NCAA College World Series - Game 11 Recap - TCU vs UCLA

UCLA could afford to lose. TCU could not. Fair enough, then, said the Horned Frogs - they've now earned the chance to advance to the College World Series championship round and knock out their adversaries from the Pac-10.

The kids from Texas Christian had no margin for error on a sun-drenched Friday afternoon at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska. Having been beaten by UCLA in a winners' bracket game earlier in the College World Series, the young men from the Mountain West Conference had to survive Florida State in a Wednesday elimination game just to get to this point. As a reward for their hang-by-a-fingernail escape, TCU needed to beat UCLA twice in order to reach the best-of-three battle for college baseball's national title.

First things first, though, for the force from Fort Worth, Texas: Before winning two games against the Bruins from Los Angeles, the Horned Frogs had to worry about winning once. They did so, and an old-fashioned form of country hardball did the trick in America's Heartland.

The first source of TCU's strong showing was freshman lefty Matt Purke. The stellar starter - who entered the game with an NCAA-leading 15 wins - picked up his 16th "W" of 2010 by pitching 6 1/3 very effective innings. Purke (16-0) has a lanky frame on the mound, and his release point is hard to pick up. As long as Purke pounds the strike zone and gets ahead of hitters, he's very nearly untouchable, and that was the case on Friday. If UCLA's Brett Krill hadn't dribbled a seeing-eye grounder up the middle for an RBI single in the top of the fifth, Purke would have carried a shutout into the seventh. Yes, UCLA hitters began to wear him down with some patient at-bats in the top of the seventh, but Purke left with a 3-1 lead and owned the day for the TCU crew.

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The 3-1 lead should have remained in place during a contentious seventh frame. With the bases loaded and two outs for the Bruins against TCU reliever Tyler Lockwood, UCLA's Niko Gallego hit a bouncer to third base, where Horned Frog third sacker Jantzen Witte gobbled up the ball and stepped on the bag for a force play and the third out.

Or so it seemed.

The third-base umpire ruled the UCLA runner safe despite the fact that - as shown on subsequent replays - Witte touching the bag first on a bang-bang play. UCLA moved within a run at 3-2 and still had the sacks juiced. The call threatened to undo everything Purke accomplished on the bump for TCU. Fortunately for the Horned Frogs, Lockwood didn't allow the setback to hijack his concentration. On a 1-2 pitch, he started a fastball over the middle of the plate but generated a late break to the right which fooled the Bruins' Beau Amaral, who swung through the pitch to end the inning. There are always certain moments in any sporting competition when the tension and significance rise to a supreme height, and in Friday's most important situation, Tyler Lockwood delivered the goods for TCU and preserved what Purke established.

Fresh from that successful stoppage of the UCLA rally, the Horned Frogs loosened up in the final few innings at the plate. Hitting star Tyler Featherston smacked a two-run homer to give the Purple People some much-needed insurance runs. Bryan Holaday added a solo shot in the eighth, and by the time it was all over, Lockwood - who gained a hard-earned save - was polishing off the UCLA lineup without a sweat in the top of the ninth.

Rob Rasmussen (11-3) took the loss for the Bruins after giving up three runs in 4 1/3 innings.

Game on, Bruins and Frogs. Saturday, one team will advance to the final round of a typically unpredictable College World Series.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer