TCU baseball, bogged down by slow starts again, falls from No. 1

A weekend in California cost TCU baseball its No. 1 ranking.

The Horned Frogs fell from the top spot in the USA Today coaches, Baseball America and D1Baseball.com polls released Monday following a series loss at UC-Irvine, which finished a 2-2 week.

TCU is ranked No. 3 by Baseball America and D1Baseball.com and No. 4 in the USA Today list.

The Frogs (12-3) play one more game in California, Tuesday at Long Beach State, before returning home to start the Big 12 schedule with a three-game series against Kansas at Lupton Stadium.

Coach Jim Schlossnagle’s team will no doubt be looking for faster starts.

The Frogs have trailed in the first inning in nine of their 15 games and at some point in 12 of the 15. Against UC-Irvine, an 8-0 deficit in the opener and a 4-0 deficit in the second game contributed to the series loss.

TCU has allowed 29 runs in the first inning, more than a third of its 79 total.

Sophomore left-hander Dalton Horton (0-0, 9.00) will make his second start of the season Tuesday, coming off a four-inning outing against Rice last week in which he struck out eight.

This story was originally published March 13, 2017 at 5:16 PM with the headline "TCU baseball, bogged down by slow starts again, falls from No. 1."