Utah Wins Slugfest as TCU Falls, 15-11

Saturday, May 9

Fort Worth, Texas

6:30 PM

TCU

30-14, 11-5

Utah*

20-25, 7-13

Utah

TCU

Taylor Featherston hit two home runs in the loss.

Utah Wins Slugfest as TCU Falls, 15-11

5/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

May 9, 2009

Final Stats

FORT WORTH, Texas - The TCU Horned Frogs rallied from an early deficit, but couldn't overcome a trio of three-run home runs by the Utah Utes as they saw their 10-game home winning streak come to an end in a 15-11 loss Saturday night. Taylor Featherston hit two of the Frogs' five home runs on the night and finished with three hits and three RBIs.

The Utes stacked themselves to an early 4-0 lead in the first inning. C.J. Cron gave Utah a 1-0 lead and Devin Walker connected for a three-run blast to put the Utes in front.

TCU rallied, getting three of the runs back to close the gap to 4-3. Corey Steglich worked a lead-off walk and Featherston unloaded with his first blast of the night to make it a 2-0 game. Matt Vern kept the inning alive with a two-out single. He stole second and moved to third on a throwing error before scoring on a passed ball.

Utah's bats stayed hot in the second inning as it got another three-run home run to push its lead back out to four at 7-3. The home run came off the bat of Nick Kuroczko with two outs in the inning.

A solo home run off the bat of Matt Carpenter in the third, cut the Ute lead to 7-4, but Utah would get the run back and add another in the top of the fourth. Walker and Austin Jones proved the run-scoring singles with two outs in the inning, making it a 9-4 contest.

Another solo home run in the fourth, this time from Matt Vern, cut into the deficit and set the stage for a big fifth inning that saw the Frogs eventually tie the game at nine.

Steglich opened the inning with his second walk of the game and Featherston followed with a base hit to put runners on the corners. Carpenter and Chris Ellington teamed up on back-to-back triples to get within one and Vern sealed the comeback with a sacrifice fly to left, tying the game at nine.

Trent Appleby (3-1) threw up his second zero on the scoreboard and the Frogs translated it into their first lead of the night. Featherston hit his second home run of the game to put the Frogs on top 10-9 in the sixth inning.

But it was all Utah from there. The Utes picked up three more two-out runs in the seventh to pull back in front, 12-10. Kuroczko tied the game and Cron put the Utes in front with a seeing-eye single through the left side.

Bryan Holaday cut the deficit to one, 12-11, with his eighth home run of the season leading off the seventh inning.

Utah put the game away in the ninth with another three-run blast, this time from Walker.

The Frogs used seven pitchers in the contest that was started by Steven Maxwell. Appleby was tagged with the loss after allowing two runs on two hits in 2 1/3 innings of work. He issued one walk and struck out three.

TCU falls to 30-14 on the season and 11-5 in league play. The rubber match of the series is slated for Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. Kyle Winkler will take the mound for the Frogs and face the Utes Jordan Whatcott.