Game Two Recap: TCU fails to capitalize as the Waves even the Series

Welp---that didn't go quite as planned. Aaron Brown was as good as promised and made the TCU offense earn every inch early on. Dylan Fitzgerald led off the 3rd inning with a double, but ended up striking out the side. The Frogs once again got things going early in the 4th, but Brown was able to get out of the inning once again, striking out Fitz to end the inning.

Amid his high-number of strikeouts, TCU made Brown work---putting a lot of runners on base, but in classic TCU fashion, weren't capitalizing when they needed to. Keaton Jones led off another promising start with a single, but Bacak was surprisingly unable to advance him on the bunt. With 2 outs and runners in scoring position, TCU was unable to get anything out of the inning as Boomer White hit a hard out to right field. By the end of the 5th, TCU was 0-6 with RISP.

Pepperdine broke open a lead in the bottom of the 5th after an RBI single from Caruso to give the Waves a 1-0 lead. That's where it would stay for awhile as TCU continually failed to score runners. Credit Brown as much as we can---because he was indeed phenomenal---but the TCU hitters did him quite a few favors. The Waves added two insurance runs on a sac-fly and big double from Caruso to make it 3-0 going into the 8th.

TCU got some big, big help from the Pepperdine defense and a couple of throwing errors allowed the Frogs to minimize the damage at 3-1, followed by a big RBI from Suiter to make it a one-run game. Fitzgerald struck out on a foul tip, but it allowed Suiter to take second leaving Keaton Jones a big opportunity to tie the game. Jones singled and an acrobatic leap from Suiter nearly tied the game, but an excellent throw from Aaron Brown, plus a bad jump from Suit off the bag, left it nearly impossible and the game remained at 3-2. Despite the momentum, it simply wasn't enough as TCU failed to close in game two.

Preston Morrison looked great from the start. The Big 12 pitcher of the year picked up a strikeout to cap a 1-2-3 first inning and didn't slow down. Aaron Brown showed off his double-threat skills early and put up a double early in the 2nd, but TCU was able to escape without any damage. Morrison continued the Maddux-flow through the 4th inning, getting a big strikeout, despite walking Brown early. Despite keeping his pitch count low, Morrison simply didn't get any help and came out in the 7th after the Waves went up 3-0.

I feel like we just got eliminated. But tomorrow's another day and we have the Masta Killa, Tyler Alexander throwing tomorrow.

Until then...