance in a 7-1 victory over Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Championship game.
A Southlake, Texas, native, Alexander allowed just one run on six hits while striking out five and walking one.
Alexander (10-3) became TCU’s first 10-game winner since freshman Matt Purke was 16-0 on TCU’s 2010 College World Series team.
Six of TCU’s first seven hitters in the lineup recorded multiple hits, including
Fort Worth Regional Most Valuable Player Boomer White.
After the Bearkats (43-19) scored first in the top of the second on a Luke Plucheck squeeze bunt, the Horned Frogs evened the game in the bottom half of the inning. Kevin Cron led off with a double down the leftfield line. He then advanced to third on a Garrett Crain single before scoring on Jerrick Suiter’s fielder’s choice.
TCU took the lead for good at 2-1 with a run in the third. Cody Jones began the frame with an infield single. He advanced to second on a Derek Odell sacrifice bunt before reaching third on a White groundout. Jones then scored on a Garrett Crain single.
The Horned Frogs slowly broke the game open. Single runs in the fifth and sixth innings made it a 4-1 contest, before a two-run eighth provided the final margin.
Suiter’s second fielder’s choice groundout of the game made it 3-1 in the fifth. White’s RBI single in the sixth extended the lead to 4-1.
A Cody Jones squeeze bunt in the eighth scored Keaton Jones, who opened the inning with a single. Odell then closed the scoring with an RBI double to plate Cody Jones.
Andrew Godall (3-1), the first of six Sam Houston State pitchers, took the loss. He went three innings and allowed two runs on five hits while striking out two and walking one. Corey Toups was the lone Bearkat with more than one hit off Alexander.
On the heels of Saturday’s 22-inning contest which took nearly seven hours, Sunday’s game was played in a brisk two hours and 35 minutes.
