May 21, 2008
Final Stats
FORT WORTH, Texas - UNLV baseball's offense was held in check most of the night by No. 21 TCU's pitching in a 9-3 loss on Wednesday night at Lupton Stadium in the Phillips 66 Mountain West Conference Championship.
The Rebels collected six hits on the night against Horned Frog pitchers Tyler Lockwood and Taylor Cragin, who were backed by a 13-hit attack from the bats of TCU. Lockwood (7-1) worked eight innings, allowing the three runs on six hits while striking out three and walking four in earning the victory. Cragin worked a scoreless ninth to end the game. UNLV starter Jeff Urlaub was charged with the loss, as he gave up two runs on three hits in two innings of work. It was just the second start of the season for Urlaub, who is coming off of Tommy John surgery and was on a pitch count.
Sixth-seeded UNLV is now 23-36 on the year while top-seeded TCU moved to 40-16 in front of a crowd of 1,702 on a hot and humid night.
"We gave a good effort and worked hard to put pressure on their defense," UNLV head coach Buddy Gouldsmith said. "There were a couple times where our pitchers missed their location and TCU capitalized on it."
UNLV scored the first run of the game, getting back-to-back singles by Jesse Wight and Xavier Scruggs with one out in the top of the first that put runners on the corners. Junior catcher Michael Brenly then laid down a sacrifice bunt down the first base line, and the safety squeeze worked perfectly as Scruggs scored standing up from third.
The lead stood through the first two innings before the Horned Frogs moved out in front, scoring three runs in the third.
Urlaub, who was effective in the first two innings, hit the first two TCU batters of the third, prompting Gouldsmith to come to the mound and make a pitching change, bringing in Marc Baca from the bullpen. Following a sacrifice bunt that moved the runners up 90 feet, Clint Arnold tied the game at one on a run-scoring ground out.
Baca couldn't get out of the inning, however, as he gave up run-scoring singles to Chris Ellington and Matt Carpenter, giving TCU a 3-1 lead.
The lead would grow to 6-1 in the bottom of the sixth, as the Horned Frogs loaded the bases twice in the inning, scoring three runs in the frame. Chris Ellington had an RBI double for the first run of the inning, and after a sacrifice fly, Ben Carruthers had an RBI single to the short stop that gave TCU a five-run lead.
UNLV cut the deficit in the top half of the seventh, getting to Lockwood again after he had pitched five scoreless innings following the first. Steve Rinaudo and Braden Walker drew walks to open the frame, and after Lockwood got a strike out and a ground out, J.J. Sferra doubled down the left-field line, making it 6-3. Lockwood struck out Wight to end the frame, but the two-run double by Sferra got the Rebels back into the game.
Carpenter moved the lead back to four, drilling a solo home run past the scoreboard in right field, the first round tripper of the game, giving TCU a 7-3 advantage. Carpenter finished the game going 4-for-4 with a pair of RBI and two runs scored. TCU scored two more runs in the eighth to cap the scoring.
UNLV now falls into the elimination side of the bracket and will play the winner of Thursday's first game between third-seeded San Diego State and fifth-seeded Utah at 9:00 a.m. (PDT). The Rebels' game against the survivor of the first matchup is then slated to start at 1:00 p.m., and it will be carried live on the Mtn. as well as on KSHP 1400 AM.
