Feb. 24, 2009

Final Stats

FORT WORTH, Texas - A dominant effort all around saw the No. 16 TCU Horned Frogs cruise to a 6-0 win over Dallas Baptist Tuesday night Lupton Stadium. Jason Coats and Matt Vern each hit home runs to lead the offense, while Steven Maxwell and three other Frog pitchers combined to hold down a strong Patriot lineup.

Maxwell (1-0) pitched a solid five innings in his first start of the season. The redshirt sophomore held the Patriots to two hits and fanned five, while facing just one batter over the minimum. Trent Appleby worked two innings, surrendering a lone hit, while Walker Kelly and Erik Miller each tossed a scoreless inning with two combined strikeouts. The blanking was the Frogs' first since shutting out Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 1-0 on March 25, 2008.

After allowing a lead-off single, Maxwell, making his return from Tommy John surgery, settled into a groove, retiring the next eight batters he faced. A two-out single by Ryan Enos broke up the string, but Bryan Holaday erased him trying to steal second. Maxwell then set down the final six batters he faced to qualify for his first victory since Feb. 23, 2008.

Offensively, the Frogs got things going in the second inning, scoring two runs on two hits. Taylor Featherston drew a one-out walk and scored on a long home run into the wind by Vern.

A similar scenario played out in the third inning as the Frogs picked up two more runs with two outs. Matt Curry kept the inning alive with a two-out single to left center and Jason Coats followed with his second home run of the season over the fence in left field for a 4-0 TCU lead.

The Frogs tacked on to their lead, pushing across an unearned run in the fourth inning. Vern reached on a fielding error by the third baseman and Corey Steglich drew a walk to put two on with only one out. Ben Carruthers dumped a single into left field and Vern raced home to make it a 5-0 contest.

TCU pushed across its final run of the contest in the eighth inning, again taking advantage of another Patriot error. Featherston reached on a throwing error and moved to second. A Relly Mercurio ground out advanced him to third where he scored from on a wild pitch to extend the lead to 6-0.

The Frogs improve to 3-1 on the young season. They return to the diamond Wednesday night for the first meeting of the season against Texas State (3-1). Greg Holle will take the mound for the Frogs. Game time is slated for 6:30 p.m.