TCU starting pitcher Mitchell Traver and his Texas Southern counterpart Felix Gomez battled back-and-forth Tuesday night at Lupton Stadium. The two starters matched one another with consecutive perfect innings and double figure strike out totals.

But the Frogs delivered a blow that the Titans could never recover from.

With two outs and the score tied 0-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning, TCU’s designated hitter Evan Skoug pounded Gomez’s 3-1 pitch over the right field wall to score the game’s lone run.

Skoug’s home run improves TCU’s record to 7-1, while it puts Texas Southern’s record below .500 at 4-5 on the season.

Traver got the win for the Frogs, as he impressed the few who endured the cold temperatures at Lupton Stadium. The sophomore had a career-high 11 strikeouts, walked nobody and only gave up two hits in seven innings pitched.

“My change up wasn’t there last week so I focused on that in my preparation,” said Traver. “I only used it a handful of times but I was able to blow it in the bottom of the zone with the fastball and establish my [secondary pitches] for strikes so they couldn’t cheat, and it worked.”

Gomez was almost equally as impressive as Traver. The senior struck out 10 batters and only gave up four hits in his seven-inning outing. He retired 14 consecutive batters until he faced Nolan Brown, who hit an infield single that came out of the glove of shortstop Robert Garza. Gomez’s only blemish was Skoug’s home run in the seventh.

TCU head coach Jim Schlossnagle said he didn’t know why his batters were struggling against Gomez because he wasn’t in the batter’s box.

“We didn’t get any good swings on [Gomez],” said Schlossnagle. “I’m not going to say that it’s something that was completely our fault because that wouldn’t be giving him the credit that he deserves.”

After Skoug was finally able to figure out Gomez, Schlossnagle sent out his effective right handed reliever Trey Teakell. The senior pitched a perfect inning, then handed the ball over to TCU’s star closer Riley Ferrell.

The hard throwing right-hander gave up a one out walk but struck out the next two batters to give the Horned Frogs the victory and his 20th career save, which ties former Horned Frog Sam Demel’s school record.