Pinch hitter helps himself, TCU forget weekend with 10th-inning heroics
If he was going to pick a batter to execute in a critical situation Tuesday night, TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle might not have picked Jeremie Fagnan — not after Fagnan’s weekend.
But he might now.
Fagnan, a senior from Calgary, Alberta, hit a 2-2 curveball to the right of second base in the 10th inning to drive in the winning run for TCU in its 4-3 victory against Oklahoma at Lupton Stadium.
“Amazing,” Schlossnagle said and chuckled in spite of himself. “I think over the course of the weekend, we had six strikeouts with a runner at third base and less than two out. And he was two of them.”
Fagnan knew that. But given his chance to pinch-hit with runners at the corners and one out, facing Oklahoma’s Travis Evans in a lefty-lefty matchup, he went to the plate and tried what everybody on the team is trying — relaxing.
“I tried not to let it enter my mind, the weekend,” he said. “I was just trying to stay relaxed and get a good pitch to hit, and fortunately, I got one. It feels good, absolutely.”
Staying relaxed might be the trick. It’s working for leadoff hitter Cody Jones, who homered in the fourth inning for a 2-1 lead and took over the team lead in batting average (.376) by going 2-for-4.
“That’s his secret, so he says,” Fagnan said with a smile. “He’s just trying to be as relaxed as possible, kind of trying to give that message to all of us. Watching him play is really special right now. He’s always getting on base, driving in runs, he’s hitting home runs now. Kid’s doing it all.”
TCU (18-4), ranked No. 4 in the USA Today coaches’ poll, improved to 7-2 in a 12-game homestand. The game was not a conference game, so there was no change in the Horned Frogs’ 4-2 Big 12 record.
And it was another close game, which the Frogs are used to. They improved to 4-3 in one-run games this year and 1-2 in extra innings. So being asked to deliver in the clutch is nothing that surprises anyone at TCU.
“You always know with this club that we’re always going to be in the game near the end,” Fagnan said. “I knew that there could be a point in the game where I could come in and pinch-hit, so I just made sure I was ready for it.”
Exactly, Schlossnagle said with a smile.
“You’ve seen us play enough to know that the recipe for our success is we have to pitch and play defense,” he said. “We’re not a sexy team offensively, and so we have to manufacture runs, pitch and play very, very clean baseball. Because, at least not yet, we’re not going to hit the ball around the ballpark with people.”
Trey Teakell (1-1) won with three innings of relief, pitching out of trouble in the eighth and 10th innings. Tyler Alexander went seven innings, striking out five and walking none. He left with a 3-1 lead.
“That’s as good as he’s pitched all year,” Schlossnagle said. “He was up in the zone early in the game. Once he got the ball down in the strike zone, he looked like his normal self.”
Carlos Mendez, 817-390-7407
This story was originally published March 24, 2015 at 10:49 PM with the headline "Pinch hitter helps himself, TCU forget weekend with 10th-inning heroics."