Three takeaways from TCU’s baseball game against UCLA as bats struggle
TCU head baseball coach Kirk Saarloos lamented his team’s performance following their first two games of the season.
The downward trend continued in No. 7 TCU’s 5-1 loss to No. 1 UCLA on Saturday in Los Angeles.
The loss to the Bruins is the fourth straight for the Horned Frogs who have lost by a margin of 25 runs over that time with their only close game being an 11-8 loss to UT Arlington at Globe Life Field.
Here are three takeaways from the Horned Frogs’ loss to UCLA on Saturday.
Davis battles through four innings
Redshift freshman Lance Davis was making his second start with the Horned frogs and showed improvement from his first start versus Arkansas.
Davis allowed baserunners in every inning but limited the damage, holding the Bruins batters to 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position.
However, the Bruins still were able to score in three of Davis’ four innings. The big output was a two-run homer by UCLA’s Will Gasparino as the Bruins opened up a 4-1 lead over the Horned Frogs.
Davis gave up four runs off six hits in four innings of work with five strikeouts.
Bats struggle again
TCU had only scored more than two runs in one of it’s past three games. Their problems continued on Saturday with the team not putting a runner in scoring position until the fifth inning.
And when the Horned Frogs got their chance, a Ben Griffin fly out followed by a Cole Cramer out ended the inning. TCU hit 1 for 11 with runners on base and was unable to put together multiple quality at-bats.
TCU’s lone run came off a solo home run by Sawyer Strosnider, who had two of TCU’s first four hits.
For the second straight game, a Bruins starting pitcher stymied the Horned Frogs: UCLA’s Michael Barnett gave up one run off three hits in five innings of work with four strikeouts.
Bullpen steps up
TCU’s bullpen was a bright sport in Saturday’s game, allowing only one run in relief of Davis.
The first pitcher out of the pen was Nate Stern, who gave up one run off two hits in 2.1 innings with three strikeouts.
Walter Quinn came on next with runners on first and second and struck out the next two batters to retire the side and keep the Bruins from getting on the scoreboard. Quinn did not give up a hit or a run and struck out three in 1.2 innings of work.
TCU will end its series with UCLA at 3 p.m. on Sunday at Jackie Robinson Stadium as the Horned Frogs try and avoid the sweep.
