March 14, 2010
Final Stats
FORT WORTH, Texas - The No. 7 TCU Horned Frogs held off a late surge from Texas Tech to complete the sweep with an 8-5 victory over the Red Raiders Sunday afternoon. TCU made an early offensive surge stand up as it won for the fourth straight game.
Jimmie Pharr connected for his third home run of the weekend and
Kyle Winkler tossed six solid innings for his third win of the season.
Winkler (3-0) allowed just one run on six hits in his time on the mound. He did not issue a walk and fanned four before giving way to the bullpen. Tyler Lockwood pitched two scoreless innings with two punch outs. Eric Marshall was tagged for three runs and Kaleb Merck for one in the final inning, but Merck got a ground out to end the game.
Offensively, the Frogs got production from up and down the line-up as everybody had a hit. Five different Frogs notched an RBI. Jason Coats and Jimmie Pharr combined to drive in five of the Frogs eight runs.
Bryan Holaday got the Frogs rolling with a one-out double down the left field line in the first inning. Coats struck out, but reached on a passed ball and Matt Curry drew a walk to load the bases. Josh Elander grounded to the shortstop, but hustled down the line to beat out a potential double play to keep the inning alive and drive in the first run of the game.
On the very next pitch, Pharr unloaded on a Chad Bettis offering and drove it over the center field fence for a 4-0 lead. Jerome Pena followed suit, driving Bettis' next pitch to right center for his third home run of the season and a 5-0 Horned Frog advantage.
Back-to-back doubles with one out in the second by the Red Raiders made it a 5-1 game as Jeremy Mayo drove in the first run of the contest for Texas Tech. Winkler settled down and retired the next two batters to strand Mayo at second.
TCU got the run back in the bottom of the frame and added another as it built its lead to 7-1. Davy Wright led off the inning with a base hit up the middle. He moved to second on a walk to Kyle Von Tungeln and both runners advanced 90 feet on a Holaday sacrifice. Coats delivered with a single through the drawn-in infield to plate both runners.
Both pitchers settled in through the middle innings as the bats went silent. Winkler pitched around a hit batsman in the third, a double in the fourth and a base hit in sixth to hold the Red Raiders at bay. Bettis allowed a two-out infield single to Schultz and then retired the next 10 batters he faced before another infield single by von Tungeln.
Matt Curry added to the Frog lead to open the eighth inning as he connected on his fifth home run of the season for an 8-1 lead.
In the top of the ninth, the Red Raider bats came alive. Nick Popescu worked a lead-off walk and three straight batters singled to drive in two runs. Merck came on and got Michael Reed to ground into a double play for the first two outs of the inning. Jamodrick McGruder made the game interesting as he connected on a two-run home run to make it an 8-5 contest, but Texas Tech ran out of outs when Merck got Scott LeJeune to ground out.
The Frogs improve to 12-2 on the season. They will hit the road for a midweek game at Oral Roberts on Tuesday night. First pitch in Tulsa, Okla. is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Game Notes:
• Sunday's attendance of 3,692 was the second-highest in stadium history.
• The three-game series also set a new series attendance record with 10,312 fans in attendance.
• TCU has won 10 straight games at home dating back to last season.
• Jason Coats and Josh Elander have hit safely in every game this season.
• Jimmie Pharr had just three career home runs entering Saturday's game. He had three in two games played against Texas Tech.
• Kyle Von Tungeln has a six game hitting streak.
