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BB: Horned Frogs Eliminated from CWS after 10-3 Loss

June 26, 2010

Courtesy Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb. - Trevor Bauer limited TCU to four hits and struck out 13 in eight innings and Blair Dunlap hit a three-run homer Saturday, leading UCLA to a 10-3 victory that sends the Bruins to the College World Series finals and the Horned Frogs home.

UCLA (51-15), which hadn't won a game in two previous CWS appearances, will play the winner of Saturday night's South Carolina-Clemson Bracket 2 final in the best-of-three finals starting Monday.

Aside from Bryan Holaday's two home runs for TCU, Bauer (12-3) dominated a lineup that was batting a CWS-best .337. The Frogs finished the year 54-14.

UCLA roughed up TCU starter Kyle Winkler (12-3) for the second straight game. He didn't record an out, hitting leadoff man Beau Amaral and giving up a single to Niko Gallego before Dunlap homered to left to help the Bruins get out to a 5-1 lead.

Dean Espy homered off Kaleb Merck leading off the seventh as the Bruins won going away.
Bauer and the Bruins weathered Omaha's hottest day of the year. The temperature was 94 degrees with a heat index, or feel-like temperature, of 107 degrees by the seventh inning. A thermometer on the field measured the temperature at 109.

Home-plate umpire Jim Jackson and second-base umpire Mark Ditsworth had to be treated for heat issues during the game.

Bauer's 13 strikeouts raised his season total to a nation-leading 165. He has 10 or more strikeouts in eight of his 18 starts and has pitched seven or more innings in 15.

The quirky sophomore in the faded hat turned in his second straight impressive performance. In the Bruins' CWS opener against Florida last Saturday, he recorded 11 strikeouts in seven innings, allowing three runs and six hits in an 11-3 win.

Bauer struck out Jerome Pena to start the game before Holaday hit the first of his two home runs. Holaday finished with four homers in five CWS games and 17 for the season.

Holaday's first homer off Bauer went deep into the left-field bleachers. His second glanced off a fan in the first row, over leaping center fielder Amaral, and dropped back onto the field.

Bauer, with his fastball hitting the low to mid 90s, allowed only one more base runner, and that was on a walk. He struck out the last four batters he faced before Daniel Klein came on to pitch a scoreless ninth.

TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle had a short leash on Winkler. He was hoping to bounce back from a rough outing against UCLA on Monday, when he allowed five runs on six hits over 2 2/3 innings in what, until Saturday, was his shortest outing of the season.

But after giving up the home run to Dunlap, Schlossnagle went to Paul Gerrish, who allowed three runs on five hits and two walks in 1 1/3 innings.