HOUSTON — For the first two weeks of the season, the Texas Tech baseball team had been lucky enough that the mistakes it had made hadn’t cost it too much in terms of runs allowed or victories missed.

But No. 7 TCU jumped on every Red Raider miscue Friday and made them pay dearly.

The Horned Frogs touched starter Chad Bettis for five runs in the first three innings and seven over six, then put away an 11-2 victory with four runs against the Tech bullpen.

Bettis tied a career high with nine strikeouts, but also allowed 11 hits and walked a pair in suffering his first loss of the season.

“It just wasn’t my day today,” said Bettis (2-1), who will face the same Horned Frogs on Friday to open a three-game series in Fort Worth. “I felt good, and the zone was a little tight, but that wasn’t the problem. They were seeing everything well, they’re good hitters and were waiting on the fastball. I’ve got to make some adjustments by next weekend.”

TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said Bettis’ reputation might have helped the Horned Frogs’ offense focus in on the junior right-hander. After wasting a one-out triple in the first, the Horned Frogs (7-1) scored twice in the second and three more in the third on four hits, taking the lead for good and never looking back.

“When you’re Chad Bettis guys are going to step into the box ready to hit, and if you’re around the plate it’s actually a more comfortable at-bat, as opposed to a guy who’s all over the plate and that kind of thing,” Schlossnagle said. “I thought he was better as the game got on and as he got tired his ball sank more for him. He’s still a really good pitcher.”

So is TCU junior right-hander Stephen Maxwell, who shook off a slow start to dominate the Red Raiders (7-3) for six innings. He scattered two runs on six hits and two walks with four strikeouts.

Maxwell (3-0), who came into the game with a 0.82 ERA, gave up two runs on three hits and an RBI groundout by Nick Popescu, but nothing the rest of the way. Tech had more than one runner on base in just two of the final eight innings, but never had one in scoring position with fewer than two outs.

“We were hitting the ball pretty good up until about the sixth inning,” said freshman right fielder Barrett Barnes, who had an RBI single in the first and was one of only two Red Raiders with multiple hits. “Eventually, once they started pulling away we kind of lost our drive and our will to play and it seemed like we folded a little bit. We’re a really good offensive team, and to score two in the first and after that get blanked … caught us by surprise.”

Even after Bettis left, Tech was still within striking distance a 7-2, but the bullpen failed to hold the margin. Relievers John Neely and Scott Erzinger each gave up a pair of runs in the innings in which they worked, allowing the Horned Frogs to put the game away.

“I thought Chad had his good stuff and when he made good pitches he struck out a bunch in the first six innings,” Tech head coach Dan Spencer said. “Every time he missed they were on it and did a good job of that. We left some runners on base and hit some balls hard early that they caught. We got to a point in the middle of the game where we had opportunities and just tried to do too much. Then we couldn’t stop the bleeding long enough to give ourselves a chance to get back in the game.”

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