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BB: Utes Fall to TCU, Eliminated from Tournament

May 27th, 2011

SAN DIEGO - The Utah baseball team fell to TCU on Friday afternoon in the Mountain West Conference Tournament, 14-1, eliminating the Utes from the tournament.

With Utah (29-21) down 3-1, TCU broke the game open with a five-run fifth inning to take an 8-1 lead. The Horned Frogs continued to pull away in the late innings, adding four runs in the seventh and two in the eighth inning.

Michael Beltran led Utah at the plate with a 3-for-4 performance.

"We didn't play very well today, but we had a great year," Utah head coach Bill Kinneberg said. "I can't be more proud of our club. This team will go down as one of the better baseball teams in Utah history."

The Utes hit the ball hard early, leading off the game with back-to-back hits from James Brooks and Beltran. C.J. Cron also had a hard hit but it went right to the first baseman, who made the catch and doubled up Brooks at second before a hard ground out by Shaun Cooper ended the inning.

TCU (42-16) took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second on RBI hits from Josh Elander and Brance Rivera. The Utes came back in the top of the third, as Brooks hit a one-out double, moving to third on an error before scoring on an RBI single from Beltran to put the TCU lead at 2-1.

The Horned Frogs added a run in the third on Taylor Featherston's sacrifice fly before the five-run fifth.

Brock Duke threw 4 1/3 innings, allowing six runs on eight hits with two strikeouts. He earned the loss to go to 6-3 on the year. Ben Mordini, Tyler Andersen, Stephen Streich and Kesley Kondo all saw innings on the mound.

Elander went 4-for-4 with two RBI to lead TCU. Horned Frog starter Eric Miller pitched seven innings with six strikeouts to earn the win.

Article Courtesy of Utah Athletics