Frogs Look To Rebound Against Memphis
4/14/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 14, 2005
Fort Worth, Texas - The No. 30 TCU baseball team hopes to put a 20-10 loss to Oklahoma behind them as they open up a three-game Conference USA series against the Memphis Tigers on Friday night. The series will be the first of two straight on the road. The Frogs have won the last three meetings against the Tigers and have won the first four C-USA series this season. Friday nights opener is slated for a 6:30 start at Nat Buring Stadium. Saturday's game is set for 2:00 while the series finale on Sunday will begin at Noon.
About the Series
After a disappointing loss to Oklahoma on Tuesday where everything that could go wrong went wrong, the Frogs will be looking to bounce back against the Memphis Tigers. The Frogs will be playing the first of two straight Conference USA series on the road in a stretch of seven of the next eight games on the road. The Frogs have won four straight C-USA series and sit alone in second place, just a game behind league-leading Tulane. Conversely, the Tigers are losers of nine straight games and come into the series tied for last place with just two conference victories. Memphis has already played two games this week and dropped both.
About The Frogs
TCU suffered a minor setback on Tuesday night as they experienced a terrible defensive set back. A school-record nine errors led to 11 unearned runs by the Sooners. Despite the meltdown, the Frogs bats were still hot as they pounded out 14 hits and scored 10 runs. Getting on a roll offensively was Austin Adams, Stuart Musslewhite and Matt McGuirk. Each one posted multi-hit games, while McGuirk homered for the second straight contest. Team batting average leader, Shelby Ford should return to the lineup this weekend after missing four straight games with a small hamstring injury. The pitching remains one of the strongest aspects of the Horned Frogs success so far this season. The have one of the top rotations in the nation as they will send Lance Broadway and Tim McGough to the mound on Friday and Saturday respectively. The addition of Sam Demel to the bullpen has proved to be a much needed lift to a bullpen that has shown signs of struggling. Despite a rough outing on Tuesday night, Shawn Ferguson has been lights out in conference play and will be counted on to do the same this weekend. A blister might bench Brad Furnish this weekend, but should he be able to go, will give the Frogs an awesome 1-2-3 punch against a down Tiger squad.
About The Tigers
A year removed from finishing sixth in the league, the Memphis Tigers have fallen on hard times, tied for last with Saint Louis in the standings. The Tigers have dropped nine straight ball games and have won only eight times in 30 games. The Tigers lone wins in C-USA play have come against Houston and USF. They have been swept in the last two Conference USA series. The offense has been sketchy with a .285 batting average, led by Ryan Martin with a .347 average. Martin is the home run leader with six and the top run producer with 38 RBIs. The pitching staff is what has knocked Memphis out of games with a collective ERA of 7.11. Opponents are hitting .323 off of the staff. Reliever Tim Senter boasts the lowest ERA of 3.70 but has a record of 0-4. Stephen Gostkowski leads the team with 28 strikeouts, but is just 1-4 on the season in seven starts. The defense has also been suspect, committing 68 errors on the season for a fielding percentage of .942. They have given up 48 unearned runs this season.
TCU vs. Memphis Base Knocks
• Friday's contest will mark just the 8th meeting all-time between TCU and Memphis.
• TCU leads the series 5-2.br> • The Frogs and the Tigers have six times over the last two seasons and once in the NCAA Regionals.
• The Frogs swept the Tigers last season at home but dropped the series in 2003 in Memphis, 2-1.
• The Frogs recorded their first-ever post-season victory over the Tigers back in 1994 in Stillwater, Okla. at the Midwest Regional in the NCAA playoffs.
The Series Match-Ups
Friday night will mark the ninth start of the season for staff ace, Lance Broadway. Broadway will be going for his eighth win of the season when he faces the Memphis Tigers. He is the leader on the team with 57.2 innings pitched and 77 strikeouts. His 1.56 ERA ranks him second on the squad. He is holding opponents to a .189 batting average. In his last outing, he gave up three runs on seven hits in seven innings of work. He fanned nine and walked two in his C-USA leading seventh win of the season.
The Tigers will send Daniel de Armas to the plate. He is tied for the team lead with two victories versus just one loss. He has made five appearances, four of which have been starts. He has a 6.86 ERA in 21.0 innings pitched. In his last appearance he picked up his first loss of the season. The UAB Blazers touched him for six runs on 11 hits in 6.2 innings pitched. He struck out two and walked one.
Saturday will mark the third consecutive conference start of the season for right-hander Tim McGough. McGough will put his consecutive innings pitched without allowing an earned run on the line against the Tigers. He has not allowed an earned run in 25 innings dating back to March 8. McGough leads the league and ranks second in the nation with a 0.74 ERA. In his last outing, he surrendered two unearned runs in six innings of work.
The Tigers will conter with Chris South. South has appeared in 15 games this season and will be making his first start. He has a 5.52 ERA in 14.2 innings pitched. He has just eight strikeouts but has walked 10 batters. South appeared in the Tigers loss to Alabama on Tuesday. He pitched 1.1 innings of hitless relief.
The Frogs have yet to name a starter for the final game of the series.
For the Tigers, Stephen Gostkowski will get the call. Gostkowski is 1-4 on the season with an 8.37 ERA. He leads the team with seven home runs allowed. In his last outing, a start against the Blazers, he was touched for 10 runs on nine hits in six innings of work. He walked two and struck out one.
Fresh Contribution
For the second straight season, the Frogs rely on another talented crop of freshman. Added to the freshman from last season, the young lineup has done its job, helping the team to one of its best starts in years. Four freshmen have seen significant playing time in the field, while four have seen time on the mound as well. At the plate, the freshmen are hitting .314 (99-315) with 58 runs scored and 64 runs driven in. Twenty-eight of their base hits have gone for extra bases, including 11 long balls. Andrew Walker is the team leader with eight. They've demonstrated their patience, drawing 45 walks. In conference play, they have been equally as effective with a .302 (35-116) batting average. On the mound, they account for three wins, one save and 68 strikeouts.
Midseason Awards
On Tuesday, Baseball America handed out its midseason all-American awards. On an impressive list of collegiate players, Lance Broadway was named second-team all-American as a starting pitcher. Broadway is also one of the seven pitchers placed on the Player of the Year watch list by the Baseball America staff. He is considered to be the 35th top collegiate prospect this season. He has the 30th-best ERA in the nation at 1.56 and ranks fifth in victories with seven. He averages 12.1 strikeouts per nine innings, which is 12th-best in the nation.
An Impressive Streak
Friday night saw an impressive streak come to an end when the USF Bulls pushed across an earned run in the fourth inning of the series opener. That run snapped a streak of 36.2 innings in which Lance Broadway hadn't allowed an earned run. The streak lasted from March 4 through April 8 and spanned seven appearances. the Manhattan Jaspers picked up an earned run in the fourth inning of the March 4 contest. Broadway pitched three more innings in the contest without allowing a run to begin his impressive run. He saw his ERA drop from 4.15 down to 1.56 during that streak. He picked up five wins in that span, allowed just 28 hits in 144 at-bats (.194) and struck out 52 batters. He was named National Pitcher of the Week as well as C-USA Pitcher of the Week following a complete-game against No. 5 Rice.
April Heat
April has brought warm weather and the warm weather has heated up the Frogs bats. The Frogs have won six of eight games in April. In April, the Frogs are hitting .310 as a team and the pitchers have posted a 3.04 ERA, while holding opponents to a .243 batting average. They have collected 86 hits, 29 of which have been of the extra base variety. Ten balls have left the park, led by Andrew Walker's three home runs. Frogs pitchers have struck out 69 batters, while surrendering just 31 walks. Tim McGough and Lance Broadway are each 2-0 in two starts, while Brad Furnish and Zach Ashwood each have one victory.
C-USA Dominance
The Frogs are just one game behind Tulane in the league standings despite having won all four Conference USA series they've played this season. TCU opened up the first three weekends with 2-1 series wins before recording their first series sweep in league play over the past weekend. Conversely, Tulane has swept three of the four weekends and dropped a series to Louisville. In its three plus seasons in Conference USA, the Frogs have won a series from every league-foe and are 26-8 overall in 34 series played. At home, TCU is 15-3, while they hold an 11-5 advantage in road series.
Defensive Meltdown
Tuesday night ranks up there as one of the worst nights defensively for any Horned Frog club. The Frogs committed a school-record nine errors in a 20-10 loss to the Oklahoma Sooners. Three innings saw the Frogs commit two errors and in three others they committed one. The nine errors led to 11 unearned runs crossing the plate for the Sooners. The previous mark of eight errors in a contest had been done four times, the most recent coming in 1997 when the Frogs committed eight against Oral Roberts. The infield accounted four seven of the nine, while one was made by a pitcher and the other in the outfield.
Conference USA Hitter of the Week
Due to an injury in game three against East Carolina, Keith Conlon got the last minute start. He made the most of the start, going 2-for-4 with two runs driven in. The hot bat kept him in the lineup for the next game and Conlon kept right on swinging, picking up his first home run at TCU. Over the course of the week, Conlon hit a blistering .667 (10-for-15) with seven extra base hits. He drove in seven runs and scored six as the Horned Frogs went 4-0 and moved into second place in the conference. In the last week, Conlon has raised his average from .154 to .327. Tuesday night saw his six game hit streak come to an end, but he did drive in a run with a bases loaded walk.
Early Projections
At the halfway point of the season, two different websites have projected its field of 64 for the NCAA Regionals. Baseball America has projected the Frogs to be a No. 2 seed in Austin, Texas with the University of Texas as the host team. The other two teams projected are Washington and Miami (Ohio). SEBaseball.rivals.com also has the Horned Frogs as a two seed in the Austin Regional along with Texas, Washington and Wright State. Three other Conference USA teams were listed in the projections in Tulane, Southern Miss and East Carolina.
