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Lifelong Frog
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[SIZE=14pt]No. 11 TCU Dominates in Sweep of Houston[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Coats hits three home runs in victory[/SIZE]
Final Stats
HOUSTON, Texas - Another dominating effort by the 11th-ranked TCU Horned Frogs guided them to their third series sweep of the 2010 season. TCU defeated Houston by a score of 12-2 Sunday afternoon at Cougar Field.
Jason Coats led the high-powered offense with three home runs, becoming the first Frog to accomplish that feat since 2005 and the 11th in school history.
For the third straight day, pitching dominated. Steven Maxwell was solid in his six innings of work as he improved to 5-0 on the season. The junior allowed a run on four hits, walked four and struck out five. Erik Miller surrendered a run in 2/3 of an inning. He struck out two and walked two. Trent Appleby tossed 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief and Kaleb Merck pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth.
At the plate, the Frogs made the most of their 13 hits, scoring 12 times. Coats drove in four with his three home runs and Aaron Schultz tallied three RBIs with a 3-for-5 day at the plate. He also connected on a home run, his third of the season. Bryan Holaday broke out of a slump with a 2-for-4 day, including his third home run of the season. Josh Elander also notched three hits on the afternoon.
After a scoreless first inning, the Frogs jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning. Elander started the rally with a base hit up the middle. Janten Witte worked a walk and Schultz unloaded a three-run bomb over the left field fence to give the Frogs the lead.
Houston got one of the runs back in the bottom of the frame to make it a 3-1 contest. M.P. Cokinos doubled to lead off the inning. He moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a ground ball out off the bat of Matt Murphy.
Coats' first blast of the afternoon led off the third inning and gave the Frogs back their three-run lead, 4-1.
The Cougars had base runners in every inning against Maxwell, but each time he was able to work around them. In the third with runners on the corners, he got Zak Presley to bounce into the inning-ending double play. After a lead-off walk in the fourth, he induced a double play ball off the bat of Cokinos. In the sixth, the Cougars had two on with one out and again, Maxwell was able to get Cokinos to ground into a double play, this time ending the inning.
Schultz continued his hot hitting with a lead-off triple in the fourth inning. Jerome Pena tacked onto the Frog lead with a sacrifice fly to center to make it a 5-1 contest.
As they had done all series, the Frogs made a Cougar error hurt as they added to their lead. Matt Curry reached on a dropped fly ball on the infield and scored on a Jimmie Pharr double.
Holaday singled to lead off the seventh inning and Coats followed with his second home run of the day to make it an 8-1 contest.
Houston threatened to get back in the game in the bottom of the seventh as they had a run in and the bases loaded with two outs. Appleby came on and got out of the jam, getting Presley to fly out to end the inning.
In the eighth, Schultz got the Frogs rolling with a base hit off the pitcher's foot. Two batters later, Holaday unloaded a bomb to left center for a 10-2 lead. Coats followed with his third blast of the game to make it 11-2.
TCU tacked on a run in the ninth to account for the final score. Elander doubled with one out and scored on a Witte base hit.
The Frogs improve to 23-7 on the season. They will return home briefly for a Tuesday night contest against Texas A&M. Game time at Lupton Stadium is set for 6:30 p.m.
Game Notes:
* Jason Coats is the first Frog to hit three home runs in a game since Austin Adams accomplished the feat on April 23, 2005 at Charlotte.
* All three of Aaron Schultz's home runs have come in the city of Houston. * TCU has never swept a series at Houston.
* The Frogs improve to 6-0 in weekend series this season (one is still pending).
* Jason Coats has a six-game hitting streak.
* TCU limited Houston to four total runs in the series.
