TCU walked away with the first win of the midweek series after Northwestern State gave up eleven walks Tuesday night.

Toby Cornejo started the game off with a single to right field for Northwestern State. Cort Brinson followed with a double, putting runners on second and third. Nick Purdy’s single to short center allowed Cornejo to score, putting the Demons up 1-0.

Northwestern State started trouble again in the fourth. Todd Wallace doubled to a hole between left and center. Wallace advanced to third on a wild pitch. Nathan Lyons’ base hit got through Odell at second base, scoring Wallace to make the game 2-0.

Davy Wright, Keaton Jones and Kyle Bacak each walked twice, taking six of the 11 walks surrendered by the Demons. They reached base 11 times in 13 plate appearances. They drew seven walks, were hit by the pitch twice and reached on a defensive miscue once.

TCU came alive in the bottom of the fourth inning. Wright and Jones walked, placing runners on first and second. When Bacak was at the plate, Northwestern State left-hander Andrew Adams made an error on a bad throw to pick off Jones at first base and Wright came home to put TCU on the board 2-1. Bacak singled to left field, scoring Jones to tie the game.

In the sixth, the Demons continued to struggle on the mound. Nick Helmstetter relieved Adams after he walked Wright. Bacak advanced Wright and Jones to second and third with a sacrifice bunt. Helmstetter walked Fitzgerald and Witte to put the game 4-2 in TCU’s favor.

TCU scored four runs in the seventh. To start the inning, Wright was hit by a pitch and advanced to second after a base hit by Jones. Cody Jones walked to make it 6-2. Then, a balk brought home another run. Dylan Fitzgerald singled up the middle, scoring two more runs for a 9-2 TCU lead.

“We obviously took advantage of a lot of free bases,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “That win certainly wasn’t a whole lot of how we did on offense versus how they struggled on the mound.”

He said he was happy to take what Northwestern gave them but the team did not take advantage of opportunities with the heart of the batting order at the plate. 

“Offensively, we haven’t been a very sound team but we feel like our best baseball is ahead of us,” Schlossnagle said.

In his first start of the season, redshirt sophomore Trey Teakell allowed two runs on six hits. In five innings of work, he walked two and struck out two. Travis Evans relieved Teakell in the sixth and pitched three scoreless innings. Evans retired nine of 11 batters. Justin Scharf closed for TCU in the ninth inning.

“I wanted to go one more but I have complete faith in the coaching staff,” Teakell said.

Teakell said the bullpen mentality helped him throw strikes and make an adjustment on the mound after the first inning.

The Frogs improved to 6-9, earning their third win at home Tuesday night. TCU will continue its series against Northwestern State Wednesday. Stefan Crichton will be on the mound for TCU and Cody Butler for Northwestern State. First pitch is 2 p.m.