TCU Flies Past Air Force 10-0
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USAF ACADEMY, Colo. – Preston Morrison tossed eight scoreless innings and the offense exploded for 10 runs on 14 hits to help TCU to a 10-0 win over Air Force Friday afternoon. Jason Coats and Kevin Cron each homered for the Horned Frogs.
Morrison (8-0) was brilliant in his eight innings of work. He allowed just two hits, walked one, hit two batters and struck out seven. Kaleb Merck preserved the shutout as he pitched around a lead-off single with a pair of strikeouts in the ninth.
Jason Coats put the Frogs on top early with a two-out opposite field home run in the first inning and the Frogs never looked back.
A pair of errors by the Falcons in the second helped the Frogs push the lead to 3-0. Brance Rivera got things started with a one-out double. Kyle Von Tungeln looked what looked like a double play ball, but on the relay throw to first, the ball sailed into the dugout to allow Rivera to score for a two-run lead. Josh Elander followed with a double to cap the scoring in the inning.
The Frogs bats went silent in the next two innings but a single by Coats with two outs in the fifth inning woke the Frogs up. Jantzen Witte followed with a base hit and Cron launched his second home run of the season over the left field fence to double the Frogs lead, 6-0.
Morrison faced his first real jam in the bottom of the sixth inning as he hit a batter and walked a batter with one out. He got out of trouble with back-to-back fly balls to Von Tungeln in center field to end the inning.
In the eighth, the Frogs sent 10 men to the plate and pushed across four runs to open up a 10-run lead. Rivera reached on an error to lead off the inning and moved to second on a Keaton Jones sacrifice bunt. Two straight walks followed to load the bases. Coats came up and lined a single to left center to drive in a pair of runs. Witte followed with a run scoring single. Another error loaded the bases and Brett Johson was plunked on the foot to drive in the final run of the game.
TCU improves to 30-16 overall and 14-5 in league play. The Frogs and the Falcons will square off in game two of the series Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. Andrew Mitchell will go for the Frogs and face the Falcons’ Ben Bertelson.
