TCU
Rice
Owls Defeat TCU, Claim WAC Title
5/19/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 19, 2001
Houston - Rice pitcher Jon Skaggs scattered five hits and the Owls had a season-high 20 hits to beat TCU 17-3. With the win, the Owls claim the 2001 Western Athletic Conference baseball title. Rice improves to 41-17 overall, 24-10 in WAC action. The Frogs drop to 32-26 overall, 21-13 in conference play.
Skaggs, who improved his record to 9-3 on the season, struck out nine in 8.0 innings. He did issue four walks, including three in the seventh. The Owls provided Skaggs with an early 4-0 lead, scoring four times in the second on four hits and a pair of errors by center fielder Rudy Rivera.
The Frogs got back in the game, scoring three runs in the third on three hits, including consecutive run-scoring singles by Rudy Ontiveros and Erick Macha. After Macha's base hit, Skaggs retired 11 of the 12 batters before issuing three consecutive walks in the seventh inning. Nick Martin pitched a scoreless ninth.
The Owls scored twice in the third on three hits, increasing the lead to 6-3. Then in the fourth, the Owls chased TCU starter Chris Bradshaw with back to back singles to start the inning. The Owls picked up two more hits off of reliever Chris Frazier, scoring two more runs to increase the lead to 9-3. Rice added a single run in the sixth, four in the seventh and three more in the eighth to pad the lead. Bradshaw allowed eight runs, seven earned, on nine hits in 3.0 innings. Frazier allowed nine runs, seven earned, on 11 hits in 5.0 innings.
The series will continue with a single-game Saturday at 2 p.m.
Game Linescore 123 456 789 R-H-E TCU 003 000 000 3-6-3 Rice 042 301 43x 17-20-2 Chris Bradshaw, Chris Frazier (4) and Jason Price. Jon Skaggs, Nick Martin and Phillip Ghutzman. Winning Pitcher - Skaggs (9-3). Losing pitcher - Bradshaw (8-5). Save - None. 2B - TCU-Macha. Rice-Porfirio, Roman, Ghutzman. Attn: 2,970. Time: 2:41.
