TCU baseball tops Houston 16-10
FORT WORTH, Texas – The TCU Horned Frogs staged a furious comeback from a 9-2 deficit to post a 16-10 victory over Houston Saturday afternoon. The Frogs used a seven-run sixth inning to erase the Cougar lead. Brance Rivera drove in four with four hits and extended his hitting streak to 22 games.
Trailing 9-2 heading to the fifth inning, the Frogs staged their most furious comeback of the season. Rivera got the rally started with a solo home run in the fifth to make it a 9-3. The Frog bats came storming back to life in the seventh inning as they exploded for seven runs on seven hits to take a 10-9 lead.
Three straight doubles to open the seventh inning pulled the Frogs back within four, 9-5. Jantzen Witte led the frame off with a double and scored on a double off the bat of Jerome Pena. Joe Weik greeted the new Cougar pitcher with a double to drive in Pena. Zac Jordan cut the deficit in half with a one-out two-run home run to left field. Rivera and Aaron Schultz collected back-to-back singles and Taylor Featherston was hit by the pitch to load the bases. Jason Coats jumped on the first pitch he saw and cleared the bases with a double down the left field line to put the Frogs on top 10-9.
TCU added to its lead with a pair of runs in the seventh. With two on and
one out in the inning, Rivera smoked a single down the left field line to give the Frogs a 12-9 advantage. Houston got a run back in the top of the eighth on a base hit by M.P. Cokinos to make it a 12-10 contest.
In the bottom of the frame, the Cougar defense committed three costly errors that led to four more TCU runs. Witte singled home Coats, who had reached on a lead-off error. He came around to score on another Cougar error on a ball hit by Weik. Jordan collected his third RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly that plated Pena. Rivera capped the scoring with a double to left that gave the Frogs a 16-10 advantage.
Trent Appleby (2-1), who had come on in relief in the fifth inning, allowed a two-out single in the ninth, but got Landon Appling to foul out to secure the Horned Frog victory.
For the second straight game, the Frogs jumped out to an 1-0 early lead in the first inning. Schultz doubled to right center with one out and moved to third on a ground out. Coats was hit by the pitch and Witte drew a walk to load the bases. Pena worked an eight-pitch walk to drive in the first run of the game.
With one swing of the bat, Cokinos tied the game as he led off the second inning with a home run to tie the game at one. Matt Purke pitched around a walk and a hit-by-pitch to keep it a 1-1 contest.
Houston gifted the run back to the Frogs in the bottom of the inning with a costly two-out miscue. Rivera was plunked with two outs and stole second. Schultz hit a sharp grounder to third and he threw wide of first to allow the Frogs second run of the game to score, giving TCU the 2-1 lead.
Two costly errors in the fourth led to three Cougar runs. With one out, three straight batters reached on two errors and a hit. Appling was hit by the pitch to tie the game and Caleb Ramsey drew a walk to give Houston the 3-2 lead. A sacrifice fly from Chase Jensen made it a 4-2 contest.
The Cougars batted around in the fifth inning to open up a 9-2 lead. A one-out error in the inning proved costly as Houston scored three unearned runs in the frame. The big blow was a two-run bloop single off the bat of Jensen.
Purke surrendered five runs (two earned) on four hits. He walked two, hit two and struck out five in five innings of work. Appleby picked up the win in relief. He gave up five runs (one earned) on six hits in five innings of work. He struck out two and walked one.
The Frogs and the Cougars will play the rubber match of the series Sunday afternoon at Lupton Stadium. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m. Steven Maxwell will make his sixth start of the season for TCU.
Postgame Quotes:
