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Baseball
team loses home series to Southern Miss All season long TCU baseball head coach Lance Brown stressed the importance of being prepared for conference play. This past weekend those games arrived, and the results were not pleasing. In what Brown called a “definite step backwards,” the team lost two games of a three-game home series versus conference-foe Southern Mississippi. After winning 8-6 in the opening game, TCU then lost 10-9 (10 innings) and 8-3.
The three-game series wrapped up a stretch where the Horned Frogs played 11 games in a two-week span. “That’s probably the worst we have played all year long,” Brown said. “I don’t know why other than that we may be just tired. I hope that’s what it was.” In the opening game, the Frogs scored in five of the first six innings, and survived three home runs by Southern Miss third basemen Allen Willingham to outlast the Golden Eagles, 8-6. Junior pitcher Clayton Jerome picked up his second win of the season, going five innings while giving up 4 runs on 5 hits. Southern Miss loaded the bases in the ninth inning, but junior pitcher Kyle Shoemaker came on to get two outs and save the game. In games two and three however, the TCU pitchers surrendered a combined 18 runs on 24 hits, and the bats of the Horned Frogs could not provide enough offensive firepower to respond. “Southern Mississippi wasn’t one of the better teams we have played all year, and I was very disappointed,” Brown said. “After I look back on it, we probably should have swept the series, or easily get 2 out of 3. We were probably lucky to get one, and were sorta trying to figure why we played as poorly as we did.” Brown said the pitching, defense and base running were poor, but the hitting was solid over the weekend. The Frogs have played well offensively this season. With a .303 team batting average and scoring 6.9 runs a game, the hitting has seemed to keep the team in many games this year. Leading the club at the plate in the last few games has been junior outfielder Terry Trofholz. Trofholz is batting .468 and currently has a five-game hitting streak. With four days before a weekend road series against East Carolina—ranked No. 20 in the Baseball America poll—the Frogs will be looking for some rest. “With the Spring Break, I don’t think they rest quite like they ordinarily do,” Brown said. “So I’m hoping that getting them back in school and getting them in a routine will give them some rest before we take them to East Carolina.” Danny
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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002 |
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