Frogs’ offense breaks through against Florida, forces second CWS semifinal

Evan Skoug and TCU earned another day in Omaha.

But it’s not enough.

“I don’t want another bad day in Omaha,” the Horned Frogs catcher said after knocking in three runs with a double in a 9-2 victory against Florida on Friday night at the College World Series, forcing a second semifinal against the Gators for a berth in the championship series.

“Now that we’re so close, we know what it feels like to be in the final four and get kicked out,” Skoug said. “We have that taste in our mouth, and I think that’s going to help us, because it brings us to a sense of urgency.”

Austen Wade and Zach Humphreys hit back-to-back RBI doubles in the third inning, and Josh Watson hit a two-run triple in the fourth inning to power the Horned Frogs (50-17) into Saturday’s 7 p.m. semifinal.

The winner advances to the best-of-three championship series on Monday against LSU or Oregon State, who play at 2 p.m. Saturday.

TCU has never played in the final, eliminated one game short last season by national champion Coastal Carolina. Now the Frogs are attempting to follow the same path as the Chanticleers last year by coming out of the elimination bracket.

“I don’t want another bad day in Omaha because you have to say goodbye to Brian Howard and Mitchell Traver, and that’s the worst thing ever,” Skoug said.

Skoug’s double with two outs in the sixth inning cleared the bases for an 8-2 lead and gave him 71 RBIs in for the season and 168 for his career. The junior catcher from Libertyville, Ill., tied three other players — Austin Adams (2007), Chad Huffman (2006) and Tom Hardgrove (1989) — for fourth place on the single-season RBI list and Huffman for fourth on the career list.

“I’m honored to be with some of those great names, but currently not really interested in that,” Skoug said. “I mean, this is my third trip here, and we haven’t sealed the deal yet.”

The nine runs more than doubled the output in any of the first three CWS games for the Frogs, who benefited from another strong performance on the mound. Mitchell Traver, Charles King, Dalton Brown and Trey Morris allowed five hits and struck out 11. TCU has not allowed more than three runs in any game in the NCAA Tournament.

King, Brown and Morris made their CWS debuts. King (1-3), a freshman right-hander from Coppell, pitched 3  1/3 innings, giving up a hit, no runs, walking one and striking out five.

Skoug and Wade combined were 4-for-10 with two doubles and five RBIs. They entered the game 2-for-20 with two RBIs.

“Confidence is a great thing, and it’s good to have those two guys in particular feeling good about themselves going into tomorrow facing such a great pitcher,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said.

TCU will start Jared Janczak, and Florida will start Alex Faedo. It is a rematch of Florida’s 3-0 victory in the CWS opener.

Wade’s run-scoring fielder’s choice against reliever Frank Rubio and Humphreys’ walk loaded the bases for Skoug’s at-bat in the sixth. The inning began with Connor Wanhanen’s one-out walk, Watson’s single and Ryan Merrill’s walk.

Two bounced pitches into the at-bat against Wade, Florida pitcher Garrett Milchin left the mound with an injury.

TCU led 2-0 in the third inning on back-to-back doubles from Wade and Humphreys.

Florida tied it in the bottom of the inning on Mike Rivera’s home run and Dalton Guthrie’s double off Traver.

Watson’s two-run triple over the head of center fielder Nick Horvath in the fourth inning put TCU back in front 4-2.

Florida entered having allowed one run in two games in the CWS.

The Frogs struck out seven times in their first eight at-bats against Florida right-hander Jackson Kowar. But Merrill’s single with two out in the third began a stretch where the Frogs went 8-for-17 with three doubles, a triple and five walks, culminating with Skoug’s three-run double.

Humphreys drove in the Frogs’ ninth run with a fielder’s choice in the eighth inning.

This story was originally published June 23, 2017 at 10:54 PM with the headline "Frogs’ offense breaks through against Florida, forces second CWS semifinal."