June 5 NCAA Baseball Roundup

Chad Huffman

Baylor, the No. 8 national seed, scored seven runs in the first three innings off TCU starter Sam Demel and went on to post an 8-3 victory over the Horned Frogs on Sunday afternoon. On Sunday night, TCU could not hold on to an early 3-1 lead and was eliminated by Stanford, 12-4. Tulane was scheduled to face Alabama at 6:30 CDT, but that game was postponed due to rain. The top-ranked Green Wave and the Crimson Tide are now scheduled to play at 1 p.m. CDT on Monday.

Baylor 8, TCU 3
The No. 8 Baylor Bears snapped No. 24 TCU's four-game winning streak as the Frogs fell 8-3 at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears scored seven runs in the first three innings off of TCU freshman starter Sam Demel (5-5) and never looked back. Sophomore Omar Arif held off the Baylor attack the rest of the way, pitching a career-high 5.1 innings.

After the Frogs went quickly in the top half of the first, Baylor jumped out to an early 1-0 lead. With one out, Chase Gerdes hit a single through the right side of the infield and promptly moved to second on his eleventh stolen base of the season. Josh Ford followed with a single up the middle to knock Gerdes in.

The Bears continued to put pressure on the TCU defense in the second as they stole three bases which led to three more Baylor runs. Gerdes struck the big blow of the inning as he dropped a two-RBI bloop single into left field to give the Bears a 4-0 lead.

The Bears offense stayed hot as they picked up three more runs in the third. Reid Brees led off the inning with a walk and scored two batters later as Seth Fortenberry hit a fly ball to left that Bo Cogbill misread and fell in for a triple. Two more runs crossed the plate before Arif came in and got Josh Ford to fly out to right and end the inning.

The Frogs were able dent the scoreboard with two runs in the fifth inning, chasing Baylor ace Mark McCormick from the game. Matt Carpenter drew a leadoff walk and after a Cogbill base hit, Spencer Jackson walked to load the bases with no outs. McCormick picked up a big strikeout before Shelby Ford grounded out to drive in the Frogs first run. Chad Huffman followed with an RBI single to round out the scoring.

Arif retired seven of the first eight batters that he faced before Michael Griffin singled to lead off the sixth inning. After the Frogs second error of the game and an intentional walk to load the bases, Zach Dillon stroked a sacrifice fly to give Baylor the 8-2 advantage.

The Frogs scored their third and final run in the top of the seventh. Stuart Musslewhite led off with a sharply hit single to left and moved to third on Chad Huffman's fourth single of the game two batters later. After Baylor reliever Abe Woody (9-3) struck out the next batter, Keith Conlon singled to drive in Musslewhite.

Stanford 12, TCU 4
Trailing 3-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth, third-seeded Stanford scored four runs in the sixth and five more in the eighth on its way to a 12-4 win over second-seeded TCU in a NCAA Waco Regional elimination game at Baylor Ballpark.

With the win, Stanford improves to 34-24 on the season and advances to the championship game of the Waco Regional and will face Baylor at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, June 6.

TCU finishes the season with a record of 41-20 after the loss.

The Horned Frogs grabbed the early lead with a run in the second on a RBI single by J.J. Estrada.

After Stanford tied the game with a run in the fourth, TCU took a two-run lead in the fifth after Keith Conlon and Austin Adams each had RBIs in the inning to give the Horned Frogs a 3-1 lead.

The Cardinal cut the lead to one with a run in the bottom of the inning and managed to take the lead with four runs in the sixth. Adam Sorgi provided the key hit in the inning with a two-run double to right-center field to give Stanford a 6-3 lead.

After each team scored a run in the seventh, Stanford broke the game open with five runs in the eighth. Jed Lowrie had the key hit in the inning with a three-run home run, his 13th of the season, as the Cardinal took a 12-4 lead.

TCU was unable to score in the ninth as Stanford advanced to the championship game of the Waco Regional.

Nolan Gallagher picked up the win for Stanford after allowing one run in 1.2 innings of relief work to improve to 2-5 on the season.

Brad Furnish finishes the season with a record of 5-6 with the loss after allowing five runs on six hits in 5.2 innings of work.


Tulane vs. Alabama, Postponed
Sunday's championship game of the 2005 NCAA New Orleans Regional between the top-ranked Tulane University baseball team and second-seeded Alabama has been postponed due to inclement weather.

The two teams will square off on Monday at 1 p.m. at Turchin Stadium, and the second game - if needed - will begin approximately 50 minutes after the conclusion of the initial ballgame. Alabama had just wrapped up its 4-3 win over third-seeded Louisiana-Lafayette and the Green Wave had yet to make it to the dugout before the tarp was pulled and heavy rains made the field unplayable.

Tulane (52-9) advanced to the championship game after winning its opening-round game, 17-7 over fourth-seeded Southern, and defeated Alabama, 10-4, in the winner's bracket game last night. The Crimson Tide, meanwhile, opened the regional with 7-5 win over UL-Lafayette, before falling to host Tulane on Saturday.

The Green Wave need just one win on Monday to claim its second consecutive regional title and third in the last five years. The winner of the NCAA New Orleans Regional will advance to the Super Regional round where it will take on the winner of the Baton Rouge Regional (LSU, Rice or Northwestern State).

The Green Wave will send junior right-hander Micah Owings to the mound in game one of Championship Monday. For the season, Owings is 9-4 with a 3.63 ERA, leads the team with a .235 opponent batting average and ranks second in strikeouts and innings pitched with marks of 117 and 106.2, respectively. In his last six starts, Owings is 5-0 with a 3.41 ERA, 48 strikeouts and just six walks while limiting opponents to a .248 batting average in 37.0 innings of work.

Junior righty Trey Shields will counter for the Crimson Tide. Shields enters the contest 1-0 with a 3.45 ERA, 12 strikeouts and three walks in 15.2 innings of work. He has appeared in six games in 2005, including starts against Mississippi Valley State (4/20) and South Alabama (4/27).