Baseball Prepares For Weekend Series Against Texas-Arlington
5/11/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 11, 2001
FROGS TO FACE UTA IN THREE-GAME SERIES
The TCU Horned Frogs (31-23) will face Texas-Arlington (31-21) in a
three-game series this weekend. The two teams will play a doubleheader at
UTA on Saturday, May 12. First-pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. The series
finale will be held at the TCU Diamond on Sunday, May 13 with first pitch
scheduled for 2:05 p.m. TCU dropped two of three last weekend to Fresno
State, while UTA dropped two of three at Louisiana-Monroe. Next weekend, the
Frogs will travel to Rice, while UTA heads to the Southland Conference
tournament.
104th SEASON OF TCU BASEBALL
This is the 104th edition of TCU baseball. The Frogs have an all-time mark
of 1533-1330-25 for a winning percentage of .536. In games played at the TCU
Diamond, which opened on March 3, 1962, the Frogs have a record of
851-597-8.
WAC PLAY
The Frogs are in their fifth and final season in the Western Athletic
Conference. TCU has compiled a conference record of 85-66-0 in five WAC
seasons. Last year, TCU ended conference play with a record of 12-18. Always
tough at the TCU Diamond, the Frogs have a record of 50-27 in home (WAC)
conference games. On the road, the Frogs have compiled a record of 35-39 in
WAC games. Next season, TCU will become a member of Conference USA.
GAME COVERAGE
TCU baseball is carried on KTCU 88.7 FM with Chuck LaMendola calling the
action. TCU fans can access the radio broadcast of any TCU game from
anywhere in the world via the internet at www.ktcu.tcu.edu. The TCU pregame
show will begin 15 minutes before the first pitch of every game.
HEAD COACH LANCE BROWN
The 2001 Horned Frogs are under the guidance of head coach Lance Brown (TCU,
1967). Brown, TCU's all-time winningest coach, has a record of 451-425. In
his 15th season at TCU, Brown is assisted by Donnie Watson, Barry Takahashi
and Tom Hardgrove. Brown picked up win #450 in the Sunday, April 29th win
over San Jose State.
TCU-UTA SERIES
When the Frogs and Mavericks get things started on Saturday afternoon, it
will be the 110th meeting between the two schools... TCU leads in the
overall series, 66-43-0... the two teams have already played twice this
year... on March 13, UTA defeated TCU, 5-3, at Allan Saxe Stadium... then on
April 12, TCU defeated UTA, 6-4, in a game played at the TCU Diamond... last
season, TCU dropped two of three to UTA, losing both of the games played at
UTA... Lance Brown has a career record of 28-20 vs. UTA.
KEY NOTES
*Eleven seniors are playing their final game at the TCU Diamond on Sunday.
*TCU is 11th nationally in fielding percentage with a mark of .971.
*Erick Macha enters the weekend ninth in single-season at-bats (218) and 10th
in hits (79). He needs 12 at-bats to tie Sam Lunsford (230) for fifth in
at-bats and six hits to reach fourth in hits.
*Mike Settle's 19 doubles this year ranks sixth in the TCU record books. He
needs three more to set a new record for doubles in a single-season.
*Walter Olmstead's 468 putouts this season ranks fifth. He needs 26 more to
set a new single-season record. David Johnson had 493 putouts in the 1996.
*Stan Newton has already established a TCU record for career appearances with
82.
FRESNO STATE RECAP
TCU won the opener (4-3), then dropped games two (5-11) and three (5-6) to
Fresno State last weekend... in the first game, the Frogs rallied for three
runs in the bottom of the 8th to pull out the win... Tom Bates' two-run
double in the 8th proved to be the key hit for the Frogs... Terry Trofholz
was hit by a pitch, then Rudy Ontiveros and Erick Macha delivered singles to
start the rally... Chris Bradshaw earned the win, his 7th this season...
Bradshaw allowed three runs on seven hits, striking out three in 8.0
innings... Stan Newton pitched the 9th to earn his sixth save of the year...
Ontiveros led the team with three hits, while Macha and Bates each drove in
two runs... in game two, Fresno State won on the strength of a four-run
fourth inning and six more runs in the fifth... nine of the 10 runs were
scored with two outs and 10 of the Bulldogs' 16 hits (eight extra-base hits)
came in those two innings... Walter Olmstead's three-run home run in the
fourth and Erick Macha's two-run triple in the seventh accounted for most of
the TCU offense... Justin Crowder suffered the loss, dropping his record to
7-4... he allowed seven runs on nine hits in 4.2 innings... Chris Frazier
allowed four runs on seven hits in 3.2 innings of relief... Trofholz,
Ontiveros, Macha and Olmstead had two hits each... in game three, TCU's 9th
inning rally fell a run short, but not because of the Frogs... down 6-4, TCU
loaded the bases with two outs, and Mike Settle delivered a base hit,
scoring one run... although it appeared that a second runner scored, home
plate umpire Bruce Bayne ruled that the second runner was out, thus ending
the rally and the game... TCU took an early lead on a two-run home run by
Tom Bates in the first... after Fresno State took a 4-2 lead, the Frogs
answered with two more runs in the bottom of the fourth on three hits,
including a solo home run by Macha... Fresno then took the lead for good,
scoring once in the sixth and a much needed insurance run in the ninth...
Ben Fritz, the last of four pitchers, earned the win for Fresno... he
allowed one run on four hits in 4.1 innings to close the game... Clayton
Jerome, the second of three TCU pitchers, allowed one run in 1.1 innings to
suffer the loss... Stan Newton pitched the final 3.2 innings, allowing one
run on two hits... Bates led the Frogs with three hits, falling a triple
short of the cycle... Mike Settle and Walter Olmstead had two hits each...
in the series, the Frogs hit .299 while Fresno State hit .294... however,
the Bulldogs had 14 extra-base hits compared to TCU's nine... Ontiveros led
the Frogs with six hits in 12 at-bats, while Macha, Settle, Olmstead and
Bates had four hits each in the series... Macha also walked three times...
TCU and Fresno split the six-game season series... TCU won two of three at
Fresno.
DIAMOND NOTES
The 21 conference wins are a school-record... two seasons ago, the Frogs
ended WAC play with a 19-10 win-loss mark... with 31 total wins this season,
the Frogs have surpassed the 2000 season total of 22... the Frogs have also
surpassed the 2000 season total of runs scored with 364 runs this year...
after 51 games last season, TCU had a record of 20-31... TCU is ranked
second in the WAC and 11th nationally in fielding with a mark of .971... the
single-season school record mark of .971 was set in the 1998 season, when
TCU led the WAC and finished second nationally... the Frogs set a
school-record with 23 assists in game three of the Hawaii series... TCU
ended the season with a 4-7 record against teams from the Big 12
conference... TCU has three non-conference games remaining, all vs. UTA...
TCU will play a doubleheader at UTA on May 12 and a single-game vs. UTA at
the TCU Diamond on May 13... thus far, the Frogs are 9-1 in doubleheaders.\
