March 3, 2009
Final Stats
ARLINGTON, Texas - The No. 11 TCU Horned Frogs jumped out to an early lead and cruised to their sixth straight victory with an 11-3 win at UT-Arlington.
Bryan Holaday led the Frog offense with two hits and three RBIs.
Greg Holle picked up his second win of the season with four innings of work.
The Horned Frogs staked TCU starter Holle (2-0) to a 5-0 lead with a dominating first inning. The first five batters reached base before an out was recorded and all crossed home plate to help build the commanding lead.
Ben Carruthers and Matt Carpenter were each hit by a pitch to open the game and Chris Ellington singled to give the Frogs the early lead. Matt Curry followed with a run-scoring double to make it a 2-0 game. Ellington scored as Jason Coats reached on a throwing error by the shortstop and Curry raced home on a groundout off the bat of Matt Vern. Holaday drove in the final run of the inning with a line drive single to left field.
The Frogs tacked on a run in the top of the second to extend their lead to 6-0. Carruthers led off the inning with a hustle double down the left field line. A base hit by Carpenter put runners on the corners. Ellington collected his second RBI of the night as he hit a sacrifice fly to right to plate Carruthers.
Holle made the lead stand up as he pitched two scoreless innings to open the game. He was touched for an unearned run in the third as Michael Choice scored all the way from first on an error in the outfield that should have ended the inning. The right-hander allowed one unearned run on three hits in four innings of work. He walked two and struck out three.
The Mavericks attempted to climb back into the ballgame as they pushed across another run in the bottom of the fifth inning, but two costly errors put any thoughts of a comeback to rest. Back-to-back fielding errors by the right fielder produced two Frog runs as they extended their lead to 8-2. Carruthers drove in the first run of the inning and Carpenter followed with an RBI single to drive in the second run.
TCU put up a three spot in the top of the seventh to push the lead out to 11-2. Jason Coats extended his hit streak to seven games with a lead-off single. A walk to Vern put two on for Holaday, who cleared the bases with a double to left field. After Brance Rivera drew a hard-fought walk, Carruthers singled to load the bases. Carpenter picked up his second RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly.
Sean Hoelscher tossed two innings of relief allowing a run on two hits with a walk and two strikeouts. Walker Kelly made his second appearance of the season, tossing two innings. After allowing three singles to the first four batters he faced, the lefty settled in and struck out four straight as part of five in a row retired. Paul Gerrish closed things out with a scoreless ninth inning.
TCU improves to 6-1 on the season with the victory. The Frogs return home Wednesday to start a four-game home stand when they host No. 6 Baylor. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m. Steven Maxwell will get the start for TCU.
