BB: TCU Defeats SDSU For Nine Straight

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Another solid pitching performance and timely hits helped TCU to its ninth straight win. The Horned Frogs handed San Diego State a 5-1 defeat Saturday night behind a solid pitching performance by Preston Morrison, who improved to 6-0.

Preston Morrison (6-0) allowed just one run on five hits in seven innings of work. He did not walk a batter and fanned a career-high seven. Trey Teakell pitched two scoreless innings, giving up one hit and one walk.

A Josh Elander lead-off single got the Frogs rolling in the second inning. He stole second and moved to third on a passed ball ahead of a walk to Kevin Cron. With one out, Brance Rivera pushed a safety squeeze down the first base line to give the Frogs a 1-0 lead.

Keaton Jones worked a lead-off walk in the third and the Frogs made it count as they opened up a 2-0 lead. Jones tallied the Frogs' second stolen base of the night and moved to third on a ball hit by Jantzen Witte. With runners on the corner's, Jason Coats lined a sacrifice fly to center field to drive in Jones.

TCU broke the game open in the top of the fourth, scoring three times on four hits. Brett Johnson led off the inning with a double and moved to second on a base hit by Rivera. Jones dropped down another safety squeeze to drive in the first run of the inning. Kyle Von Tungeln followed with an RBI single to drive in Rivera and then scored on a double off the bat of Witte to make it a 5-0 contest.

San Diego State finally broke through in the fourth inning as it pushed across a run on three hits in the inning. With the bases loaded and nobody out Chris Wilson delivered a sacrifice fly to center to make it a 5-1 game. A base hit followed to reload the bases. Morrison buckled down and got a big strikeout before inducing a fly ball to end the inning without allowing any more runs.

The Aztecs tried to keep the momentum going in the fifth inning as they put together a two-out rally. Cody Smith was hit by a pitch and Greg Allen followed with a base hit to left. Morrison stranded the runners as he fanned Tim Zier to end the inning.

After allowing a lead-off single in the sixth, Morrison retired the final six batters he faced before giving way to Teakell. For the Aztecs, reliever Philip Walaby held the Frog batters to just thre hits over the final 5 1/3 innings.

San Diego State tried to mount a comeback in the ninth after a lead-off walk and a one-out single. Von Tungeln made a running catch on a line drive in the left center gap for the second out, then Teakell used his height to snare a bouncer up the middle for the final out of the game.

TCU improves to 23-13 overall and 11-3 in league play. The Frogs will go for their 10th straight win on Sunday. Stefan Crichton will take the mound for TCU and face San Diego State's Ryan Doran. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. (CST).