TCU Baseball Loses To New Mexico
{fshare id=2388}
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The New Mexico Lobos jumped out to an 8-1 lead and never looked back as they handed the TCU Horned Frogs a 12-7 loss Sunday afternoon to win the series. Jantzen Witte had a pair of hits and two RBIs in the loss.
Brandon Finnegan (0-3) allowed six runs on eight hits in 1 1/3 innings to take the loss. Trey Teakell gave up three runs on three hits in three innings of work. He walked two and struck out one. Justin Scharf allowed a pair of hits in his 2/3 of an inning. Kaleb Merck was touched for two runs on two hits and a walk in his lone inning of work. Chris Murphy gave up a run on one hit and a walk in two innings of work.
TCU jumped on top in the first inning, taking advantage of a hit batter. Brance Rivera was plunked on a 2-2 offering from Rudy Jaramillo. A wild pitch moved him to second and Rivera swiped third base with one out. Jason Coats grounded out to plate the run for an early 1-0 lead.
New Mexico answered in a big way as it sent nine batters to the plate and scored four times. The first five hitters reached for the Lobos. A single by DJ Peterson tied the game and Ryan Padilla gave the Lobos a 3-1 lead. Chris Nunez doubled home the Lobos fourth run of the inning with two outs.
Ten Lobos came to the plate in the second inning as they plated four more runs to take a commanding 8-1 lead. The big blow of the frame was a two-out, two-run single by Chris Real that drove in the final two runs of the frame.
The Frogs picked up a two-out run in the third inning. Kyle Von Tungeln was plunked with two outs and moved to second on a base hit up the middle from Coats. Josh Elander made it an 8-2 game with a single through the left side.
TCU pulled closer in the top of the fifth as it plated a pair of two out runs. Josh Gonzales worked a lead-off walk and moved to second on a base hit by Von Tungeln. Elander was plunked to load the bases for Jantzen Witte. He came through with a two-run single up the middle to make it an 8-4 contest.
New Mexico got one of the runs back in the bottom of the inning. Nunez drew a lead-off walk and back-to-back ground outs had him standing on third. A passed ball gave the Lobos a 9-4 lead.
The Lobos tacked on three runs to their lead in the sixth and seventh to open up a 12-4 advantage. Nunez had a two-run single in the sixth and Josh Melendez hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
TCU put up a three spot in the eighth to creep closer. Elander led off the inning with a single and scored on a pinch-hit triple from Jerrick Suiter. Brett Johnson followed with a base hit to left and scored on an RBI ground out from Derek Odell to make it a 12-7 contest.
The loss drops the Frogs to 12-9 on the season and 4-2 in league play. TCU will wrap up a season-long nine game road trip Tuesday night when they head to UT Arlington. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m. at Clay Gould Ballpark.
