• The KillerFrogs

FWST: TCU drops UNLV 7-1 to complete baseball sweep

TopFrog

Lifelong Frog
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04/25/21...o-complete.html

[SIZE=14pt]TCU drops UNLV 7-1 to complete baseball sweep[/SIZE]

By STEFAN STEVENSON
sstevenson@star-telegram.com

For the TCU baseball team to get where it wants to go, the Horned Frogs will likely need productive and consistent contributions in May from their three top starters.

Right-hander Steven Maxwell, the Frogs' opening-day starter, continued to show Sunday why TCU coaches gave him that respect.

The junior pitched a gem Sunday, holding UNLV scoreless through 72/3 innings, and striking out a career-high nine batters as TCU swept the three-game series with a 7-1 victory before 3,217 at Lupton Stadium.

The Frogs (30-8, 11-3 Mountain West) have won 10 of their past 11 games, including three series sweeps, and sit alone atop the league standings. TCU, ranked No. 11 by Baseball America, hosts Baylor at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Maxwell (6-0) has pitched solidly in his past four outings, after moving to third in the rotation in early April following weak outings in back-to-back starts. He has lowered his ERA from 4.32 on March 18 to 2.83 after Sunday's performance, the lowest among Frogs starters.

"You can see why we opened the season with him as a Friday night guy," TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said. "We feel confident with all those guys when they go to the mound."

Maxwell didn't take the move as a demotion. Instead, he used the extra days to hone his pitches and has rebounded brilliantly.

"I really looked at it as giving me a couple extra days to get my stuff fine-tuned, and it really paid off for us," said Maxwell, who has given up just five runs in his past 29 innings. "I had no argument with the coaches there because I knew the guys in the rotation could step up and do their job, while I got my stuff together."

Maxwell escaped unscathed in the first inning despite loading the bases on a single, walk and hit batter. He was continually ahead of hitters and struck out three, including R.J. Arnold looking on a 79 mph curve to end the inning with the bases loaded.

After two leadoff singles in the fourth, Maxwell cruised through the Rebels order, retiring the last 13 batters before exiting with two outs in the eighth and finished with just five singles and a walk given up.

It was a good sign for Schlossnagle, who saw his top two pitchers give up season-highs in earned runs in the first two games against UNLV (21-18, 5-7).

Meanwhile, the Frogs scored once each in the second and third innings on sacrifice flies, thanks to leadoff extra-base hits.

In the second, Matt Curry doubled to the right-field corner and moved to third on Josh Elander's flyout to right. Taylor Featherston drove in the run with a fly to right. Jerome Peña led off the third with a triple and scored on Aaron Schultz's fly ball.

Brance Rivera singled up the middle to score Peña to make it 3-0 in the fifth.

The Frogs added a run in both the sixth and seventh innings, taking advantage of a couple UNLV miscues.

Curry scored from third when Elander, who was on first with a single, was caught in a rundown trying to steal second.

Curry alertly took off for home when Rebels second baseman Hunter Beaty tried to throw Elander out at first. With two outs in the seventh, Rivera singled, stole second and scored when catcher Drew Beuerlein, trying to get Bryan Holaday at first after a swinging strikeout, threw wide of the bag.

Peña, who was recently moved from leadoff to eighth in the order, padded the Frogs' lead in the eighth with a two-run single up the middle, scoring Kyle Von Tungeln and Featherston.

"With our lineup every player is a great hitter," Peña said. "I feel like I'm out of my little funk and starting to get hot again. I'm feeling it."

So is Maxwell, who along with Matt Purke and Kyle Winkler, are a combined 18-0.

"We all know what's on the line and we don't want to let anything slip away from us," Maxwell said of the team's Omaha aspirations. "We've all been bearing down and focusing on each pitch and pulling for each other. That's what it takes to get where we want to go."

Stefan Stevenson, 817-390-7760
 
Top