No. 1 TCU hits four homers, but four errors spell first loss

TCU hit four home runs and made four errors Friday night in a series opener against Arizona State.

Guess what mattered more.

The Sun Devils of the Pac-12 scored two unearned runs during a 10-run outburst against five relievers for a 13-9 victory at Lupton Stadium against the top-ranked Horned Frogs.

Josh Watson’s dropped fly ball in left field, after a near-collision with shortstop Ryan Merrill, let the first of two runs score with two out for a 6-1 ASU lead in the seventh inning, and Evan Skoug’s throwing error to second base after a wild pitch allowed one of three runs to score in the eighth, which ended with Arizona State leading 9-1.

Elliott Barzilli homered in the sixth inning, and the Frogs (4-1) scored seven runs in the eighth and ninth innings with the benefit of home runs from Michael Landestoy, Austen Wade and Luken Baker.

Arizona State (4-1), coming off Tuesday’s 18-4 home loss to Oklahoma State, got a commanding six innings from junior left-hander Eli Lingos (2-0), who allowed two runs on two hits and struck out eight.

“Yeah, we played very, very poorly,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “At the same time, they played great. Their lefty starter did a great job. They played very poorly on Tuesday and got beat up pretty good, and the way they responded coming in here was very, very impressive. Tomorrow will be another day, and hopefully we can respond like that.”

TCU starter Brian Howard, moving to what will be his normal Friday turn in the rotation, gave up three runs on three hits and struck out seven. He left trailing 3-1 after giving up a home run, an RBI double and an RBI groundout in the fifth inning.

“I thought he was overthrowing a little bit, trying to be too perfect,” Schlossnagle said. “He pitched behind in the count a lot. They have some impressive young hitters, and the way the park was playing, you can’t afford to get behind in the count.”

Howard had retired 11 straight when Tyler Williams hit a 2-1 pitch over the fence in right center to tie the game.

With one out, Jeremy McCuin singled to center field and No. 9 hitter Hunter Bishop was hit by a pitch. Gage Canning’s double to left center provided a 2-1 lead, and a ground ball to first made it 3-1.

Howard finished the inning with his seventh strikeout, but his outing was over at five innings, having walked one and given up three hits.

In the sixth inning, TCU freshman Austin Boyles gave up a single and a walk to start the inning, and his error on a pickoff throw to second advanced the runners. After a strikeout, Cal Coughlin entered, but fell behind 3-0 and then was ordered to complete an intentional walk that loaded the bases.

A fielder’s choice at the plate cut down a run, but with two outs, new pitcher Haylen Green walked in a run on a 3-2 pitch to give Arizona State a 4-1 lead.

Barzilli homered to lead off the TCU seventh, but the Sun Devils added two unearned runs in the seventh for a 6-2 lead. Watson’s dropped pop fly in left field, when he and shortstop Merrill got too close, let a run score with two outs, and Williams followed with an RBI single.

Three more runs scored in the eighth after the Devils loaded the bases with no outs to chase Green and then pushed the runs across against reliever Ryan Burnett with two sacrifice flies around a throwing error by catcher Skoug to second following a wild pitch.

With a run in, the bases loaded and no outs, Cam Warner and Nolan Brown each beat out double-play relays in the eighth inning as TCU closed to 9-5.

Landestoy and Wade hit solo homers three pitches apart in the ninth for TCU, but a four-run ninth against Dalton Horton had long put it away for Arizona State.

This story was originally published February 24, 2017 at 11:17 PM with the headline "No. 1 TCU hits four homers, but four errors spell first loss."