OMAHA, Neb.—TCU used a four-run sixth inning to overtake Florida 9-2 on Friday night in Omaha at the College World Series.
 
TCU (50-17) took an early 2-0 lead in the third inning but Florida (49-19) tied it immediately with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning. The Horned Frogs retook the lead in the fourth and never relinquished it.
 
Jackson Kowar retired the first eight batters of the game, striking out seven of them, before allowing three straight hits that gave TCU a 2-0 lead in the third inning.
 
Florida answered right away, getting a run back on a solo shot by Mike Rivera over the bullpen in left field.
 
Nick Horvath and Ryan Larson drew consecutive walks to keep the rally going and Dalton Guthrie tied the game with a double into the left field corner.
 
Guthrie's double was the ninth hit of his College World Series career, tying Mike Zunino and Preston Tucker for the most career CWS hits.
 
TCU struck again in the fourth inning and took a 4-2 lead on Josh Watson's two-run triple to center field.
 
Kowar exited after the fifth inning, finishing with four runs allowed on six hits and 11 strikeouts, a new career high.
 
Florida became the third team in the last 30 years to have three different pitchers with nine or more strikeouts in a CWS game (Faedo had 11 on Sunday, Singer had 9 on Tuesday).
 
TCU blew the game open in the sixth inning, taking advantage of three walks and a bases-clearing double from Evan Skoug to make it 8-2.
 
The Horned Frogs added a late run in the eighth inning for the final margin.
 
Frank Rubio pitched the final 3.2 innings with two runs allowed on three hits.
 
 
POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH COACH O'SULLIVAN
Opening Statement:
Well, first of all, credit TCU. They played well tonight. They got nine runs on 10 hits. And I thought Jackson threw the ball well. Obviously 11 strikeouts over five innings. They just did a nice job there in the second inning. After we scored two, they bounced back and got the lead again there.

And credit their hitters, and obviously they opened it up with a big hit with Skoug there during the sixth.

But bottom line is we need to score more runs. We had five hits tonight. I think we got ten runs over the last three games. And it's putting a lot of pressure on our pitching.

But with that being said, we've got four teams left with one loss. Tomorrow should be very interesting. Obviously we've got our number one going. Michael Byrne is fresh and Tyler Dyson is fresh, and it should be an interesting couple games. Looking forward to it.

Q. Jackson, obviously you were cruising there early in the game. Did the TCU offense you think make any adjustments against you there in the third and fourth, or did you feel like you lost something at that point?
JACKSON KOWAR: I just think I didn't locate a couple of fastballs with two outs. In those situations, you've got to get off the field. And all four runs they scored off me were two outs today. Just didn't quite get that fastball where I needed it to be on a couple of batters there. It was mostly not executing the fastball.

Q. Jackson, have you started a game like that strikeout-wise this year or previous years?
JACKSON KOWAR: Not really since high school. At the time I didn't realize how many strikeouts I had. I was just trying to execute pitches. It was unfortunate. My pitch count got kind of high. I wish I could have gone deeper in the game. So kind of wasted a couple of pitches here and there. I think I should have made more competitive pitches. But at the end of the day it's not about strikeouts, it's just about outs. Doesn't matter if I struck out 11. I gave up four. At the end of the day you need to get outs; doesn't matter how they come.

Q. Mike, Coach talked about the offense struggling a little bit out here. How do you get it going and what do you think is the cause of maybe the scuffling a little?
MIKE RIVERA: I don't know what causes it or anything. But tomorrow is just another day. I don't really care what happened in the past somewhere. Doesn't really matter. Everyone has one loss now. We just need to play better tomorrow. And get another chance. We're still breathing, so that's good.

Q. What happened with Garrett and is he going to be okay tomorrow?
COACH O'SULLIVAN: I don't know. The game just got over. I hope so. I mean, I'm going to have the doctors and the trainer will look at him. Obviously he's not available tomorrow. So I don't know. I haven't talked to the doctors yet.

Q. Just what do you have to do tomorrow to get them -- I know they're going to be ready to go, but do you have to get them with their backs against the walls, is there anything extra you want to tell them?
COACH O'SULLIVAN: I think our backs have been against the wall the whole year to be honest with you. It's been well documented. We've had 18 one-run wins. Nothing's come easy to this team this year.

We've just had to battle and scratch and claw and fight for everything we had. And if you told me we had one game to win and you got Faedo on the mound and Dyson, who has emerged, and Byrne fresh, I'll take my chances.

There's nothing we can do about tonight. It got away from us. Sometimes that happens. We play games like that because we don't have a whole lot of depth. But our front line guidance are really good.

So when we fall behind, sometimes the score can get lopsided in a hurry. And that's what happened tonight. And credit TCU. But like I said, there's four teams left with one loss. It's going to be interesting. But like I said, if I'm going to go to battle with one more game on the line for the season, Alex Faedo is my guy.

Q. I guess to expand upon your point earlier about the offense, what have you seen out of this group? Is there any pressing, or is it just good pitching you're facing, or what is it?
COACH O'SULLIVAN: I don't see pressing. I think pitching has something to do with it, but I think the anticipation of getting out here, the first game you go 0-for-4, and the second game you're 0-for- 3 for a loss, now you're 0-for-7 and next thing you're 0-for-10 with two walks. Guys start pressing a little bit.

Probably need to look at the lineup a little tomorrow. I hate to make a change this late in the season. But there's some guys that are obviously not feeling great about themselves right now, and maybe I can take pressure off them by moving them down a little bit.

But our recipe for success the whole year has been starting pitching gives up three or less, three or four runs, we've got a chance. And, like I said, we're fresh tomorrow. And we'll see what happens.