TCU Baseball Beats San Francisco
{fshare id=3668}
FORT WORTH – Preston Morrison tossed his second career complete game and TCU scored four times to take a 4-1 victory over San Francisco Friday night at Lupton Stadium.
Morrison (5-1) allowed a run on three hits in nine innings of work. He walked one, hit a batter and fanned four in tossing TCU’s first nine inning complete game this season. He allowed just one base runner past second base and retired the side in order in six of the nine innings he pitched.
The Horned Frogs jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back. Cody Jones dumped a single into right field and moved to third on a perfectly executed hit and run from Boomer White. A balk by Dons’ starting pitcher Haden Hinkle (6-1) gifted TCU its first run of the ballgame.
Morrison’s first real jam of the game came in the fourth after a one-out base hit and a walk put two on for San Francisco. Doing what he does best, Morrison got Zachary Turner to ground into an inning-ending double play, preserving the 1-0 lead.
Kevin Cron lined a single into left to open the fourth inning and was standing on second after a Brett Johnson sacrifice. Jerrick Suiter followed with a single up the middle. Head’s up base running by Suiter had him standing on second after the throw from the outfield went home. Keaton Jones battled the count and lined a 1-2 pitch into center to drive in the two runs for a 3-0 lead.
In the top of the seventh, Bradley Zimmer led off the inning with a solo home run to the right center gap. The long ball cut TCU’s lead to 3-1. Harrison Bruce singled with one out, but he was erased by Suiter trying to steal second. Johnson made a diving catch in right to end the inning.
TCU got the run back in the bottom of the inning to regain the three run lead. White doubled with one out and scored easily on a two-out single from Paul Hendrix to make it a 4-1 lead.
Morrison retired the final seven batters he faced in the game to get the Frogs the win.
TCU improved to 14-16 overall. Game two of the three game series is set for Saturday afternoon at 4. Brandon Finnegan will start for the Frogs and face the Dons’ Alex Balog.
