TCU Baseball Season Ends At UCLA
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LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Another successful campaign for the TCU Horned Frogs came to a conclusion with a 4-1 loss to UCLA Saturday night in the NCAA Super Regionals. Brance Rivera homered in his final game for TCU. The Frogs finish the season 40-22.
Preston Morrison (9-2) took the loss after allowing two runs on four hits in 3 1/3 innings of work. He walked one and struck out one. Andrew Mitchell allowed two unearned runs in 3 2/3 innings of work. He gave up three hits, walked three and struck out four. Kaleb Merck pitched two scoreless innings to close out the game. He allowed a hit and struck out one.
A one-out triple by Trevor Brown had the Bruins in business in the second inning. Chris Valaika put UCLA in front 1-0 with a sacrifice fly to right.
TCU threatened to get the game tied in the bottom of the inning after a lead-off double by Jantzen Witte. Jerrick Suiter lined a single up the middle to put runners on the corners with only one out. Trying to stay out of a potential double play, Suiter took off for second, but he was gunned down and Bruin starter Nick Vander Tuig got Josh Gonzales to fly out to end the inning.
A lead-off single by Kevin Kramer in the third turned into another Bruin run as they opened up a 2-0 lead. He moved to third on a one-out single by Beau Amaral before scoring on a safety squeeze off the bat of Tyler Heineman.
With one swing of the bat, Brance Rivera got the Frogs back in the game as he drilled a home run over the left field fence to make it a 2-1 contest.
UCLA threatened to get the run back in the top of the fourth after a one-out triple by Valaika. The Frogs went to the bullpen and called on Andrew Mitchell. The sophomore did his job as he got two straight strikeouts to end the inning, keeping the deficit at one.
A pair of unearned runs in the sixth and seventh put the Frogs in a 4-1 hole. In the sixth, the Bruins loaded the bases with one out and a passed ball allowed the third run of the game to score. Mitchell minimized the damage with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
In the seventh, a one-out error turned into the Bruins fourth run. Amaral reached on the miscue and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Keefer.
