Baseball: Horned Frogs Outlast Texas State in Midweek Clash
TCU's perfect start to the season continued on Tuesday as the Horned Frogs put away visiting Texas State 6-5. DH Payton Tolle and 3B Brody Green each totaled two RBI to lead TCU's offense.
TCU's Gabe Miranda took over first base in the 8th inning of the game against Texas State.
The bats got going immediately in the bottom of the first inning when Karson Bowen and Kurtis Byrne each reached base on a single and a walk respectively. Tolle brought Bowen in with a single of his own to make it a 1-0 ballgame and two at-bats later, a Chase Brunson sacrifice fly pushed Byrne home and extended the Frogs' lead to 2-0.
In the second inning, Green got things going with a double and Sam Myers kept it rolling with a single, but Green was thrown out trying to reach third. Myers came to home thanks to two wild pitches giving TCU a 3-0 lead. In the third inning, with three men on and two outs, Green hit a two-run single to make it 5-0.
Starting pitcher Ben Hampton allowed his first run in the top of the fourth inning; a run that marked the beginning of a valiant comeback attempt by the Bobcats. With two men on, Texas State's Cameron Thompson hit into a fielder's choice and brought a man home. Hampton gave up two more runs in the third inning before he was taken out in favor of Louis Rodriguez. The Bobcats got one more run in the fifth inning thanks to an infield error, and all of a sudden, it was only a 5-4 lead for TCU.
Scoring stalled until the bottom of the seventh inning when TCU's Tolle grounded out and brought Bowen home to make it 6-4 in favor of the Frogs. In the top of the eighth, Texas State's Aaron Lugo accomplished one of the best things in baseball, an inside-the-park home run, and got the Bobcats back within one. TCU's Ben Abeldt shut down Texas State in the last 1.1 innings of the game earning the save, and giving TCU its fourth win of the season.
Hampton finished the game with 4.1 innings under his belt, allowing four runs on eight hits and striking out six batters. Rodriguez got the win for TCU despite only pitching for 1.2 innings; he allowed three hits and struck out three batters. Chase Hoover pitched for 1.2 innings and allowed two hits and one run while striking out two batters and Abeldt earned the save in 1.1 innings, allowing just one hit.
TCU returns to action this weekend for a three-game series against UCLA, a team that is also undefeated after sweeping Gonzaga in its opening weekend series. Both teams will enter the contest ranked and the first game will begin on Friday at 6:30 p.m. in Fort Worth.
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