TCU fights back from slow start against Oklahoma State in Big 12 tournament

TCU couldn’t cross the plate against Oklahoma State ace Thomas Hatch the first time they saw him this year.

Thursday night in Oklahoma City was different.

The Horned Frogs scored four runs with the benefit of five two-out hits in the fourth inning of a winner’s bracket game Thursday night at the Big 12 tournament.

Dane Steinhagen’s two-run triple and RBI singles from Connor Wanhanen and Austen Wade against the Big 12 pitcher of the year produced a 4-4 game.

That was the score after six innings at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

Mitchell Traver started for TCU and gave up a four-run first inning. An infield single, followed by his fielding error and a walk loaded the bases with no outs, and Oklahoma State capitalized on a passed ball and two hits for a 4-0 lead.

Hatch, who pitched a complete-game shutout on five hits April 22 against TCU, was cruising with two outs in the fourth inning.

But Elliott Barzilli’s singled to center, Ryan Merrill singled to right, and Steinhagen tripled down the left field line to score them.

Connor Wanhanen followed with a double, also down the left field line, to cut the lead to 4-3, and Austen Wade’s single to center tied it.

TCU was going for its seventh consecutive win, which would tie a season high.

The winner was scheduled to advance to a 12:30 p.m. Saturday game.

The loser matches up against Texas in an elimination game at 7:30 p.m. Friday, with that winner advancing to the Saturday game.

TCU designated hitter Luken Baker, who went 5 for 5 on Wednesday, had a hit in his first at-bat Thursday, but struck out the next two times at bat.

UTA delayed

The UT Arlington baseball team’s second-round Sun Belt tournament game against Georgia Southern was delayed in the top of the third inning by bad weather conditions in San Marcos.

Georgia Southern led UTA 1-0.

A three-hour rain delay in the game before UTA’s pushed the scheduled 4 p.m. start time back more than four hours.

UTA upset second-seeded South Alabama on Wednesday.

Coach dies

Minnesota pitching coach Todd Oakes died Thursday after a four-year battle with leukemia. He was 55.

The school announced his death and Terri Oakes wrote on her husband’s CaringBridge page that he died “surrounded by his family with a cross in his hand and his favorite music playing.” Todd Oakes had been placed in home hospice care last week.

“He was a servant leader, a person of strong faith — family and friends, relationships, were really important to him — and he was a person always giving back and trying to help others. He made our program better, he’s made me a better person, coach, husband, father. He’ll be missed,” Gophers coach John Anderson said in Omaha, Neb., after his team lost 3-2 to Michigan in a Big Ten Tournament elimination game.

Oakes joined the Gophers’ coaching staff in 1999.

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 10:50 PM with the headline "TCU fights back from slow start against Oklahoma State in Big 12 tournament."