Sophomore Kyle Walker’s dominating performance helped the Frogs gain a 12-0 victory against Cal State Bakersfield and beat another school record Friday night at Lupton Stadium.
Jantzen Witte tallied three hits and drove in two runs to lead the offensive charge. Another school record also fell as the Frogs tallied their 152nd double of the year in the second inning.
Winkler improved to 9-1 on the season after allowing just four hits and striking out seven in seven innings of work. Trent Appleby completed the shutout with two scoreless innings. He surrendered just two hits, but induced two double plays to face the minimum of six batters in the game.
TCU pushed across three runs on just one hit in the first inning as it took advantage of three walks in the frame. Brance Rivera drew the first walk and promptly stole second. After Bryan Holaday worked a walk, the duo executed a double steal to move both runners in scoring position. Jason Coats put the Frogs up 1-0 with a sacrifice fly.
With two outs in the inning, Roadrunner starter Brandon Van Dam unleashed a wild pitch to score Holaday with the second run of the inning. Joe Weik, who had drawn a two-out walk, moved to third on the second wild pitch of the game and scored on a double by Taylor Featherston for a 3-0 TCU lead.
Bakersfield threatened to get back in the game in the second inning as the first two batters reached on base hits. From there, Winkler found his groove and allowed just one base runner over the course of the next six innings. He sat down the final 10 hitters and 18 of the final 19 batters he faced, allowing just one hit in the fourth inning.
The Frogs offense stayed hot as they tacked on four more runs to their lead in the second inning to open up a commanding 7-0 lead. Witte singled to open the frame and moved to second on an infield hit off the bat of Brance Rivera. With one out and runners on the corners, Jason Coats delivered the record-breaking 152nd double of the year to drive in Witte. Matt Curry cleared the bases with a line drive home run over the right field fence.
TCU’s offense went dormant through the middle innings but awoke in the seventh for three runs on just one hit. Weik drew a lead-off walk and moved to second on an error that allowed Featherston to reach. Aaron Schultz dropped down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners 90 feet. A wild pitch allowed pinch runner Josh Elander to score and Witte doubled in Featherston for a 9-0 lead. Rivera reached on a catcher’s interference and Holaday drew a walk to load the bases. Pinch hitter Zac Jordan worked a bases loaded walk to drive in the third run of the inning.
Two more runs on a pair of hits came around to score in the eight. Witte collected his second RBI of the night with a single that scored Featherston and Kyle Von Tungeln hit a sacrifice fly to plate Schultz with the final run of the game.
The Frogs improve to 42-11 on the season. They will honor the five seniors on Saturday afternoon prior to the start of the final regular season contest. First pitch for the contest is slated for 1 p.m. Cal State Bakersfield will send Mike McCarthy to the mound and TCU will counter with Steven Maxwell.
