BB: TCU Dominates Louisiana-Monroe 9-2

April 17, 2012
TCU Athletics

FORT WORTH, Texas - The TCU Horned Frogs used an offensive onslaught to stretch their winning streak to seven games as they defeated ULM, 9-2, Tuesday night. Kevin Cron tallied three hits and drove in two to help lead the Frogs to victory.

Tyler Duffie (1-0) threw a career-high four innings in his first career start. He allowed an unearned run on one hit, walked three and struck out a career-high five batters. Brandon Finnegan gave up two hits, walked a batter and struck out three in two innings of work. Trey Teakell retired all five batters he faced, three of them via the strikeout. Axel Johnson surrendered two hits in his 1/3 of an inning. Justin Scharf was touched for a run on two hits with one strikeout in his lone inning of work.

A pair of walks to open the second inning turned into a 1-0 lead for the Warhawks. With one out, Duffie looked to have induced an inning-ending double play ball of the bat of Judd Edwards, but the relay to first got away and Corben Green raced home with the go-ahead run.

The TCU bats came to life with one out in the third. Davy Wright got the hit parade going with a double. Keaton Jones drove in the tying run with a double to left center and moved to third on a base hit by Brance Rivera. Kyle Von Tungeln gave the Frogs their first lead of the game with a bouncer through the left side. Jantzen Witte added an insurance run with an RBI groundout and TCU led 3-1 after three innings.

The Frogs added a run to their lead in the bottom of the fourth. With two on and two out, Jones was plunked on the back to load the bases, forcing the Warhawks to go to the bullpen. The new pitcher hit Rivera with a 2-2 pitch to drive in the Frogs' fourth run of the game.

A one-out walk drawn by Suiter got the fifth inning turned into a pair of runs as TCU opened up a 6-1 lead. Elander followed Suiter's walk with his third hit of the night to put runners on the corners. After Elander stole second, Kevin Cron lined a single into left field to plate the two runners.

ULM threatened to get back in the game in the sixth inning as they had two on with two outs. Pinch hitter Chris Dudley reached on an infield single to load the bases. Finnegan made the pitches he needed, freezing Edwards on a 1-2 offering to end the inning.

Von Tungeln's double to lead off the seventh inning sparked a three-run outburst as the lead grew to 9-1. With two outs, Elander lined a single to right to drive in Von Tungeln. After a base hit by Cron, Derek Odell singled to right. A misplay by the right fielder saw the ball roll all the way to the wall allowing both base runners to score.

ULM added a run on a pair of hits in the ninth inning to account for the final score.

TCU improved to 21-13 overall. The Frogs will hit the road for an important conference series at San Diego State. First pitch against the Aztecs on Friday night is set for 8 p.m. (CST).