U. gains no ground in run for 2nd

Utah coach Bill Kinneberg isn't worrying about magic numbers and such. After Friday night's 8-3 series-opening loss to TCU at Franklin Covey Field, he's locked in on other things — consistency and the No. 2 seed in this year's Mountain West Conference tournament.

The Utes entered the contest just one game behind second-place BYU and a half-game back of third-place San Diego State. All three teams, however, are well back of the league-leading Horned Frogs, who improved to 16-2 in MWC play with the victory.

"We're fighting for a No. 2 seed, and that's not out of the realm of possibilities," Kinneberg said. "So we've got to come out and play really inspired baseball."

The race is on as the regular season enters its final two weeks. Utah (9-7 MWC) is closing out its home schedule this weekend and is determined to remain in contention.

"Those things will take care of themselves if we play well, we play alert and we play focused baseball," Kinneberg said.

After a scoreless first inning, both teams scored twice in the second.

The Horned Frogs got things started with a two-run homer from Andrew Walker. The Utes followed with an RBI groundout by Jesse Shriner and a run-scoring single by Erich Kemp.

TCU broke the deadlock in the third with three runs. All of the scores came with two outs. A two-run double by Hunt Woodruff was followed by an RBI single from Steve Ellington that made it 5-2 for the Horned Frogs.

The Utes managed to load the bases in the bottom of the inning but came up empty after hitting into a double play.

"We didn't get those key hits," Kinneberg said. "(TCU starter Jake) Arrieta got tough at the right times, I guess. We had some opportunities to score some runs and didn't get it done today."

It proved costly.

TCU added to its lead in the fourth when Steven Trout led off with a homer and Austin Arnold later added an RBI double.

Trailing 7-2, Utah was held scoreless for five innings before getting a run-scoring single by John Welsh in the eighth.

TCU matched it in the ninth when Woodruff drove in a run with a two-out single to cap all scoring in the contest.

The series continues today at 1 p.m. with Utah left-hander Eric King (5-1, 3.66 ERA) and TCU right-hander Chris Johnson (8-2, 4.19 ERA) as the scheduled starters. Sunday's series finale will pit Lucas Trinnaman (0-5, 7.86 ERA) of the Utes against Horned Frogs Chance Corgan (6-1, 3.52 ERA).

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