Bullpen saves TCU and eliminates Louisville at College World Series

After one of the great relief performances in TCU history, Sean Wymer looked like he had just put on a fresh uniform.

No fuss, no muss. He hadn’t sweated a drop.

“His poise is like no other,” right fielder Austen Wade said.

The sophomore right-hander dominated in  4 1/3 innings of relief Thursday night against Louisville at the College World Series, leading TCU’s 4-3 victory in an elimination game.

The Horned Frogs (49-17), staving off elimination for a second time, will play Florida in a semifinal game at 7 p.m. Friday. The Frogs must win Friday and Saturday against the Gators to reach the championship series next week. Florida advances with one win.

Wymer entered with two out in the fifth inning and national player of the year Brendan McKay batting as the tying run — already having homered — and struck him out on three pitches. It was the first of two strikeouts of McKay for the Flower Mound righty and the start of a relief performance for the TCU history books.

“Certainly, I’d have to think about a better one,” coach Jim Schlossnagle said.

Wymer faced 14 batters and allowed two hits, struck out five and walked none, all while protecting a one-run lead against one of college baseball’s top lineups. He needed only 57 pitches, throwing 39 for strikes.

“Honestly, just a machine at work,” said first baseman Connor Wanhanen, a former high school teammate.

It was the second time this year Wymer — projected for the Horned Frogs’ rotation next season — pitched multiple innings to finish a game. He pitched five perfect innings to win a 15-inning game against Texas A&M in March.

“He’s at his best all the time,” Wade said. “I can’t remember a time when Sean felt flustered on the mound. He’s one-sided in emotion — he’s always intense. He was stellar tonight. Stellar basically all season for us. He was dominant tonight, and it was fun playing behind him.”

The Cardinals walked away nothing but impressed.

“He could get ahead with pitcher’s pitches, strikes that hitters don’t want to swing at or just are well-located and a hitter can’t pull the trigger on,” McKay said. “And then he coupled that with some great off-speed that had some good action, and he kept it down in the zone fairly well.”

Facing McKay as his first batter, Wymer retired him on three pitches, a foul and two swinging strikes.

“I knew what my job was when I came in,” Wymer said. “I had to get that out.”

Ryan Merrill’s two-run single highlighted a four-run second inning for the Frogs.

Wanhanen’s double scored the first run for TCU against starter Nick Bennett, and Austen Wade’s single made it 4-0.

Merrill’s single gave him three RBIs during the College World Series. The senior shortstop from Omaha homered on Tuesday in an elimination game against Texas A&M.

Wymer did not allow a base runner until the eighth, when Colby Fitch led off with a single. But he got Drew Ellis to pop out, Fitch was caught stealing, and he struck out McKay for the second time.

In the ninth inning, Devin Mann singled through the left side with two out. Wymer finished the game with a fielder’s choice to Merrill.

McKay homered on the first pitch of the fourth inning against TCU starter Nick Lodolo to cut the lead to 4-2, and Logan Taylor homered on the first pitch of the fifth inning to make it 4-3 and end Lodolo’s night.

“It’s never about the best team. It’s only about the team that plays the best,” Schlossnagle said. “I think the Major League draft will show that Louisville has a much more physically skilled team than our team. And that’s not a slap to our guys. It’s just a fact. But we happened to play a tick better and had some things go our way, for sure. So that’s why this game is awesome, and that’s why it’s miserable at the same time.”

TCU is 4-5 in elimination games all-time at the College World Series. Senior right-hander Mitchell Traver will start Friday against Florida.

“As I said the first day here, the best quality that our team has is just their presence, their experience, their poise under pressure,” Schlossnagle said.

There was no better example Thursday night than the pitcher on the hill at the end.

This story was originally published June 22, 2017 at 10:23 PM with the headline "Bullpen saves TCU and eliminates Louisville at College World Series."