Frogs get back on their feet with win to complete suspended game

In less than 90 minutes Tuesday night, TCU felt a lot better about itself.

The Horned Frogs made quick work of the final  4 1/2 innings and one out in the resumption of a suspended game from March 21 against ACU, finishing off a 3-0 victory at Lupton Stadium. Luken Baker drove in a run in the seventh inning, Jake Eissler (4-0) pitched three shutout innings, and Durbin Feltman recorded his 11th save with a perfect ninth.

It was just enough to get rid of the bad taste from Sunday.

“It was just good to get out there and get our feet back under us,” said second baseman Cam Warner, who doubled and scored on Baker’s single and finished 3-for-5. “We’ve been through tests before. We’ve had to overcome adversity. Today was a big step for that.”

The Frogs (32-11), coming off a 21-3 loss at Texas Tech that marked the most runs allowed by a TCU team under coach Jim Schlossnagle, aimed to find their bearings before the start of a three-game Big 12 series against Texas on Friday. TCU holds a one-game lead in the conference.

“Things are getting better,” Baker said. “We came off a rough weekend at Tech. But we learned a lot. We’re excited to get back at it. We have a big series coming up with Texas this weekend, and we’re doing everything we can to get ready for that.”

The game resumed Tuesday with two outs in the fifth inning with TCU batting as the visitor. Austen Wade was on third base with Baker at the plate. Baker walked, and Josh Watson lined out to complete the inning.

Eissler “started” for TCU in the bottom of the inning and allowed three hits, a walk and struck out two, retiring eight of 12 batters faced. Left fielder Josh Watson threw out a runner at home in the sixth inning and jumped at the wall to get an out in the fifth inning.

Sean Wymer pitched a perfect eighth and Feltman got his second save in as many opportunities since a two-appearance slump.

“Jake’s proven that when he’s on rest, he’s effective,” Schlossnagle said of the freshman right-hander, who was making his 13th appearance, all but one in relief.

The other two runs in the game were recorded six weeks ago in Abilene, when Evan Skoug hit a sacrifice fly that scored Warner in the first inning and Elliott Barzilli homered in the second.

No matter that it was 42 days ago, it all still felt good for the Frogs. Sunday’s fiasco in Lubbock looked smaller in the rearview mirror.

“You kind of just have to forget about that,” Warner said. “It was a rough one. Just got to bounce back and start playing TCU baseball again. Get back to our roots and play baseball.”

This story was originally published May 2, 2017 at 9:54 PM with the headline "Frogs get back on their feet with win to complete suspended game."