April 14, 2002
Box Score
FORT WORTH, Texas - TCU followed the same recipe it had in taking the first two games of its weekend series with Saint Louis - superb starting pitching combined with explosive offensive firepower - to complete the three-game sweep of the Billikens with a 14-0 win Sunday afternoon at TCU Diamond. With the victory, the Horned Frogs are assured of being at least tied for first place in Conference USA at the end of the league's weekend action.
Sunday was TCU starting pitcher Patrick Newburn's (Grapevine, Texas/Grapevine/Northeast Texas C.C.) turn to stymie Saint Louis, as the right-hander notched career highs with seven innings pitched and seven strikeouts. Newburn needed just 101 pitches to earn his first-career shutout. The contest was ended after six-and-a-half innings due to the league's 10 run rule for Sunday games.
For the weekend, the Horned Frog pitching staff did not allow an earned run as TCU battered SLU by a combined score of 31-1.
On Sunday, the Horned Frogs faced perhaps the most formidable pitcher it had seen to date in Saint Louis starter Corey Lawson. The right-hander came into the contest with an impressive 6-1 record and 1.83 ERA, holding opposing batters to a .200 batting average. But the Frogs touched Lawson for 10 runs on 13 hits in just 3.1 innings to provide more than enough support for Newburn.
With the contest still scoreless in the bottom of the third inning, the Frogs put seven runs on the board on seven hits. Chris Meeks (Brownwood, Texas/Brownwood/Eastfield J.C.), Terry Trofholz (Plano, Texas/Plano Senior/Creighton), Jake Duncan (Marshall, Texas/Marshall/U. of Texas) and Mike Settle (Fort Worth, Texas/Country Day) all collected RBI hits to start the rally before Marshall Wilson (Austin, Texas/Stephen F. Austin) put an exclamation point on the outburst with a three-run homer to left field.
TCU (20-17, 11-4 C-USA) was not through, however, as the Frogs went on to plate three more runs in the fourth and two each in the fifth and sixth frames to close out the scoring.
In all, nine different Horned Frogs collected hits for the second-straight day and five Frogs drove in multiple runs, led by Trofholz' 4-for-4, three RBI performance. With the effort, the junior extended his TCU season-best hitting streak to 10 games and raised his C-USA leading batting average to .456.
Also highlighting the TCU stat sheet were Settle (3-for-4, three RBI) and Wilson (1-for-4, three RBI, two runs scored).
TCU will ride its four-game winning streak into a tough midweek assignment, Tuesday night at Big 12 foe Oklahoma. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m. in Norman.
GAME NOTES
For the weekend, TCU outhit SLU .388 to .189 and posted a 0.00 ERA versus the Billikens' 11.05 mark ... the Horned Frogs are now batting .344 in conference games while sporting a 3.38 ERA in league contests ... Newburn's previous career-long outing was six innings, set Feb. 17 versus Southwest Texas while his previous high for strikeouts came on April 1, 2001 when he struck out six Rice Owls ... TCU is 2-1 in contests shortened to seven innings this season ... the Frogs defeated Southwest Texas 12-2 on Feb. 17 and dropped a 17-4 seven-inning decision at Texas Tech on March 6.
