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Top-Seeded TCU Advances To Championship Game Of MWC Baseball Tournament Horned Frogs cruise to 13-6 win over BYU to secure spot in Saturday's championship. May 25, 2006 LAS VEGAS - TCU broke a 2-2 tie with four runs in the fourth inning in the semifinal game of the Mountain West Conference Baseball Tournament Thursday at Earl E. Wilson Stadium and cruised to a 13-6 win over BYU to secure a spot in Saturday's championship. The Cougars will face the winner of Thursday night's UNLV/New Mexico game on Friday at 7 p.m. PDT in an elimination game. Top-seeded TCU's four-run fourth inning included two RBI doubles by Steven Trout and Austin Adams to give the Horned Frogs (37-21) a 6-2 lead. Second-seeded BYU scored a run in the top of the sixth on a RBI double by Stetson Banks, but in the bottom of the sixth, TCU broke the game open with three runs including a two-run home run by Chad Huffman, which was his 17th of the season and second of the tournament to give TCU a 9-3 advantage. Jerid Buttell added to the TCU scoring with a two-run homer to right field in the eighth inning, which was the first of his career. A two-run single by Bryan Kervin capped a four-run eighth for TCU, which took a 13-4 lead. BYU scored two runs on three straight pinch hits with no outs in the top of the ninth including an RBI double by Dane Nielsen, then scored one more before the game ended. TCU pounded out 19 hits and was led by Trout and Kervin, who both went 3-for-6 from the plate. Kervin had three RBI, while Trout , Huffman and Buttell each knocked in two. BYU (32-27) recorded 12 hits for the game with Kasey Ko leading the way with a 3-for-4 performance with three RBI. Brad Furnish (8-5) pitched eight strong innings for TCU to earn the win allowing three runs on eight hits. He struck out nine batters and walked four. BYU's Jesse Craig (7-7), who suffered the loss, pitched 5.1 innings allowing nine runs on 14 hits. Craig struck out four and walked one.
BYU took the lead in the top of the first on a two-run double by Ko. TCU scored an unearned run in the bottom of the first and one in the third on a Matt Carpenter double to tie the score at 2-2.
Game 9 Notes: • BYU will face the winner of tonight's New Mexico-UNLV contest on Friday night to determine who plays the Horned Frogs in Saturday's championship game. BYU or UNLV has participated in five of the six championship games in MWC Tournament history (BYU in 2001 and 2002; UNLV in 2003, 2004 and 2005). • TCU has now won 10 straight conference tournament games, dating back to the 2004 Conference USA Tournament. The Horned Frogs are now 10-1 in conference tournament games under head coach Jim Schlossnagle. • The No. 1 seed has won the MWC Tournament three of the last five years, while appearing in the finals five years straight. • Brad Furnish notched his eighth victory of the season for TCU, giving up three earned runs on eight hits, while striking out nine and walking four. • All 10 TCU batters that came to the plate recorded at least one hit. • TCU's Corey Steglich, Chad Huffman and Austin Adams extended their hit streaks vs. the Cougars tonight. Steglich extended his streak to 15 games, while Huffman and Adams extended their hit streaks to 11 games each. • Chad Huffman went 1-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored for the Horned Frogs tonight, smashing his second two-run homer of the tournament in the sixth inning. • TCU's Jerid Buttell hit his first career home run in the eighth inning. • Kasey Ko led the BYU offense going 3-for-4 with three RBI and one run scored. |
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