Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
news releaseFORT WORTH - The Utah baseball team used a six-run fourth inning to down No. 10 ranked and No. 1 seeded TCU, 9-7, on Wednesday evening in the second round of the MWC Tournament at Lupton Stadium.
It is the first time in tournament history that a No. 6 seed has beaten a No. 1 seed.
Down 4-2 going into the fourth inning, Utah's first three batters each singled to load the bases. Michael Beltran started the rally with a single down the right field line while Corey Shimada singled to left center before Tyler Yagi beat out a well-placed bunt to reach first safely. Nick Kuroczko reached on a fielders choice to send Beltran home for an RBI before freshman C.J. Cron stepped to the plate and doubled to deep right center, sending Kuroczko and Shimada across the plate to give the Utes a 5-4 lead. The rally continued as Devin Walker, Austin Jones and Rick Cornu all walked, sending Cron in. Cooper Blanc had a two RBI single to right center with the bases loaded to score the final two runs of the inning for Utah, giving the team an 8-4 lead.
Utah scored an insurance run in the top of the seventh, while TCU added three more runs in the late innings, but could not pull ahead.
Ute starter Brian Budrow picked up his fifth win of the year, striking out six and allowing just three earned runs in the victory. Greg Krause got his fourth save, pitching the final 2.1 innings.
"This is a great win for us," Utah head coach Bill Kinneberg said. "We really did a lot of things well tonight to beat a good team in TCU. Budrow really battled. After we got a lead, he put some zeros up, which was really important, and Krause shut the door well. The pitching was outstanding against a good club. Scoring those six runs was really huge for us."
Yagi went 3-for-6 on the night, while Shimada, Kuroczko, Walker and Beltran each had a pair of hits. Kuroczko, Blanc and Cron each had two RBI.
The Utes move on to face the only other undefeated team in the winners bracket, No. 4 seed San Diego State, on Thursday, May 21, at 7:00 p.m. (CT).
Utah 9, TCU 7 (May 20, 2009 at Fort Worth, Texas)
---------------------------------------------------------
-------------
Utah................ 110 600 100 - 9 15 3 (23-28)
TCU................. 211 000 210 - 7 12 3 (35-15)
---------------------------------------------------------
-------------
Pitchers: Utah - BUDROW, Brian; ANDERSEN, Tyler(7); KRAUSE, Greg(7).
TCU - GERRISH, Paul;
APPLEBY, Trent(4); MERCK, Kaleb(7); MILLER, Erik(9).
Win-BUDROW, Brian(5-5) Save-KRAUSE, Greg(4) Loss-GERRISH, Paul(5-2)
T-3:25 A-2112
Weather: Breezy and nice
GERRISH faced 3 batters in the 4th.(courtesy UofU)
