TCU Wins Wild Affair, 9-3

Tied at three in the bottom of the eighth inning, TCU exploded for six runs to take a wild 9-3 victory over Texas Friday night. The victory is the fifth straight for the Horned Frogs, who vaulted into a tie for fourth place in the leaguestandings.

TCU rallied from a 2-0 deficit, tying the game in the bottom of the fifth. Keaton Jones drew a lead-off walk and was standing on second after a Kyle Bacak sacrifice. Jerrick Suiter doubled to center field to cut the Longhorn lead in half. Boomer White came up with a clutch two-out single to get the game tied.

After Brandon Finnegan backed up the run support with a 1-2-3 top of the sixth, the Frogs responded with the go-ahead run in the bottom of the frame. Paul Hendrix doubled to open the inning and was standing on third with nobody out after a passed ball. Kevin Cron hit a deep fly ball to right field to score Hendrix for a 3-2 lead.

Texas fought back to score its third two-out run of the game in the top of the seventh, tying the game at three. A hit batter with two outs was standing on third and scored on a base hit from Mark Payton.

A one-out walk to Hendrix in the eighth started the merry-go-round as TCU sent 10 men to the plate and scored six times. Cron singled and a wild pitch put both runners in scoring position. The Longhorns elected to intentionally walk Josh Gonzales to load the bases. Keaton Jonesearned the bases loaded walk as he battled to a 3-2 count, driving in the go-ahead run.

Bacak followed with a base hit and Dylan Fitzgerald walked to make it a 6-3 contest. Cody Jones executed a perfect suicide squeeze to drive in the fourth run of the inning and Boomer White put the exclamation point on the inning with a two-run single.

Texas picked up a pair of two-out runs in the second and fifth innings to take an early 2-0 lead. Brooks Marlow gave the Longhorns the 1-0 lead in the second and Payton's second hit of the day pushed Texas' lead to two.

Finnegan started and went six innings in the no-decision. He was touched for two runs on seven hits, walked one and struck out a career-high 12 batters. Andrew Mitchell surrendered an unearned run in 2/3 of an inning. Alex Young (7-4) earned the win in relief with a 1 1/3 scoreless innings. Justin Scharf pitched a scoreless ninth.

TCU improves to 28-25 overall and 12-11 in conference play. The Frogs will conclude regular season play Saturday afternoon at 3:30 as they go for the sweep. Trevor Seidenberger will start for TCU.