TCU Baseball 8, Louisville 9: Frogs late rally blocked at the plate

It was a chilly dreary morning in Louisville and the TCU bats were slow to wake up and warm up.

Cam Brown got the start on the mound for the Frogs, picking up his first loss of the season, giving up 3 runs in 4 innings of work, but the fireworks truly started for the Cardinals in the 5th. Louisville lead off its half of the inning with a first-pitch HR followed by single, triple, single, walk, walk, single. When the dust settled, Louisville had added 5 runs in the 5th and tacked on another in the 6th to push its lead to 9-0. One positive on the mound for the Frogs, was Cohen Feser who pitched two strong innings to silence the hot Cardinal bats, finishing with no hits, no walks, and 2 strikeouts.

Louisville pitcher Jared Poland had been a menace to Frog batters all day, surrendering only 2 hits and 3 free passes to go with 7 strikeouts. Up nine runs, it was safe for the Cards to turn to its bullpen to finish things off, right? Wrong. With Poland no longer on the mound, the TCU bats found new life.

The rally started with a pair of singles and a walk to load the bases for Elijah Nunez who delivered the base hit to score TCU’s first run of the game. A wild pitch added another run, followed by a Brayden Taylor double to clear the bases for two more.

TCU picked right back up in the 8th inning, as four consecutive walks brought in a run and would’ve had the Woo Birds howling if this game was in Fort Worth. A bases-loaded single by Luke Boyers delivered two more runs home, followed by a Taylor walk to load the bases again, trailing by two runs with two outs, setting up the at-bat of the game. Dave Bishop shot a liner into right field to score Nunez, and Boyers was waved home for a chance to tie the game. With the Louisville catcher sitting home plate, Boyers’ slide beat the ball from right field, but it appeared his foot was unable to contact the plate before the tag was applied to end the threat. TCU got a walk in the 9th was never able to bring him home for the tying run.

Was Boyers really out at home? You decide:

TCU moved to 8-4 on the season and will return to Lupton Stadium for a weekend series against Army, starting Friday at 6:00 and broadcast on ESPN+