TCU Baseball Takes 2nd Game Over Texas
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FORT WORTH – Tied at three in the bottom of the eighth inning, TCU exploded for six runs to take a wild 9-3 victory over Texas Friday night. The victory is the fifth straight for the Horned Frogs, who vaulted into a tie for fourth place in the league standings.
TCU rallied from a 2-0 deficit, tying the game in the bottom of the fifth. Keaton Jones drew a lead-off walk and was standing on second after a Kyle Bacak sacrifice. Jerrick Suiter doubled to center field to cut the Longhorn lead in half. Boomer White came up with a clutch two-out single to get the game tied.
After Brandon Finnegan backed up the run support with a 1-2-3 top of the sixth, the Frogs responded with the go-ahead run in the bottom of the frame. Paul Hendrix doubled to open the inning and was standing on third with nobody out after a passed ball. Kevin Cron hit a deep fly ball to right field to score Hendrix for a 3-2 lead.
Texas fought back to score its third two-out run of the game in the top of
the seventh, tying the game at three. A hit batter with two outs was standing on third and scored on a base hit from Mark Payton.
A one-out walk to Hendrix in the eighth started the merry-go-round as TCU sent 10 men to the plate and scored six times. Cron singled and a wild pitch put both runners in scoring position. The Longhorns elected to intentionally walk Josh Gonzales to load the bases. Keaton Jones earned the bases loaded walk as he battled to a 3-2 count, driving in the go-ahead run.
Bacak followed with a base hit and Dylan Fitzgerald walked to make it a 6-3 contest. Cody Jones executed a perfect suicide squeeze to drive in the fourth run of the inning and Boomer White put the exclamation point on the inning with a two-run single.
Texas picked up a pair of two-out runs in the second and fifth innings to take an early 2-0 lead. Brooks Marlow gave the Longhorns the 1-0 lead in the second and Payton’s second hit of the day pushed Texas’ lead to two.
Finnegan started and went six innings in the no-decision. He was touched for two runs on seven hits, walked one and struck out a career-high 12 batters. Andrew Mitchell surrendered an unearned run in 2/3 of an inning. Alex Young (7-4) earned the win in relief with a 1 1/3 scoreless innings. Justin Scharf pitched a scoreless ninth.
TCU improves to 28-25 overall and 12-11 in conference play. The Frogs will conclude regular season play Saturday afternoon at 3:30 as they go for the sweep. Trevor Seidenberger will start for TCU.
