Morrison, Frogs Blank SIU, 5-0

Friday, February 13

Fort Worth, Texas

6:30 PM

TCU

1-0

Southern Illinois

0-1

Southern Illinois

TCU

Morrison, Frogs Blank SIU, 5-0

2/13/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

Feb. 13, 2015

Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

FORT WORTH - Keaton Jones highlighted a perfect night of baseball as the No. 2 TCU Horned Frogs took a 5-0 win over Southern Illinois Friday. With a fourth inning assist, Jones became the all-time career leader in assists with 555. He finished the night 2-for-4 with a run scored.

Preston Morrison (1-0) wiggled out of a couple of jams along the way, but pitched seven scoreless frames to earn his 26th career victory. He allowed three hits, walked two, hit a batter and fanned three. Mitchell Traver tossed the final two frames, allowing two hits and striking out one.

"Preston didn't have his best stuff by any means, but he's always going to give you a chance because he rarely beats himself," said head coach Jim Schlossnagle. "I thought the story of the game was the PFP plays, the two picks offs, the great play by him on the bunt and our outfield defense. All three outfielders made big plays."

The Salukis had the game's first opportunity to push across some runs after a hit batter and a walk to open the inning. Will Farmer moved both runners into scoring position with only one out. Morrison was equal to the task as he got a pair of strikeouts to end the inning.

Morrison snuck through another inning in the fifth as the first two Salukis reached in the frame. A strong defensive play by Morrison on a sacrifice attempt got the lead runner at third, then a diving catch in left field by Dane Steinhagen turned into an inning-ending double play.

TCU took the momentum from the top of the fifth and turned it into the game's first run. Nolan Brown led off the inning with a double to right field. With one out, Brown was standing on third. Steinhagen bounced a single through the drawn-in infield to give the Frogs a 1-0 lead.

A three-run sixth pushed TCU's lead to four. Jones got the frame started with a lead-off single. An errant pick-off throw had him standing on third with nobody out. Saluki reliever Chad Whitmer committed a balk, allowing Jones to score for a 2-0 lead. With two on and two out, Connor Wanhanen delivered a pinch-hit, two-run single to push the lead to 4-0.

TCU tacked on a run in the eighth inning to account for the final score. Odell walked and scored on a Garrett Crain base hit.

Given a lead to work with, Morrison was lights out. He retired the final eight batters he faced before giving way to Traver. In unconventional fashion, Traver faced the minimum despite giving up two hits and hitting a batter. He got a double play ball to erase one hit, then picked off the batter he hit to end the eighth. In the ninth a two-out single was erased when Cody Jones threw behind the runner after a single to end the game.

TCU improves to 1-0 on the season. Game two of the three game series is set for Saturday at 2 p.m. Tyler Alexander will take the mound for the Frogs and face the Salukis' Kyle Pruemer.