TCU Baseball falls for the first time at home; UTA wins 6-4 in 12

More Lupton magic? It wasn’t to be Tuesday night, as the Frogs fell in a wild 12-inning affair to UT Arlington, their first home loss of the season. They now sit at 10-2 overall and 8-1 on their home field in 2020.

Things started strong for TCU Baseball Tuesday afternoon; in a game that was moved up due to impending inclement weather, it was a picture perfect day for baseball in Fort Worth. Behind starter Riley Cornelio, the Frogs jumped out to an early lead. Striking first in the first, Gene Wood opened the scoring with a base hit after Sam Thompson and Zach Humphreys walked. TCU added three in the second as well; after back to back singles off the bats of Tommy Sacco and Philip Sikes, Thompson reached safely via a walk to load the bags. Gray Rodgers worked a walk to force home run number two, and Wood singled to center to make it a 4-0 ball game.

The Mavericks got on the board in the third, as Riley Cornelio got himself in a jam. The freshman allowed a lead-off single but erased the runner with a double-play ground ball, but a one-out walk had Schlossnagle seeing enough. Drew Hill replaced Cornelio, and the normally un-hittable reliever allowed a two-strike double to put UTA on the board. Hill settled down and got a fly out two pitches later to end the inning, and would go on to throw two scoreless innings, allowing just one additional hit and a walk while striking out two.

Haylen Green was the next arm out of the pen, and the lefty continued his strong play, allowing just one hit across two innings. That led to Marcelo Perez, who got touched up for the first time this season across less than an inning of work. The first pitch that Perez threw left the ballpark, cutting the TCU lead to 4-2. Three consecutive hits scored another run, and a sac fly tied things up and chased Perez. Austin Krob was the next pitcher to toe the rubber, and he struck out a pinch hitter to end the inning and strand the go-ahead run.

Krob stayed on the bump for 2.1 scoreless frames, allowing a single hit — a base hit to former Frog Andrew Keefer. As we went deep into extra innings, closer Harrison Beethe took over in the 11th, loading the bases before getting out of a jam thanks to a strikeout.

After the Frogs couldn’t do anything with Gray Rodgers’ one-out single in the bottom of the 11th, Matt Rudis took his turn on the mound. After a lead-off single, a wild put the go-ahead run in scoring position. That was followed by a walk as Rudis struggled to get back in the groove. He bounced back with a strikeout, but a two out double on an 0-1 count gave the Mavs their first lead of the ball game at 6-4.

Mason Speaker and Conner Shepherd grounded out in the bottom of the 12th and Kurtis Byrne flied out to end things. TCU hits the road this weekend to take on a pair of top ten teams in UCLA and Vanderbilt. They’ll see USC Friday and San Diego State Tuesday before returning home to take on Maryland.