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Tim
Cox/SKIFF STAFF
Texas-Pan American’s Mark DaSilva turns away from a Chad Durham pitch on the inside corner Sunday. Durham was erratic, hitting one batter and walking two in less than three innings of work. |
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Frogs
baseball whips wild weekend Facing a pitching staff that had walked 90 and hit 35 batters in 137 innings, head coach Lance Brown said he knew his team could be in for a wild weekend. Nobody knew it was going to be this wild.
The Frogs (11-6) swept a doubleheader from Texas-Pan American (1-17), outscoring the Broncos 30-7 on 23 hits and 16 walks in the two games. Brown said he had prepared his team for a wild pitching staff. “We knew coming in they had some pretty good arms but have had trouble throwing strikes,” Brown said. “We knew we could not swing at too many pitches, and we had talked about that Friday.” The Broncos, who are off to their worst start in the program’s history, were as wild as their statistics indicated. Senior catcher/outfielder Jason Price said the Frogs were able to capitalize on the Broncos’ pitching staff falling behind in the count. “They didn’t mix in a lot (of different pitches),” Price said. “Not one of their pitchers actually had us off-balance. They didn’t throw too many in the strike zone. It seems like they would work themselves down in the count, and they would have to throw strikes, and we would usually hit them.” The Frogs won game one, 9-5. Texas-Pan American pitchers walked seven batters in game one but allowed only five hits, all of them coming in a seven-run second inning. With the bases loaded and one out, Broncos’ pitcher Justin Dowd walked senior catcher Austen Watkins to score a run. In the next at bat, sophomore second baseman Ramon Moses hit a line drive off the left center field wall for a triple, which cleared the bases. Dowd loaded the bases again, walking senior outfielder Rudy Rivera and hitting junior Justin Crowder. Sophomore first baseman Walter Olmstead doubled to knock in two runs and give the Frogs a 6-0 lead. The Frogs added another run before sophomore third baseman Mike Settle flied out with the bases loaded to end the inning. Off the strength of back-to-back seven-run innings, the Frogs defeated Texas-Pan American, 21-2, in the second game of the doubleheader. Texas-Pan American starter Frank James, who had walked 15 batters and hit nine in 21 1/3 innings, walked five and hit one in 2 2/3 innings against the Frogs. The Frogs got off to an early lead after sophomore outfielder Terry Trofholz stole home in the first inning. TCU is now 11-2 when scoring first. Brown said he had noticed that James was not holding runners well and told Trofholz to steal home if senior outfielder Tom Bates wasn’t able to drive him in. “We had been watching (the pitcher), and one of our (philosophies) is if pitchers aren’t checking runners, be ready to steal,” Brown said. Texas-Pan American entered the series with a .949 fielding percentage and had three errors in game two. The Broncos’ infielders sat back on several softly-hit singles in the third and fourth innings, and the Frogs responded by scoring 14 runs on 12 hits. Price said the Broncos’ defense did not field well. “We didn’t hit every ball hard,” Price said. “I don’t think they played as well as they could have. Whether it was (fielding) the hits we got or routine plays — their defense wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t up to par.” Senior pitcher Chad Durham, who last pitched Feb. 19 against Hawaii-Hilo, struggled with control and was removed from the game in the third inning. Durham hit one batter and walked two. He has walked 10 batters and hit six in 22 innings, but he has a 2.86 ERA. Durham appeared to be rattled and looked back at the dugout after uncorking a few wild pitches. “He was just having trouble finding the plate,” Brown said. “Everything he threw was up in the zone. Even the outs he was making were sort of on bad pitches. After two weeks lay off you don’t know what is going to happen. “He was pretty frustrated about not being able to throw the ball where he wanted to. I talked to him (on the pitching mound), and he didn’t have any idea where it was going.” The Frogs were scheduled to play a doubleheader Saturday, but both games were rained out. The Frogs made up one of the games in Sunday’s doubleheader. There are no plans to make up the second game. The Frogs will play Texas at 2:30 p.m. today in Austin.
Brandon Ortiz |
