Baseball team sweeps series with Hawaii-Hilo

By Brandon Ortiz
Skiff Staff

The Frogs, for the time being, are in first place.

With the team only three games into Western Athletic Conference play, head coach Lance Brown does not put much stock into it.

“After three games that doesn’t mean a whole lot,” Brown said.

The Frogs (7-5) beat Hawaii-Hilo Monday (3-11, 2-4), 12-0, to sweep the three-game series and start WAC play at 3-0.

After scoring three runs in the second inning, the Frogs blew the game wide open in the third, scoring six runs on five hits.

Senior Chad Durham pitched seven shutout innings and had five strike outs to get the win.

“My fastball was working for me early on, and the curveball started working for me later in the game,” Durham said.

He retired nine of the first 10 batters of the game.

Tim Cox/SKIFF STAFF Junior shortstop hits a line drive Monday in TCU’s, 12-0, victory over Hawaii-Hilo at the TCU Diamond. The Frogs swept the three-game series to take possession of first place in the Western Athletic Conference.

Despite the win, Durham said he struggled with control at times.

“I was as usual, effectively wild,” said Durham, who walked one and hit a batter.

Earlier in the season, Durham hit three batters in a row to load the bases.

“I hit a few batters to build on my reputation,” he said.

Durham’s strong outing came a day after senior Chris Bradshaw and junior Justin Crowder pitched complete games.

Bradshaw limited the Vulcans to five hits and two runs in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader. The Frogs won the game, 14-2. Crowder followed Bradshaw by allowing only one run on four hits to lead the Frogs to a, 6-1, victory.

“At least we got good pitching three days in a row,” Brown said. “Hopefully, we will keep it going.”

The Frogs used only four pitchers this weekend to limit a Vulcans team that entered the series with a .249 batting average to three runs in three games.

Junior shortstop Erick Macha said the Frogs’ pitching was a big boost.

“If you only use four pitchers in three games, that’s unbelievable,” Macha said.

The Frogs roughed up arguably Hawaii-Hilo’s two best starters Sunday, Ben Siff and Anthony Bernal. Siff entered the game with a 1.89 ERA before the Frogs scored five runs off him in three innings.

Brown said he didn’t know why the team hit so well.

“If I knew, we would have been doing it all year,” he said.

Sophomore first baseman Walter Olmstead said he was worried the team would be rusty after a rainy week limited the Frog’s practice time.

“I was afraid the first inning (of the first game) when we left a couple on,” he said. “But we did a good job, scored a lot of runs and hit the ball hard up the middle.”

The Frogs came out running in the first game Sunday, stealing four bases in the first inning. The Frogs stole nine bases on 10 attempts in the three-game series. They had attempted to steal only eight times for the season entering the series.

The Frogs defense was also good. The team committed only two errors after committing seven last weekend.

“We always knew we had a pretty good defensive ball club,” Brown said. “I think pitching has a lot to do with it. They didn’t really hit the ball very hard. We are not too bad defensively anyway. If we don’t fall asleep, we are all right.”

Senior David Tombrella will start the game against Oklahoma at 2:05 p.m. Wednesday at the TCU Diamond.