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Lifelong Frog
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7000249...at-Cougars.html
[SIZE=14pt]BYU baseball: No. 11 Horned Frogs beat Cougars[/SIZE]
By Jim Rayburn
Deseret News
PROVO — The 14-8 final score gives the impression that BYU had no chance of beating No. 11 TCU on Thursday night at Larry H. Miller Park.
But the Cougars were actually within a big hit or two of taking the Horned Frogs right down to the wire. They didn't, however, because of a failure to capitalize on a key opportunity to tie the game in the seventh and by not having enough fresh arms to get through the final two innings.
"It's a good fighting ball club, there's no question," BYU coach Vance Law said of the Horned Frogs. "There's a reason they're ranked 11th."
Law was quick to credit TCU's pitching for silencing BYU's bats early and for snuffing out BYU's attempts to rally from a 6-0 deficit.
"When you get big punch outs, those are critical . . . and they've got the kind of arms that they can shut down a rally," Law said.
The Frogs' staff entered Thursday's Mountain West Conference battle allowing less than four runs per game, with opposing teams hitting only .250 against it. The Cougars managed 14 hits, but 10 of them were singles and they stranded eight runners.
TCU, on the other hand, belted out 20 hits, and also took advantage of five BYU errors.
"They've got a great pitching staff and offensively tonight they showed that they've got some power, and they're very, very good at executing," Law said.
Horned Frogs starter Matt Purke, a lefty who throws three pitches for strikes, handcuffed the Cougars through six innings - allowing only four hits and striking out eight. Purke was a No. 1 draft choice of the Texas Rangers but picked college over the Major Leagues.
"Right now I wished he would have signed," Law joked.
But it was TCU's bats that put the Cougars in a hole early. Lead-off hitter Jerome Pena belted a long blast into the pine trees deep behind the right-center field wall. Two batters later, Jason Coats launched a towering bomb over the scoreboard in left field to put TCU up 2-0 only three hitters into the game.
Cougar starter Matthew Neil, prior to those two bombs, had given up only two home runs in more than 41 innings this season. After being touched early, however, the sophomore righthander settled down and wasn't really hit hard again. Still, TCU managed to tack on a run in each of the second and third innings with timely hitting and aggressive base running to take a 4-0 lead.
After cruising through the fourth, fifth and sixth, Neil ran into more trouble in the seventh when TCU's Aaron Schultz and Coats each slapped run-scoring singles to push the Horned Frogs' lead to 6-0. The damage could have been worse, however, if not for an inning-ending double-play liner to BYU shortstop Brandon Relf.
Still, when BYU strung together six straight singles in the seventh the Cougars cut the lead to 6-3 on RBIs from Austin Hall, Stephen Wells and Relf. But the Cougars could manage no more in the frame when No. 3 hitter Alex Wolfe struck out and clean-up hitter Bryce Ayoso grounded to first.
Once TCU dodged that seventh-inning bullet, the Frogs poured some salt in the wound with eight runs over the final two innings to build up a cushion big enough to survive the Cougars' five-run ninth - which included Jonathan Cluff's a little-too-late-and-too-little three-run blast over the center field wall.
Notes: Attendance at Thursday's game was a season-high 1,013 . . . The two teams meet again tonight at 6 p.m. and then again Saturday at 1 p.m. at Miller Park.
e-mail: jimr@desnews.com
[SIZE=14pt]BYU baseball: No. 11 Horned Frogs beat Cougars[/SIZE]
By Jim Rayburn
Deseret News
PROVO — The 14-8 final score gives the impression that BYU had no chance of beating No. 11 TCU on Thursday night at Larry H. Miller Park.
But the Cougars were actually within a big hit or two of taking the Horned Frogs right down to the wire. They didn't, however, because of a failure to capitalize on a key opportunity to tie the game in the seventh and by not having enough fresh arms to get through the final two innings.
"It's a good fighting ball club, there's no question," BYU coach Vance Law said of the Horned Frogs. "There's a reason they're ranked 11th."
Law was quick to credit TCU's pitching for silencing BYU's bats early and for snuffing out BYU's attempts to rally from a 6-0 deficit.
"When you get big punch outs, those are critical . . . and they've got the kind of arms that they can shut down a rally," Law said.
The Frogs' staff entered Thursday's Mountain West Conference battle allowing less than four runs per game, with opposing teams hitting only .250 against it. The Cougars managed 14 hits, but 10 of them were singles and they stranded eight runners.
TCU, on the other hand, belted out 20 hits, and also took advantage of five BYU errors.
"They've got a great pitching staff and offensively tonight they showed that they've got some power, and they're very, very good at executing," Law said.
Horned Frogs starter Matt Purke, a lefty who throws three pitches for strikes, handcuffed the Cougars through six innings - allowing only four hits and striking out eight. Purke was a No. 1 draft choice of the Texas Rangers but picked college over the Major Leagues.
"Right now I wished he would have signed," Law joked.
But it was TCU's bats that put the Cougars in a hole early. Lead-off hitter Jerome Pena belted a long blast into the pine trees deep behind the right-center field wall. Two batters later, Jason Coats launched a towering bomb over the scoreboard in left field to put TCU up 2-0 only three hitters into the game.
Cougar starter Matthew Neil, prior to those two bombs, had given up only two home runs in more than 41 innings this season. After being touched early, however, the sophomore righthander settled down and wasn't really hit hard again. Still, TCU managed to tack on a run in each of the second and third innings with timely hitting and aggressive base running to take a 4-0 lead.
After cruising through the fourth, fifth and sixth, Neil ran into more trouble in the seventh when TCU's Aaron Schultz and Coats each slapped run-scoring singles to push the Horned Frogs' lead to 6-0. The damage could have been worse, however, if not for an inning-ending double-play liner to BYU shortstop Brandon Relf.
Still, when BYU strung together six straight singles in the seventh the Cougars cut the lead to 6-3 on RBIs from Austin Hall, Stephen Wells and Relf. But the Cougars could manage no more in the frame when No. 3 hitter Alex Wolfe struck out and clean-up hitter Bryce Ayoso grounded to first.
Once TCU dodged that seventh-inning bullet, the Frogs poured some salt in the wound with eight runs over the final two innings to build up a cushion big enough to survive the Cougars' five-run ninth - which included Jonathan Cluff's a little-too-late-and-too-little three-run blast over the center field wall.
Notes: Attendance at Thursday's game was a season-high 1,013 . . . The two teams meet again tonight at 6 p.m. and then again Saturday at 1 p.m. at Miller Park.
e-mail: jimr@desnews.com
