No. 23 Oklahoma visits Lupton Stadium Tuesday night
3/6/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 6, 2006
FORT WORTH, Texas - The Horned Frogs will wrap up a season-long eight game home stand on Tuesday night when they host the No. 23 Oklahoma Sooners. First pitch is slated for 7 p.m. at Lupton Stadium.
Game Promotions
• The trading cards are back, collect your Ben Carruthers and Matt Vern cards on Tuesday night.
Frogs on the Internet
Baseball fans unable to make it to Lupton Stadium Tuesday night can follow the game live on Gametracker or listen to the game on the Internet. Go to the baseball schedule and click the "listen" link on the schedule page. Chuck LaMendola will call all the action live from the ballpark
About the Game
The Frogs are coming off one of their most complete weekends of the season, despite dropping the series finale to Florida Atlantic. Meanwhile, the Sooners are off to one of the best starts in the country with a 12-4 record. They are coming off a home series sweep of UC Riverside, which came on the heels of a disappointing 12-2 loss to Wichita State a week ago. TCU will be looking to end a two-game skid to the Sooners and pick up its first midweek win of the 2006 campaign.
About The Frogs
The Frogs played extremely well in the series win over Florida Atlantic. A tough-luck play to end Sunday's game prevented the Frogs from sweeping, but the team saw improvement in all facets of the game over the weekend. The starting rotation strung together three straight impressive outings, while the offense got timely hits and the defense also showed improvement.
At the plate, the Frogs were led by Bryan Kervin, who was lights out against Owl pitchers. Matt Carpenter continued his strong start to the 2006 campaign, hitting the go-ahead home run in Friday's win. Making his way back from the strained hamstring, Chad Huffman showed that his bat was still in working order with a pinch-hit single on Sunday. The Frogs continue to impress on the bases, increasing their stolen base total to 23. They have only been caught three times this season.
On the mound, Jake Arrieta, Sam Demel and Brad Furnish all turned in dominating performances on the mound. They combined to strike out 38 batters in 22.1 innings of work. Omar Arif continues to dominate out of the bullpen, making two appearances out of the bullpen and earned his first career save in Friday's win.
About The Sooners
The Sooners are off to a 12-4 start this season. They are an offensive minded squad that plays outstanding defense and does what it needs to do on the mound to keep them in the win column. As a team, they are hitting .311 with 46 extra base hits and are averaging nearly seven runs a game. Ryan Rohlinger leads all hitters with a .408 average and three home runs. They have been successful in 22 of 31 steal attempts led by Chuckie Caufield's six steals. On the mound, they have a combined ERA of 4.54 with six saves. Will Savage is the closer with five saves in eight appearances. They have walked just 40 batters this season in 140.2 innings pitched. In the field, the Sooners have committed just eight errors all season and given up just seven unearned runs. The catching corps has held opponents to just nine stolen bases in 13 attempts.
The Starters
Shawn Ferguson will get the start for the Horned Frogs on Tuesday night. The start is the first in Ferguson's TCU career. He has made 32 appearances out of the bullpen in his two seasons with the Frogs. Starting a game is not something new for Ferguson as he spent a majority of the summer as a starter in the Texas Collegiate League for the Weatherford Wranglers. In eight appearances, he made five starts and finished the season with a 4-2 record to go along with a 3.74 ERA.
This season, Ferguson is 1-1 with a 4.91 ERA in 7.1 innings pitched. He is holding opponents to a .226 batting average and has tallied seven strike outs. In his lone career outing against the Sooners, Ferguson surrender four runs (three earned) on three hits in an inning of work.
The Sooners will counter with right-hander, Ryan Mottern. Normally an offensive player, Mottern will be making his second appearance on the mound and his second start of the season. He has made two appearances against the Frogs in his career, once in a relief role in the Frogs March 16, 2004 win over the Sooners and once as a starter in 2005. His start on March 22, 2005 against TCU ended badly for the right-hander as he suffered a season-ending injury to his right elbow.
In his only appearance on the mound this season, Mottern was tagged with the loss as he surrendered three runs on two hits in three innings of work against Wichita State on Feb. 28. He walked three and struck out two.
TCU vs. Oklahoma Base Knocks
• Tuesday's meeting with the Sooners will be the 74th in the series history.
• Oklahoma leads the series 50-23.
• The Sooners won both meetings a year ago, winning 5-4 at Lupton Stadium and 20-10 in Norman.
• The Frogs won both meetings in 2004. They picked up a 6-3 win in Fort Worth and followed it with a 5-4 win at L. Dale Mitchell Ballpark.
• The Frogs own a 2-1 record against Oklahoma at Lupton Stadium.
