Houston: Rally caps work for TCU

By Jonathan Yardley - June 03, 2007

All this regional had been missing was a ninth-inning rally, and TCU delivered in a big way just a few minutes ago.

Trailing 5-3, No. 8 hitter Ben Carruthers led off with a single against Randall Linebaugh, the first runner to reach for TCU since the fourth inning. Baylor head coach Steve Smith then pulled Linebaugh, whose pitch count was not an issue, in favor of junior closer Nick Cassavechia. TCU countered with injured slugger Keith Conlon as a pinch hitter. Conlon was hit on a 2-0 fastball and immediately replaced by pinch runner Brandon Furrow. After a sacrifice bunt, we got the strangest play of the inning.

Steven Trout chopped a 2-2 pitch through the right side, scoring Carruthers. Baylor's Paul Miles made a perfect throw to home plate in plenty of time to get Furrow, but the pitcher-turned-runner came up with a great feet-first slide that knocked the glove off the hand of Baylor catcher Matt Czimskey and sent the baseball bouncing into the TCU dugout. That tied the game and sent Trout all the way to third base.

After an intentional walk, an Austin Adams single through the left side gave TCU a 6-5 lead with one out. But the biggest blow was still to come, as leftfielder Matt McGuirk (a defensive replacement hitting .198) flared a soft fly ball to left field that got into the first out-blowing wind all weekend and cleared the left-field fence for a grand slam. Unbelievable inning in which TCU got seven runs on four hits. TCU 10-5 into the bottom of the ninth.