TCU loses to California while Texas Tech grabs Big 12’s No. 1 seed

The No. 6 TCU baseball team ended its regular season without a closing sweep and without any help from Kansas.

The Horned Frogs lost at California 8-3 in the finale of a three-game nonconference series.

Making Saturday worse, Texas Tech completed a three-game Big 12 sweep of Kansas in Lubbock to share the Big 12 title with the Frogs and earn the top seed in the conference tournament.

TCU (39-14) won the series against Cal two games to one, having held on Friday night for a 5-4 victory behind home runs by Cam Warner and Austen Wade and the pitching of Brian Howard and Cal Coughlin.

The Red Raiders (42-13) defeated the Jayhawks 9-4 to finish tied at 16-8 in conference with the No. 2 seed Frogs.

With a 2-1 April series win over the Frogs, Texas Tech also clinched the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 Baseball Championship, Wednesday through next Sunday at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City.

California erupted for five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning Saturday to break a 1-1 tie. The Golden Bears pieced together five singles and an error to score five against reliever Charles King.

Mitchell Traver started on the mound for the Frogs and went 4  2/3 innings, allowing one run on five hits.

Warner, who ignited TCU’s five-run sixth inning in Friday night’s victory with a home run, had two hits and two RBIs on Saturday. Zach Humphreys had two hits and Wade, whose home run Friday padded TCU’s lead, had a hit, two walks and two runs scored.

This story was originally published May 20, 2017 at 6:07 PM with the headline "TCU loses to California while Texas Tech grabs Big 12’s No. 1 seed."