Box Score FORT WORTH, Texas – The West Virginia University baseball team fell to No. 10 TCU, 5-4, on Saturday afternoon at Lupton Stadium.
 
The Mountaineers (15-10, 1-1 Big 12) led, 4-0, early, before the Horned Frogs tallied the final five runs of the day in the middle game of a three-game, conference series. Sophomore left-handed pitcher Ben Hampton took the loss, dropping his record to 4-2 on the year, while TCU's Marcelo Perez earned the win out of the bullpen.
 
"We just have to hit," WVU coach Randy Mazey said. "We can't expect to get three or four hits in a game and expect to win. We didn't have any RBI (on Friday), and we only had four hits today, so we have to start collecting more of those."
 
The Mountaineers got off to a quick start with three runs in the top of the first inning. After TCU (19-8, 6-2 Big 12) walked the bases loaded, redshirt senior catcher Vince Ippoliti hit a bases-clearing double down the right-field line to make it 3-0.
 
Of note, West Virginia chased TCU's starting pitcher out of the game after just seven batters.
 
TCU responded in the bottom half of the frame by also loading the bases. However, Hampton was able to get three straight fly outs to get out of the jam unharmed.
 
In the second, West Virginia added its fourth run of the day on a fielder's choice to extend its lead to 4-0. But the Frogs responded by getting on the scoreboard in the home half on a sacrifice fly.
 
TCU's deficit was cut to two at 4-2 in the bottom of the third, as the hosts tallied another run. It stayed that way until the sixth when a three-run homer gave the Horned Frogs their first lead of the day.
 
Hampton retired eight of nine hitters at one point from the end of the third to the fifth inning. In all, he allowed five runs (four earned) on seven hits in 6.0 innings with seven strikeouts and three walks on 118 pitches.
 
"I thought Ben pitched great; he kept them off-balanced," Mazey said of Hampton. "Unfortunately, he just made one mistake. We had a few errors early in the game that got his pitch count up higher than normal, but he was cruising along pretty well."
 
From there, sophomore right-hander Carlson Reed threw a pair of zeros on the board to keep West Virginia within a run. The Marietta, Georgia, native fanned four in 2.0 innings of work, allowing two hits.
 
In the ninth, the Mountaineers got the tying run into scoring position after sophomore infielder Nathan Blasick hit a pinch-hit double to left center. However, WVU stranded him there as the series evened at one game apiece.
 
Up next, the two teams meet in the rubber match of this weekend's series on Sunday in Fort Worth. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. ET.
 
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.