FORT WORTH, Tex. --- The 'Eaters took a lead into the ninth against the sixth-ranked Horned Frogs, but the hosts snatched the upset bid away with a pair of runs to walkoff with the 4-3 win over UCI Friday night in Lupton Baseball Stadium.

TCU (6-2) set the stage with one out in the ninth as Connor Wanhanen singled and Luken Baker boomed a double to straight away center field to put the tying and winning runs in scoring position. An intentional walk would load the bases for Drew Humphreys against Anteater closer Jordan Bocko who missed by the slimmest of margins away on a full count to bring the tying run across the plate.

A.J. Balta, working on a three-hit night already, smacked a high fly down the right field line that Konnor Zickefoose caught just barely in foul ground and fired home, but was a step shy of catching pinch-runner Colton Parrish as he plated the winning run for TCU on Texas Independence Day.

The sides had fought back-and-forth a majority of the game starting with the opening run in the second inning. TCU loaded the bases with nobody out and took the lead when Andre Pallante walk the first run in to make it 1-0. He promptly struck out the next three Frogs to limited the damage, and UCI (6-3) would help him out in the next half inning.

A pair of walks and a sacrifice bunt put a runner in scoring position with two outs, and Brendan Brooks dropped a single into left field to tie things up, 1-1. Zickefoose would launch a popup up the shoot that the third baseman would drop allowing Jake Palmer to score and put UCI ahead, 2-1.

The Anteater defense would even things out in the fifth inning as Cole Kreuter's toss to first base to potentially end the inning was dropped by Ryan Fitzpatrick tying the game at 2-2 before Pallante would end the inning.

Before he exited in the seventh, the 'Eaters gave him a chance to pick up the victory as Fitzpatrick singled through the hole on the first batter Cal Coughlin saw to make it 3-2 at the time.

UCI managed just three hits on the night, and only two against starter Jared Janczak who struck out six and allowed two earned runs over six-plus innings. Pallante kept up with him also going six innings along with a career high 106 pitches to strike out eight and allow just one earned run on his evening.

UCI and TCU are now tied in the all-time series, 2-2, and the 'Eaters have a chance to erase the heartbreaking loss on Saturday, March 3 with a 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time start in game two of the series.

NOTES: Brendan Brooks now has four RBI this season, all of which have either tied the game or given UCI the lead...Ryan Fitzpatrick extended his on-base streak to 17 games dating back to last season, and his hit streak now stands at eight games...prior to this loss, UCI had won four consecutive series openers...Jake Palmer has now scored in five consecutive games and earned his third multi-walk game of the year...Jordan Bocko has now stranded 3 of 4 runners he's inherited on the season, the team has stranded 9 of 11