THE RUNDOWN
No. 16 DBU rolled to its sixth straight win with a 6-1 takedown of No. 21 TCU (21-12, 7-5) Tuesday night at Horner Ballpark. Despite a two hour lightning delay, the Patriots (22-10, 3-0) were dialed in both on the mound and at the plate in one of their sharpest performances of the season.

Peyton Sherlin shined in 3.0 innings of relief, punching out three for a DBU pitching staff that struck out the Horned Frogs 14 times. Offensively, the Patriots drew nine walks and Jace Grady extended his hit streak to four games with a two-run blast that gave DBU a lead it never surrendered.   

Zach Heaton worked a 1-2-3 frame to open the ballgame and would go on to retire the first six batters he faced. He was staked to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Jace Grady left the yard to score himself and Cole Moore. 

The Horned Frogs cut the lead in half in the third. Reed Spenrath gave Heaton his only blemish with a solo shot to left field that scored TCU's only run of the ballgame. But the Patriots would immediately get the run right back with two-out offense in the bottom of the frame. Andrew Benefield set the table with a double into center field and dashed over to third on a passed ball. Ryan Wrobleski then brought home Benefield on a single into right-center field to make it a 3-1 contest. 

After a scoreless fourth from both squads, DBU struck for two more in the fifth. Miguel Santos belted the third triple of his DBU career into right field to score Cole Moore. The cheers from a rowdy crowd at Horner Ballpark had barely died down before Luke Heefner dropped an RBI double down the left-field line to extend the Patriot lead to 5-1. 

The game's final run came off the bat of Nate Rombach in the sixth inning. The sophomore clobbered an offspeed pitch over the wall in left-center field for his seventh home run of the year. 

Zane Russell checked into the game in the seventh and pitched around a two-out triple to squash a TCU comeback bid. The righty quickly punched out the first two batters he faced in the eighth before the Patriots were forced to call Brady Rose out of the bullpen. 

Rose would strand two Horned Frogs with a crucial punchout to close the eighth and struck out two more in the ninth to put the finishing touches on a 6-1 victory.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW 
-DBU wins six in a row for the first time this season. 
-The Patriots collect their third straight win versus TCU. 
-With two hits against the Horned Frogs, Ryan Wrobleski has recorded multiple hits in four of the last five games. 
-Zach Heaton earned his third straight win as the Tuesday starter. 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS 
0 - The bullpen allowed no runs and didn't walk a single batter. 
4 - Brady Rose carded a career-high four punchouts in just 1.1 innings of work.
208 - Blayne Jones made the 208th start of his career, the fourth-most in program history. 
80 - Peyton Sherlin made his 80th appearance out of the bullpen, also the fourth-most in DBU history. 



ON DECK 
The Patriots will head to Peoria, Illinois, on April 14-16 for a three-game series against Bradley.
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