Baseball Drops First Game at TCU

Friday, May 2

Fort Worth, Texas

6:30 PM

University of Utah

16-22, 5-10

TCU

31-16, 14-5

University of Utah

TCU Horned Frogs

5/2/2008 12:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

May 2, 2008

Box Score

FORT WORTH, Texas - The University of Utah baseball team held the potent TCU offense off the board for 5.2 innings, but the Horned Frogs came alive in out-scoring Utah down the stretch, 5-1. TCU rallied for the 5-2 Mountain West Conference win here tonight.

Utah, which falls to 16-22 for the year and to 5-10 in league play, took a 1-0 lead into the sixth inning. But, TCU's offense awoke late in the game to help it capture the come-from-behind win.

"TCU did a nice job of wearing Stephen Fife down, and they capitalized on that in the sixth and seventh innings," said head coach Bill Kinneberg. "They got a couple of key hits with two outs.

"Tyler Lockwood pitched well. He's a sinker-slider guy who did a good job of keeping us off balance."

Fife took the mound for the Utes tonight. He held TCU scoreless for 5.2 innings, and he didn't issue a walk until the sixth frame. However, the first free pass cost Fife. After walking Chris Ellington with two outs, Matt Carpenter hit an RBI double down the right field line. An error on the relay allowed Carpenter to take third.

TCU (30-16, 14-5 MWC) got its second run in the same inning on Bryan Holaday's hit deep into the six-hole. That scored Carpenter, going down in the scorebook as an unearned run.

Fife, who took the loss and falls to 5-4 on the year, went into the seventh inning for the Utes. He allowed six hits, two walks and three runs (two earned). He fanned two batters.

TCU held the 7-6 edge in hits. Three of Utah's hits came in the one-run first inning. The other three hits came in the fifth, eighth and ninth frames, respectively. Cody Guymon was the only Utah batter with multiple hits tonight. He was 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI. Guymon responded to TCU's four-run outburst with a towering home-run shot over the left field fence in the eighth. The solo shot was his fourth on the season.

The Utes struck first, in the top of the first. With two outs and Guymon on second, Dustin Hennis hit a bounding ball up the middle to score Guymon. Utah's Fife retired the TCU, 1-2-3, in the bottom of the first.

After TCU's two-run sixth, it returned for a two-run seventh and a one-run eighth. Relief pitcher Stephen Streich hit Ben Carruthers for the first run of the seventh, and a bases loaded sac fly from Chris Ellington made it 4-1 TCU.

Matt Vern wrapped up the scoring with an RBI double in the eighth. It followed Guymon's homer in the top of the frame and preserved the three-run lead that the home team had built in the seventh.

Lockwood got the victory for TCU. He's 5-1 on the year. Andrew Cashner came on in the ninth with two out and two in scoring position to pick up the save. He fanned pinch hitter Nick Kuroczko to end the game.

Holaday's 2-for-4 for TCU with one-RBI.

Game two of the conference series between these two teams is set for tomorrow here in Fort Worth, Texas. First pitch is at 2 p.m. (CDT).