TCU
18-12, 4-4
Air Force
10-18, 0-7
TCU guarantees series victory with 6-3 win
4/5/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 5, 2008
FORT WORTH, Texas - The TCU Horned Frogs struck for six runs in the first three innings and held on for the 6-3 victory over Air Force Saturday afternoon at Lupton Stadium. A Steve Ellington base hit in the third broke a 2-2 tie as the Frogs scored four times in the inning. Sean Hoelscher earned his second win of the season with six strong innings. Clint Arnold led the Frogs' offense with two hits.Ben Carruthers took the first pitch of the inning off the left side to open the bottom of the first. Arnold singled with one out and both runners moved up 90 feet on a David Miller balk. Chris Ellington put the Frogs on top with a long double off the wall in left, driving in both runners.
Air Force countered with a two-run top of the second to knot the game. With one out, Matt Alexander single and scored on a Daniel Walker triple. The Frogs looked to be out of the inning, but a throwing error kept the frame alive as Walker scored to tie the game at two. Jimmie Pharr ended the inning without any further damage as he cut down Josh Meents attempting to steal second base.
The Frogs wasted an opportunity to regain the lead in the bottom of the inning after Matt Carpenter and Pharr were both hit by the pitch to open the inning. Miller retired the next three batters to keep it a tie game.
In the fourth, the Frogs sent nine batters to plate and came away with a four-run lead. Arnold worked a lead-off walk and moved to second on a sacrifice from Bryan Holaday. Chris Ellington reached on a fielding error and Steve Ellington followed with a run-scoring single up the middle. Carpenter doubled home Chris Ellington to give TCU a 4-2 lead. With the bases loaded and two out, Carruthers lined a single up the middle to score two runs.
Each time Air Force tried to get something started, the Horned Frog defense had an answer. In the fourth, a great play by Bryan Kervin to snag a line drive erased a runner at second to end the inning. Twice the Falcons had runners on second and third with one out, but hit the ball right to Carpenter at third who cut the runners down trying to score.
Air Force picked up a run in the ninth inning on Walker's second triple of the contest, but Andrew Cashner come on and retired the final two batters of the game to pick up his second save of the season.
Hoelscher (2-2) allowed six hits in six innings of work. He allowed two runs (one earned), walked one and struck out six. Eric Marshall surrendered a ninth-inning run in 2 1/3 innings of work. He walked one and gave up four hits.
The Frogs, winners of four straight, improve to 18-12 on the season and 4-4 in league play. They will go for the series sweep on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.
Game Notes:
• Ben Carruthers extended his hit streak to 14 games.
• TCU has now won 81 straight contests when leading after eight innings.
• Four of the Frogs' six runs scored came with two outs.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Hoelscher, Sean (2-2)
L: MILLER, D. (1-2)
S: Cashner, Andrew (2)
Batting:
3B: WALKER 2
RBI: WALKER 1 ; ALLEN, J. 1 ; MEENTS 1
SH: RANDHAWA 1
Base Running:
RUNS: ALEXANDER 1 ; WALKER 2
SB: CARTER 1 ; GENTRY 1 ; DERBIGNY 1 ; SCHIERHOLTZ 1
CS: WALKER 1 ; MEENTS 1
HBP: DERBIGNY 1
Batting:
2B: Ellington, Chris 1 ; Carpenter, Matt 1
RBI: Carruthers, Ben 2 ; Ellington, Chris 2 ; Ellington, Steve 1 ; Carpenter, Matt 1
SH: Holaday, Bryan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Carruthers, Ben 1 ; Arnold, Clint 2 ; Ellington, Chris 1 ; Ellington, Steve 1 ; Carpenter, Matt 1
SB: Steglich, Corey 1
CS: Arnold, Clint 1
HBP: Carruthers, Ben 2 ; Carpenter, Matt 1 ; Pharr, Jimmie 1
PO: Carruthers, Ben 1
