Horned Frogs don’t lose much in RPI after rough weekend at OU

TCU came home from a rough weekend in Norman, Okla., without much good news.

Two walk-off swings led to a series loss.

The Horned Frogs no longer control their fate in the Big 12 championship race.

And first baseman Luken Baker is likely out until the start of the NCAA regional round, at a minimum, after suffering muscle and ligament injuries in his left arm from a collision with a baserunner when he reached back for a throw in the eighth inning of the series opener.

But from an NCAA postseason perspective, the Frogs are still fine.

Their RPI dipped only one spot to No. 6 despite the series loss at Oklahoma, which included a game-winning home run in the ninth inning off Durbin Feltman on Saturday, his third blown save in five chances, and a game-winning single in the ninth inning off Sean Wymer on Sunday.

The strong RPI keeps the Frogs (36-13) in the picture for a national seed, which means homefield advantage in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament.

“Yeah, right now we’re in first place in the No. 1 RPI league in the country and we have a top-eight RPI. But we know we’re not the best version of TCU right now,” coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “That’s what we have to get to in order to advance in any kind of tournament play. We have to keep working toward that.”

In the national rankings, TCU went from No. 5 to No. 6 in Baseball America, from No. 6 to No. 7 in D1Baseball.com and from No. 6 to No. 8 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

The walk-off losses at Oklahoma were the fourth and fifth of the season for the Frogs, who are back in Fort Worth on Tuesday for their final home game of the regular season, against UT Arlington, before a three-game series at Cal starting Thursday.

TCU finished with a 16-8 record in the Big 12 and can claim the outright league title and No. 1 seed in the postseason tournament at Oklahoma City if Texas Tech loses one game in its home series this weekend at Kansas.

If Texas Tech sweeps, the teams will share the title, but the Red Raiders would take the top seed for the league tournament because of a head-to-head series win.

Five of TCU’s eight conference losses were by one run, and a sixth was by two runs.

“As I tell the guys all year long, everything leading up to a regional is just prologue,” Schlossnagle said. “You have to play well enough in the prologue to even be playing in June. But once you get to June, all bets are off. I think outside of Oregon State and Louisville, everybody has about the same record. Everybody has strength and weaknesses. Just like last year, it’ll come down to, ‘Are we able to play our best?’ ”

This story was originally published May 15, 2017 at 6:37 PM with the headline "Horned Frogs don’t lose much in RPI after rough weekend at OU."