The Horned Frogs (16-6) began a five-game road trip Tuesday night against the UT Arlington Mavericks (9-15) with a win thanks to some timely two-out hitting and a comedy of errors.Freshman pitcher Tyler Lockwood (0-1) made his first start of the season and although he did not go five innings, he would have been eligible for his first win of his career. Before the game it was predetermined he would not pitch the standard five innings, but he would be given the credit for the win if the Horned Frogs held the lead from the time of his exit after three innings, sadly that scenario was not the case as TCU blew an early three-run lead. The blown lead was not enough to douse the Horned Frogs’ spirit as the scoreboard read 10-6 at the game’s end.

The Frogs got on the board quickly in the top of the first putting a pair of two out runs across the plate.
Steven Trout started the inning with a one out double down the leftfield line for his ninth extra-basehit of the year. Keith Conlon grounded out to put starting pitcher Andy Sauter in place to get out of an early jam. Adams then started the two out hits with a single through the left side to score Trout.

“The two out runs were the key all night, both with Adams and Walker,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said.
Junior catcher Andrew Walker then stepped into the batters box and put a charge into an 0-1 fastball with a towering double into the wind that just missed long-ball status. Left fielder Danny Slinkman scaled the wall and managed to keep Walker’s shot in the ballpark, but the hit still drove in Adams from first.

“I thought it was going out,” Walker said. “I hit it well, but then I saw the outfielder was planted under it.”
Tyler Lockwood made quick work of the Mavericks in his three innings of work, giving up two hits while striking out three on 42 pitches.

In the third inning TCU put another two-out run across the plate when Keith Conlon walked on four straight pitches. On the next delivery from Sauter, Adams drove a belt high fastball into the right centerfield gap scoring Conlon.

Once TCU took a 3-0 lead, Derek VerHagen came on for relief, and in his second inning of work the flood-gates opened.
UTA thirdbaseman Leo Radkowski led off the inning with a walk, then David Masters managed to get onbase with a slowroller to Steven Trout that was wildly thrown to first. With two on and none out pinch hitter, John Mark Cleveland worked a full count walk, loading the bases for the top of the lineup.

The next pitch to leadoff man, Collin Gardner was hammered down the right field line for a two run double. After that pitch, VerHagen was pulled and freshman Steven Maxwell took the hill in a jam.

Maxwell’s third pitch of the outing was lined up the middle by second baseman Daniel Reider and then misplayed by Conlon in center bringing in two runs and putting the Horned Frogs behind for the first time all night.

Maxwell then plunked Slinkman, putting two runners on and bringing cleanup man Ben Burum to the plate. The freshman hurler managed to strike Burum out on pitches. It was Burum’s third time to strike out on the evening. After the strikeout, Maxwell settled in and managed to get right fielder David Newby to fly out to center, but the woes would not stop then as he walked shortstop Kyle Rudy. Struck out Radkowski to retire the side.

The Horned Frogs started to breathe new life after senior reliever Donald Furrow took the hill in the bottom of the sixth and shut down the Mavericks on 12 pitches.

Furrow went on to become the pitcher of record.
“I used my changeup a lot,” Furrow said. “And I started using my cutter.”
In the top of the 7th, TCU let the UTA fans know the Horned Frogs were not dead yet as Ben Carruthers led off with a single against Austin Coan (0-1) and the boys in purple took advantage of some sloppy Maverick fielding on would-be sacrifice bunts by Bryan Kervin and Steven Trout.

The fielding miscues by UTA brought Conlon to the plate with a chance to redeem himself when he slapped a two-run double down the left field line.

After a quick pitching change, the Mavericks were hoping to weasel of the jam on the shoulders of Brandon Endsley. One out and two batters later, Andrew Walker tattooed a 1-1 pitch over the left field wall for his second home run of the season.

“It was either a slider or a cutter that just backed inside to me,” Walker said.
By the end of the inning TCU was riding a four-run lead going into the final three innings.
The lead was quickly cut to two runs by a series of singles in the bottom of the seventh as Schlossnagle brought in the Bulldog – Sam Demel – with two runners on. Demel used a wicked slider against pinch hitter Mitch Putnam to leave the Mavericks stranded on first and second. Those lonesome baserunners were the eighth and ninth inherited runners that Demel is yet to allow to cross the plate.

The two runs by the Mavericks were quickly erased as Andrew Walker drove in his fourth and fifth runs of the evening on a two-out double into the right center field gap in the top of the eighth.

Taylor Cragin came in to shut the door on the Mavericks and struck out the side after allowing the first two runners to reach base. Schlossnagle did make a strategic defensive arrangement in the 9th in case UTA started to mount a rally. He kept Sam Demel in left field in the event that the closer would need to get a last ditch out.

“It was the first time I had done it with Sam,” Schlossnagle said. “But it was the first time where I have not had to bring the pitcher back in from the outfield.