College Baseball Notebook: No break in sight for rising TCU
By ERIC OLSON
AP Sports Writer
Big 12 preseason favorite TCU had the best opening weekend in college baseball, knocking off two top-10 opponents in a multi-team event at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
There’s no relief in sight for a Horned Frogs team playing one of the most ambitious nonconference schedules in the country.
Florida State, among the game’s biggest brands and coming off a three-game sweep of James Madison under first-year coach Link Jarrett, visits Fort Worth this weekend. Next it’s Dallas Baptist, Michigan and nationally ranked Louisville in a multi-team event in Houston. Then 2022 NCAA Tournament qualifier San Diego visits for three games.
“Every once in a while you kind of look back and go, ‘OK, where is the little take-a-breath weekend?” TCU coach Kirk Saarloos said Monday. “It’s good. You’ll find out a lot about yourself… Sometimes you can play a lot of quote-unquote cupcakes and feel great about yourself and then get punched in the face when you play your conference.”
TCU opened with wins of 11-4 over Vanderbilt and 18-6 over Arkansas, and the Horned Frogs start this week ranked as high as No. 8 in the polls. All but one run against Vandy were scored with two outs, and the Horned Frogs collected 19 hits against Arkansas.
Another promising sign was the work of freshman relievers Kole Klecker, Ben Abeldt and Justin Hackett against Arkansas. They combined for 10 strikeouts and allowed four hits and two runs in 7 1/3 innings.
The down side of the weekend was a 9-8, 10-inning loss to Missouri. The Horned Frogs committed five errors, their most in 142 games.
“We kind of gave one away yesterday,” Saarloos said, “but overall it was a solid weekend. We learned a lot, especially in the loss. The margin for error in college baseball is super thin, and now they understand why we run practice the way we do. Those little things are important to win a game.”
IN THE POLLS
LSU (3-0) took care of business in a sweep of Western Michigan and remains the consensus No. 1 team.
D1Baseball.com ranks Stanford (2-1) second and Tennessee (1-2) third. Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball newspaper have Florida (3-0) at No. 2 and Stanford (2-1) at No. 3.
REBELS ROLL
Defending national champion Mississippi outscored Delaware 35-6 in a three-game sweep, with the last two games ending on the 10-run mercy rule.
Jacob Gonzalez hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high seven runs in Sunday’s 14-4 win. Peyton Chatagnier was 5 for 8 with two homers in the series, and Ole Miss pitchers struck out 41.
CARDINAL COMEBACK
Stanford pulled off one of the best comebacks of the weekend Sunday. The Cardinal went into the ninth inning down five runs at Cal State Fullerton and outscored the Titans 15-2 the rest of the way for a 21-13 win in 10 innings.
Braden Montgomery hit a three-run double in the ninth to tie it and he pitched the last two innings for the win.
CAL BAPTIST MILESTONE
Cal Baptist opened its fifth season in Division I with the program’s first series win over a Power Five opponent. Josiah Chavez’s three-run, tie-breaking homer in the eighth inning Sunday lifted the Lancers to a 6-3 win over 2022 national runner-up Oklahoma.
EASY AS 1-2-3
UCLA outscored Omaha 47-2 over three games, finishing the sweep in impressive fashion. Cody Delvecchio struck out the side in the seventh inning, Charles Harrison did the same in the eighth and Luke Jewett ended the game with a nine-pitch ninth.
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