COLLEGE STATION – TCU baseball won its fourth consecutive elimination game Monday night to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals.
The Horned Frogs (40-20) defeated Ole Miss 7-4 in front of 3,579 at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park to keep their season alive.TCU advances to play UCLA in Los Angeles in a best-of-three NCAA Super Regional series beginning either Friday or Saturday.
The Bruins (45-14) swept their regional in three games, beating Creighton twice and New Mexico once by a combined score of 23-6. UCLA has won seven consecutive games and 14 of its last 15.
TCU returns to the Super Regional round – two wins from the College World Series – for the first time since 2010. The Frogs beat Texas then to advance to their first CWS.
TCU took a 2-1 lead on solo homers by Josh Elander and Jantzen Witte in the fourth but the Rebels came right back with two runs in the fifth to reclaim the lead against Morrison. Justin Scharf took over with runners on second and third and one out. He loaded the bases with an intentional walk to set up a double play.
Zach Kirksey’s sacrifice fly to left scored the go-ahead run but Scharf forced a ground out to end the inning.
The Frogs scored two runs in the bottom of the inning to take back the lead. Josh Gonzales and Brance Rivera started with a walk and hit and Keaton Jones scored Gonzales on a soft ground out to third. Rivera came around from second on Kyle Von Tungeln’s single up the middle to give the Frogs a 4-3 edge. Rivera’s double scored Derek Odell in the sixth to stretch TCU’s lead to 5-3. Rivera came into the regional with 16 RBIs in 46 games.
In five games at the College Station Regional Rivera led all players with nine RBIs and nine runs scored. The Frogs hit 10 home runs in five regional games and have 15 in their last nine games.
Meanwhile, Scharf held the Rebels to two hits over the last 4 2/3 innings to hold the lead. It was his longest outing of the season. He had a save and earned the win Monday night.
Scharf was named the Most Outstanding Player of the regional.
-- Stefan Stevenson
@FollowtheFrogs
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