TCU Dominates New Mexico In 9-0 Victory
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – No. 7 TCU dominated in all facets of the game en route to a 9-0 victory over New Mexico Thursday afternoon. Four pitchers combined to limit the Lobos to six hits and Joe Weik led the offensive charge with a four hit afternoon.
Matt Purke was solid in his return to the mound. He allowed a hit, walked a batter and hit a batter in three innings of work. The sophomore tallied four strikeouts. Kyle Winkler was outstanding in relief, he faced just one batter over the minimum in 4 2/3 innings of work. He allowed three hits, but got two double play balls. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out two. Teddy Nowell retired the only batter he faced in the eighth. Tyler Duffie gave up two hits in a scoreless ninth inning.
Only once in the contest did the Lobos have more than one base runner and no Lobo made it past second base. Winkler allowed a hit in each of the fourth and fifth innings, but each time the runner was erased on a double play ball. Duffie surrendered a pair of hits, but got Sam Wilson to ground into the game-ending double play.
TCU wasted no time jumping out to an early lead in the ballgame as it put up two runs on three hits in the first inning. Jantzen Witte doubled to get things rolling and scored easily on a double off the bat of Jason Coats. Weik came through with a two-out base hit to plate Coats with the second run of the inning.
With one swing of the bat, Jimmie Pharr tacked on a run to the Frog lead with a solo home run leading off the fifth inning to make it a 3-0 game. The long ball was his third of the season.
The Frogs added a single run in the fourth to extend the lead to 4-0. Josh Elander led off the frame with a single and moved to third on a base hit by Weik. Featherston was hit by the pitch to load the bases. Kyle Von Tungeln hit a sacrifice fly to center to plate the run. TCU left the bases loaded as the Lobos pitched themselves out of the jam.
The runs kept coming as the Frogs put up a three spot in the top of the seventh to open up a commanding 7-0 lead. With two outs, Elander worked a walk. Weik was plunked to put two on for Featherston. The junior shortstop unloaded on a Bobby Mares offering for a three-run blast to left field.
Weik continued his great afternoon with a two-run blast to left center that pushed the Frogs lead to 9-0. Coats had reached on a lead-off infield single and scored on the Weik home run.
The Frogs improve to 38-15 on the season and 18-3 in league play. Game two of the series is set for Friday afternoon. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m. (CST). Andrew Mitchell will take the mound for TCU and face the Lobos’ Richard Olson.
