For TCU early, it's all about the power, my dear Watson

Don't stand too close to Josh Watson right now. The TCU outfielder is liable to give you third-degree burns.

Watson did it again Tuesday night in the Horned Frogs' 7-2 win over the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley at Lupton Stadium.

In fact, he did it twice.

The switch-hitter from Arlington Martin homered to straight away center in the first inning, a three-run blast that gave the Frogs the lead for good, from the right side of the plate. In the fourth, he followed Luken Baker's two-run homer down the left-field line with a solo homer down the right-field line from the left side of the plate.

It was career win No. 700 for TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle. Schlossnagle, 47, has won 623 games since coming TCU from UNLV before the 2004 season.

"It says more about the program than it does about me," Schlossnagle said. "I've been at a place that has been super committed to college baseball. Obviously, some awesome athletic directors, awesome players. I just want to get to 701 as quick as possible."

Watson has four homers in 11 games this season. He had one homer in 68 games a year ago, a disappointing season after hitting 11 homers, 12 doubles and five triples as a true freshman in '16.

Watson leads TCU with 14 RBIs and .462 batting average. He's slugging over. 900. He didn't have 14 RBIs a year ago until Game No. 25.

"I'm just sticking to my game plan, my approach at the plate. Waiting for pitches in my zone and putting good swings on them," said Watson, who has no trouble remaining level-headed through the his hot start. "The game finds a way of doing that to people. It's clean slate every single day, act like yesterday didn’t happen and just be where your feet are."

Watson's hot bat in the clean-up spot has helped Baker see better pitches as the No. 3 hitter. That happend in the fourth when TCU had a runner on third and two outs. They tried to get Baker and he made them pay.

"They had to pitch to him and he hit a home run. That’s already happened three or four times this year," Schlossnagle said. "They’re trying to make pitches because of who’s on deck."

Baker had 19 homers in his first two seasons before an injury sidelined him in May last year. Watson knows what kind of force Baker is hitting in front of him.

"So with him being in front of me he probably sees a little bit better pitches to hit and that’s exactly what we want," Watson said. "because that guy hits the ball as hard as anyone I’ve ever seen so when he gets good pitches to hit that’s exciting for all of us."

This story was originally published March 6, 2018 at 10:12 PM with the headline "For TCU early, it's all about the power, my dear Watson."