March 16, 2009

Final Stats

FORT WORTH, Texas - Behind a dominating pitching performance from freshman Kyle Winkler, the No. 14 TCU Horned Frogs snapped out of a slump with a 4-1 victory over No. 25 Minnesota Monday night at Lupton Stadium. Winkler tossed a career-high eight innings with 10 strikeouts. Matt Vern provided the offensive spark with his fifth home run of the season.

Winkler had to work around four base runners in the first, but got out of the jam without allowing a run. After hitting the first batter of the game and allowing a stolen base, Winkler showed a great pick-off move and caught the runner leaning for the first out of the game. A walk and a hit later, the Golden Gophers had runners on first and second. Michael Kvasnicka singled to right and the Gophers looked to have the early lead, but a strong relay throw from Chris Ellington to Matt Vern and on to Bryan Holaday at home plate erased the runner.

The Gophers did get the early lead with a one-out home run from Nick O'Shea in the second inning as they jumped on top for the third straight game.

TCU finally broke through in the third inning, scoring a pair of runs on two hits to take the lead. Vern led things off with a solo home run to left field to tie the game at one. With one out, Corey Steglich drilled a triple to the right center gap and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Ben Carruthers to give the Frogs the 2-1 advantage.

Minnesota threatened in the third as they had two runners in scoring position with two outs, but Winkler worked out of the jam, getting Eric Decker to ground out to end the inning.

Winkler continued to limit the Gopher runners through the middle innings. A lead-off single in the fifth was erased on a double play ball and following a two-out single in the inning, the right-hander set down eight straight. A walk to Derek McCallum in the eighth broke the string, but Winkler dialed up two big strikeouts to end the inning.

TCU held fast to their one run lead before cashing in with an insurance run in the seventh. Matt Curry led off the inning with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch with one out. A ground out from Taylor Featherston moved Curry to third with two outs. Vern drew the intentional walk and Holaday came through with a big two-out hit to put TCU up 3-1.

The Frogs tacked on another two-out run in the eighth inning, taking advantage of a lead-off double from Carruthers. A Carpenter sacrifice moved Carruthers to third. Chris Ellington then drew the intentional pass to put runners on the corners. A double steal attempt was successful as Ellington drew the throw and occupied the fielder's attention as Carruthers raced towards home. The throw back to the plate was a tick too late and the Frogs had their fourth run of the game.

Trent Appleby came on in the ninth and pitched a three-up three-down inning for his first career save. Winkler(1-0) allowed just the one run in eight innings of work. He surrendered six hits, walked three and struck out 10.

TCU improves to 11-4 on the season. The Frogs will wrap up a stretch of four games in four days on Tuesday night as they host the No. 13 Oklahoma Sooners. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m. at Lupton Stadium. Steven Maxwell will go for the Frogs against the Sooners Michael Rocha.