Campus briefs

BYU

BASEBALL: No. 15 TCU widened its first-place lead over BYU with an 8-5 come-from-behind victory Thursday at Lupton Field in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Frogs, now 28-13 overall and 9-4 in the Mountain West Conference, increased their percentage lead to .692. BYU, now 24-18 and 11-7, fell out of a tie for second place with a percentage of .611, forcing the Cougars to sweep the remaining two games of the series as well as its series next week with UNLV to have a shot at the regular season crown.

TCU used a pair of solo homers in the fifth inning, a rare triple to left field in the eighth paired with squeeze bunt to generate the three-run difference.

BYU started out with the lead in Thursday's game with a 2-0 lead after sacrifice flysby Michael Bowen and Brandon Relf in the second and third innings. In those innings the Cougars stranded two runners each, failing to take advantage of walks.

Some of those bases on balls forced hard-throwing TCU starter Sean Hoelscher from the game in the second inning.

TCU rallied to tie the score a 2-2 in the third, then took a 5-2 lead with a three-run fourth.

Bowen closed the gap to 5-4, with a two-run double in the fifth, driving in Steve Parker, who had doubled, and Relf, who had walked.

The Frogs increased their margin in the fifth with solo homers by Matt Carpenter and Matt Vern which sent Cougar starter Jeremy Toole off the mound.

Cougar Sean McNaughton knocked a double in the sixth and scored on a two-out single by Stetson Banks to close the score, 7-5.

"The critical thing is getting a timely hit that would have helped our cause and given Jeremy more confidence," said BYU coach Vance Law. "We put too many free guys on base.

"We were pleased with our hard plat, but we have to hit the ball on the line instead of lifting it here. We understand TCU is going to be very good an execution and they are solid on the mound.

"The hard work we have done all season boils down to this weekend and next."

SOFTBALL: A six-run second inning yielded a 6-1 win for the Cougars over UNLV Thursday evening. With the win the Cougars remain perfect in Mountain West Conference play at 8-0, 35-14 overall.