TCU beat Indiana State 6-4 Saturday to sweep the best-of-3 Fort Worth Super Regional and earn the Horned Frogs’ sixth trip to the College World Series, which begins Friday in Omaha.
Cole Fontenelle went 3 for 4 with a double and his second home run of the series as the Frogs posted their 41st victory of the season against 22 losses and secured a berth in the CWS for the first time since making four straight appearances from 2014-17.
TCU set up the sweep with a 4-1 win in Friday’s Game 1 at Lupton Stadium. The game set a single game attendance record of 8, 812 – and Saturday’s game broke that record with a crowd of 8,994 despite being rescheduled from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. due to the threat of severe weather.
Indiana State grabbed an early 2-0 lead on Saturday but TCU’s Tre Richardson delivered an RBI single that sparked a five-run rally in the bottom of the fourth inning and then scored the go-ahead run when Anthony Silva’s single made it 3-2. Luke Boyers followed with an RBI double and Silva scored on a groundout by Austin Davis to cap the inning and give the Horned Frogs a three-run lead.
Fontenelle’s two-out solo homer in the fifth increased the lead to 6-2 and gave the Frogs some breathing room when Indiana State picked up two runs in the top of the sixth on Miguel Rivera’s RBI double and Seth Gergely’s run-producing groundout.
Starting pitcher Sam Stoutenborough (5-0) gave up three runs on five hits over 5 1/3 innings to get the win for TCU. Ben Abeldt came on in the sixth and allowed four hits — including two doubles — and two walks but just one run in 2 2/3 innings of relief before Garrett Wright came on in the ninth and gave up a lead-off single to Grant Magill before retiring the side to earn his fifth save of the season.
