By Chris Kutz, K-State Athletics Communications
(Photo courtesy of Kansas State Athletics)
The K-State baseball team was limited to four hits in a complete-game effort by TCU’s Preston Morrison while the No. 3 Horned Frogs pulled away late to beat the Wildcats, 9-0, on Saturday at Tointon Family Stadium.
A day after tallying 18 hits and 14 runs, K-State (15-18, 3-8 Big 12) was shut out for the second time this season as TCU (26-7, 7-4 Big 12) evened the series.
The Wildcats had six baserunners (four hits, two walks) against Morrison, who threw his second complete game of the season, but were hitless between the fifth and eighth innings when TCU scored eight of its nine runs. K-State managed to load the bases with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, which was the only time the Wildcats put runners in scoring position throughout the game. However, Morrison recorded his sixth strikeout of the day by fanning Danny Krause to end the contest.
“(Morrison has) been good for four years,” said K-State head coach Brad Hill about TCU’s senior pitcher. “He did a great job. We squared a couple balls up, but (Cody) Jones in center ran them down. Morrison took away any type of momentum we would have liked to get.”
K-State starting pitcher Brandon Courville suffered his third loss of the season after allowing just one run on six hits and two walks in four-plus innings. The right-hander’s only run surrendered came in the first when a bloop single to shallow left field by Derek Odell drove in Cody Jones, who led off the game with a single.
Courville started the fifth inning, which was the second time in three starts he stretched into that frame, but after back-to-back singles and a fielding error put runners on second and third with no outs, K-State called in reliever Jordan Floyd. The southpaw escaped the jam unscathed by inducing a fly out, striking out one batter and then drawing a groundout with the bases loaded following an intentional walk.
Floyd came back out to start the sixth, but three straight TCU batters reached to load the bases with no outs. After getting a force out at home, Floyd was lifted in favor of Corey Fischer, who allowed a sacrifice fly and an RBI bunt single to make it 3-0 TCU.
The Horned Frogs blew it open in the eighth when they scored six runs off Brandon Erickson with the help of five hits and two walks.
Max Brown was the only Wildcat to tally multiple hits as he had a single in the fourth and another in the ninth to finish 2-for-4. It was the senior’s third straight multi-hit effort and ninth overall this season.
TCU finished the game with 15 hits, with Dane Steinhagen and Jones tying for the team-lead with three.
The two sides will meet for the rubber match in the series on Sunday at 12 p.m. K-State has yet to announce its starting pitcher while TCU will send left-hander Alex Young to the mound.
