The baseball team got all the run support it needed in the first two innings as the Frogs got back to their winning ways with a 5-2 win over the University of Texas-Arlington on Wednesday night.
Sophomore starter Paul Gerrish tossed five strong innings to earn the win, allowing just one run on four hits and striking out four to send TCU (30-16, 13-5) to another 30-win season, a feat the Frogs have accomplished in each season under head coach Jim Schlossnagle’s four-year tenure.
“Our goal was to win 40-plus (games),” Schlossnagle said. “It’s not something we think about very often. Thirty wins should be a given with this program.”
Nonetheless, Schlossnagle said he was pleased with his team’s effort to come back from a disappointing loss Tuesday night to Texas A&M.
“I’m proud,” Schlossnagle said. “Really proud. (Tuesday night) was as tough a loss as I’ve been a part of in a while, and personally I think they handled (Tuesday’s loss) way better than I did.”
Junior third baseman Matt Carpenter started the scoring in the second inning with an RBI triple to right-center field and later scored on a suicide squeeze bunt.
“I’m feeling pretty good at the plate right now, and he left one out over the plate and I got a good swing on it,” Carpenter said. “With the wind like it was today, it’s a tough place to hit and I hit a line drive that finally got out there.”
The Frogs kept the pressure on UTA (20-25) starter Matt Otteman by adding two more runs in the third. Junior second baseman Ben Carruthers used a leadoff double to score on a single by his double-play partner, shortstop Bryan Kervin, who later scored on a sacrifice fly by junior right fielder Chris Ellington to make it 4-0 TCU.
Right-hander Brent Appleby tossed three innings in relief for the Frogs, allowing one run on six hits and striking out four. After senior center fielder Clint Arnold scored on an error in the top half of the eighth, Appleby ran into some trouble in the bottom half. However, with one run already in and two runners on with nobody out, the freshman reliever used a 4-6-3 double play to get out of the jam with no further damage.
In the ninth, junior right-hander Taylor Cragin closed the door on the Mavericks to earn his first save of the season.
