Frogs home from Houston energized by three wins, young bullpen

The first five pitchers in TCU’s 15-inning victory against Texas A&M on Staturday were freshmen.

Coach Jim Schlossnagle knew it, but couldn’t believe it. He turned to his pitching coach, Kirk Saarloos, just to say it out loud.

“I looked at Kirk, I said, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been on a team that’s thrown five true freshman pitchers in one game,’ ” Schlossnagle said.

One look at the box score confirmed it.

The Horned Frogs used freshman starting pitcher Nick Lodolo and freshman relievers Jake Eissler, Haylen Green, Cal Coughlin and Trey Morris in the first nine innings. The four relievers held the game together long enough for the Horned Frogs to tie it with a five-run ninth.

Two sophomores, Sean Wymer and Durbin Feltman, pitched the six extra innings in the 11-10 victory, part of a 3-0 weekend for TCU at the Shriners College Classic at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

“The thing that was awesome was what we learned about our bullpen in that game,” Schlossnagle said.

Specifically, that the Frogs’ freshman arms are swimming, not sinking, as the season enters its fourth week. No. 1 TCU (10-1) meets Dallas Baptist at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Lupton Stadium.

Including Charles King’s four innings of relief on Friday against LSU, six true freshmen pitched in the Shriners games for TCU. Outside of Lodolo’s short start, in which he was hit for four earned runs in getting just two outs, they had a 3.65 ERA with six walks and 16 strikeouts in 13 innings.

For the season, the same six freshmen and redshirt freshman Austin Boyles have a 4.08 ERA with 21 walks and 57 strikeouts in 46  1/3 innings.

“It’s well-documented that we have an experienced team,” Schlossnagle said. “But we’re really young in the bullpen.”

Schlossnagle spent the off-season thinking about how to replace the bullpen innings provided by Brian Trieglaff and Preston Guillory the previous two seasons. He has long known it would require newcomers, in addition to sophomore Sean Wymer (32  2/3 career innings entering the season) and junior Ryan Burnett (32.0 career innings pitched).

Eissler has two victories in long relief. King, in four appearances, has the third-most innings on the team, behind only starters Brian Howard and Jared Janczak.

Wymer pitched five perfect innings to get TCU from the 10th inning to the 14th in the A&M victory, and closer Durbin Feltman pitched the 15th.

Roles may yet change. With starter Mitchell Traver sidelined for two weeks, Eissler, King and Morris have made themselves candidates for a midweek start, if necessary. Schlossnagle said sophomore Dalton Horton, 8-0 last year but with only one appearance this season, will start against Dallas Baptist.

“The guys who pitch the best pitch the most,” Schlossnagle said. “Whether they’re a freshman or a fifth-year senior, we don’t care what your age is. The guys who pitch the best pitch the most. It’s simply that.”

This story was originally published March 6, 2017 at 5:23 PM with the headline "Frogs home from Houston energized by three wins, young bullpen."