Frogs Rally, Come up Short Against UT Arlington

Once again, TCU's win streak is snapped at five. The last three times we have accumulated a five game win streak we have lost the following game. Winning five of every six games is something I'll take all day every day, don't get me wrong. It's just frustrating because every time we look like we might be able to put together a really special win streak, we lose a game, and usually its to a team we ought to beat. UT Arlington is a good team. They're a team we should beat, but this was the third time we've played them in a month. Maybe it was just a matter of time until they took one from us. Maybe. But maybe the Frogs just didn't show up ready to play for this one.

The first two times we played UTA this season we outscored them 22-5. It's easy to see how the Frogs might have looked past them this time. It might also lead you to believe TCU saw this as an easy W when you consider we started a freshman pitcher who was making his first career start. That turned out to be a good move either way though. Sean Wymer was solid. He is final line was 2 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K. Schlossnagle had mentioned that he wanted to go with Wymer just to see how he reacted to going through the routine of preparing for a start. After Wymer left the game, things went down...hill. Rex Hill, who started last week against UTA, came on to start the third and gave up a three run home run, throwing 32 pitches in the inning.

It was a tough dilemma for TCU. Leave Hill in and risk further damage or go to the bullpen and risk burning through your relief pitching two days before traveling to Lawrence to play a three game series against Kansas. They decided to go the bullpen route and Burnett settled things down a little, throwing two scoreless innings after coming out to start the fourth. Gooch came on to start the sixth and pitched a good 1 2/3 innings of work. He had two outs in the seventh with nobody on base, but them he started to have some trouble and loaded the bases to end his day. Guillory came in to relieve him and a wild pitch allowed what turned out to be the winning run to score for UTA. Skoug was able to get back to the backstop and Guillory covered home plate, but the ball escaped from Guillory's glove and what would have been an out turned into the one run that was the difference in the game.

In the eighth inning TCU made an attempt at some Lupton Magic. With Wanhanen on base and two outs Austen Wade got a hit to put runners on the corners. Cam Warner came up next with a 16 game hitting streak on the line and hit a towering three run homer to left field to pull the Frogs within one. In the next at-bat Evan Skoug absolutely murdered a ball that almost tied up the game, but went just foul.

Durbin Feltman came on in the ninth and looked like he has gotten through whatever yips he had over the weekend. He struck out the first two batter he faced and got a groundout to end a three up, three down inning. In fact, that was the only three up, three down inning the Mavericks had in this entire game. TCU on the other hand had only four innings in which they managed to get a baserunner. The ninth inning was one of those. Barzilli was able to get a hit with one out, but Josh Watson grounded into a double play to end the inning and the game.

For most of the game the Frogs just didn't look focused, and by the time they got there it was too little, too late. UTA put pressure on them all night offensively, while Wilcox and Moreland combined for a brilliant six hit performance. Down one run with Baker, Barzilli and Watson up to bat is a situation that I'm never going to sneer at. It just didn't work out tonight. But it's a long season, and they'll get their first shot at redemption this weekend as they head to Kansas looking to close the gap with Texas Tech (8-1 in conference) in the Big 12 standings. TCU is now 22-6 on the season with the loss and 4-2 in Big 12 play, tied for second place with OSU.