No. 8 TCU dominates battle of the bullpens in 17-6 win over Wichita State

Willie Schwanke covered Wichita State’s pitching problems on Friday. On Saturday, No. 8 TCU yanked them back into the light, even after an encouraging start by sophomore Cody Tyler.

TCU, after trailing by three runs to start the fifth inning, pecked away at Tyler and walloped a succession of relievers in a 17-6 win at Eck Stadium. The Frogs homered twice, tripled, doubled five times and walked 12 times to record a complete battering of WSU’s bullpen.

WSU (9-18) led 3-0 and 5-2 before fading in the middle innings. TCU (21-5) again turned a close game over to its bullpen to choke off any hope. On Friday, Schwanke kept the Shockers in it and the offense faltered in a 3-0 loss. On Saturday, WSU’s offense had no chance to keep up.

“Pretty much after (Tyler) came out of the game, the game disappeared,” WSU coach Todd Butler said.

Wichita State led 5-4 in the sixth inning and handed the ball to reliever John Hayes, just about the best-case scenario and the one preserved by Schwanke’s complete game. But Hayes walked his first two batters and threw a ball to Connor Wanhanen, inciting an arm-waving visit to the mound by pitching coach Brent Kemnitz. Hayes hit Wanhanen in the back before recording his first out. A wild pitch scored Josh Watson to tie the game and TCU took a 6-5 lead on a sacrifice fly by Mason Hesse.

The Frogs took over in the seventh by scoring five runs against three relievers to grab an 11-5 lead. Hayes walked the first batter to end his day. Robby Evans faced four hitters and surrendered a double, triple and a two-run home run by Watson. Tyler Gibson gave up a single and walked two batters and a run scored when third baseman Alec Bohm dropped a groundball.

Hayes, who has struggled with control this season after carrying the 2015 bullpen, summed up his issues succinctly.

“Everywhere,” he said, to describe the location of his pitches.

“Fastballs,” he said, to describe which pitch failed him.

Hayes had plenty of company once things started to go bad. By the time the 4 hour, 4 minute game ended, Tyler’s encouraging 4 2/3 inning seemed almost irrelevant.

“He looks like he can be a weekend starter for us,” Butler said. “He threw it in to the right-handers and he threw strikes.”

Tyler, a sophomore, made his first start since 2014 at Kansas, when he injured his elbow. He sat out last season after undergoing surgery and made 10 relief appearances this season. He held the Frogs hitless until allowing a one-out double in the fourth, moving his fastball around accurately and mixing in a curveball. He went a season-high 4 2/3 innings, struck out five and walked two on five hits.

“Locating the fastball, and if you can do that then your secondary stuff is going to work better for you,” he said. “If you throw fastballs hard inside and move their feet … it opens up a door for off-speed.”

WSU led 5-2 entering the fifth inning and Tyler got two outs on groundballs before walking Austen Wade. The Frogs jumped on that mistake with a double by Cam Warner and Evan Skoug’s single to cut the lead to 5-4. Tyler tired and TCU’s experienced hitters took advantage.

“I tried to go as far as I could, but I think toward the end I hit a wall,” he said.

The wall also hit the WSU bats in the form of TCU’s bullpen. On Friday, reliever Jared Janzcak shut out WSU for five innings. Brian Trieglaff picked up on Saturday with four scoreless innings after WSU dented starter Brian Howard for five runs and six hits in three innings.

The dominant performance of the bullpen didn’t remove concerns about his rotation from the mind of TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle. He came to Eck Stadium hoping to watch his starters pitch deeper into games. While it doesn’t seem to matter against the Shockers, he knows bigger games await.

“At some point, that’s going to come into play,” he said. “I’m glad we have guys down there and, who knows, maybe one of those guys will eventually be a starting pitcher, but if you’re going to try and win a conference championship or deep into a regional … you have to pitch. You don’t swing your way to Omaha.”

The Shockers took a 2-0 lead in the first and added a run in the third. After TCU scored twice, WSU responded with two runs in the fourth to lead 5-2.

Worth noting — TCU took a 9-8 lead in the series with its eighth straight win over the Shockers.… Butler took center fielder Mikel Mucha out before the eighth inning after Mucha dove for a ball and landed badly on his knee. Butler said he did not expect the injury to be serious. … The Shockers fell to 8-8 at Eck Stadium.

This story was originally published April 2, 2016 at 7:00 PM with the headline "No. 8 TCU dominates battle of the bullpens in 17-6 win over Wichita State."