Repeat performance: TCU’s Skoug, Baker homer back-to-back again

Look out when the eighth inning arrives and Evan Skoug and Luken Baker are due up for TCU.

They’ve homered back-to-back in that situation in back-to-back games at the Big 12 tournament.

Skoug crushed a ball to right field, and Baker launched another missile to left — the same spots at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark as the night before — to put the exclamation points on a 13-5 victory for the Horned Frogs against Oklahoma State on Thursday in a winner’s bracket game.

Skoug flung the bat away in the direction of the TCU dugout. Baker flipped his bat into a twirl behind him.

They were entitled — there was no doubt those balls were gone.

“I just got caught up in the moment, honestly,” said Skoug, who was 0-for-4 before that, including a liner to center field in the third inning that was caught to prevent a run. “It had been a long day at the plate for myself. So when I hit the ball, I knew it was gone. I meant no disrespect to Oklahoma State or the pitcher on the mound. I just got so fired up.”

TCU (40-14) advanced to a Saturday game against Oklahoma State or Texas, which where scheduled to meet Friday night in an elimination game. TCU would have to lose twice Saturday not to reach Sunday’s championship game.

Skoug’s homer, his ninth, put TCU ahead 12-5.

Baker followed with his sixth four pitches later for a 13-5 lead. The liner over the LED scoreboard in left disappeared into the night, perhaps destined for the parking garage behind the stadium, the final marker in a nine-run eighth inning that TCU entered trailing 5-4.

“I guess we just got on a little hot streak,” Skoug said. “We both swung at really good pitches, and we both put really good swings on the ball.”

Both players homered consecutively in the eighth inning of an opening-round victory against Baylor on Wednesday. Baker is 8-for-10 with a double, two home runs and four runs batted in for the tournament.

TCU trailed 4-0 in the first inning against Big 12 pitcher of the year Thomas Hatch, who had shut them out in a complete game in April at Oklahoma State. But the Frogs tied the game against him with a four-run fourth behind five consecutive two-out hits. Dane Steinhagen’s two-run triple, Connor Wanhanen’s RBI double and Austen Wade’s RBI single capped the string.

OSU led again on Garrett Benge’s two-out double in the seventh, but TCU followed with its big inning.

A wild pitch and a hit batsman with the bases loaded scored the tying and go-ahead runs with one out. Wade singled for a 7-5 lead, Mason Hesse doubled down the right field line to make it 9-5, and on the first pitch against reliever Alex Hackerott, Skoug put the game out of reach.

Just like the night before.

And then Baker homered.

Just like the night before.

This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 1:37 AM with the headline "Repeat performance: TCU’s Skoug, Baker homer back-to-back again."