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Top-Seeded TCU Defeats UNLV at 2008 Phillips 66 MWC Baseball Championship
May 21, 2008 FORT WORTH, Texas - Matt Carpenter was 4-for-4 with a homer and two RBI, while Tyler Lockwood went eight solid innings on the mound to lead No. 21 TCU to a 9-3 victory over UNLV in second-round action at the Phillips 66 Mountain West Conference Baseball Championship at Lupton Stadium in Fort Worth. TCU advances to Thursday's 7 p.m. game against No. 2-seed New Mexico. The Frogs and Lobos are the only undefeated teams remaining in the championship. UNLV will play in an elimination game Thursday at 3 p.m. against the winner of an 11 a.m. contest between San Diego State and Utah. Lockwood (7-1) surrendered three earned runs on six hits while walking four and striking out three. Taylor Cragin retired the side in order in the ninth. He has not allowed a run in 10 of his last 11 appearances. Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the third, TCU scored three runs to take control of the game. UNLV starter Jeff Urlaub (0-1), coming off Tommy John surgery, made just his second appearance of the season. He had thrown one inning on the season entering the game. Urlaub held the Frogs scoreless for the first two innings before departing after hitting Bryan Kervin and Ben Carruthers with pitches to lead off the bottom of the third. Urlaub was then relieved by Marc Baca. Following a sacrifice bunt by Steve Ellington, a Clint Arnold groundout scored Kervin to even the game. Chris Ellington, who had two hits and two RBI on the night, followed with a single up the middle to plate Carruthers and give TCU a 2-1 lead. Carpenter then drove home Chris Ellington with a single into the right field corner. The Frogs added three runs in the bottom of the sixth to increase their margin to 6-1. Chris Ellington made it a 4-1 game with an RBI double to left. It scored Arnold who led off the inning with a walk. A Hunt Woodruff sacrifice fly made it 5-1, while a Carruthers infield single scored the final run of the inning. Carpenter's eighth homer of the season, a solo shot in the seventh, made it a 7-3 margin. An eighth inning RBI single by Kervin and a run-scoring double by Carruthers provided the final margin. Both Kervin and Carruthers had two hits with Carruthers driving in two runs. The Rebels (22-36) had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. After a pair of singles put runners on first and third, a safety squeeze bunt by Michael Brenly plated J.J. Sferra. UNLV threatened again in the top of the second with men on second and third and two outs. However, a diving catch by Carruthers at second on a liner by Sferra ended the inning.
A two-out, two-run double by Sferra in the seventh cut the UNLV deficit to 6-3.
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