TCU baseball focuses on mid-week pitching, UTA after opening sweep

TCU right-hander Mitchell Traver is scheduled to make his first career start Tuesday when the Horned Frogs host UT Arlington at Lupton Stadium. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. but could be moved to Wednesday depending on the weather.

TCU (3-0) swept Southern Illinois over the weekend, while the Mavericks (1-2) dropped two of three at the Stephen F. Austin tournament.

Traver, a 6-foot-7 redshirt sophomore, pitched his first full collegiate inning in Friday’s 5-0 win, relieving Preston Morrison for two scoreless frames.

After recovering from multiple injuries — including Tommy John surgery —Traver debuted against Baylor in the Big 12 tournament last May, throwing one-third of an inning.

He progressed enough in the off-season to get in the mix as a starter and will get a chance to do that in TCU’s mid-week games. Brian Howard, another tall righty at 6-foot-9, will also see work during the week. Howard relieved starter Tyler Alexander for two innings Saturday.

“That’s the plan right now, to have [Traver] pitch on the Tuesday games, and with Howard right there on his heels, and kind of piggyback those guys together and give them a chance to throw,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said Sunday.

Based off of one weekend, Traver could be in line for plenty of run support.

The Frogs outscored SIU 32-4 in three games, and tallied 39 hits. The lower-seamed, more aerodynamic baseball — approved by the NCAA before the season — helped but so did TCU’s new additions. Nolan Brown (transfer), Elliott Barzilli (transfer), Dane Steinhagen (transfer), Connor Wanhanen (freshman), Evan Skoug (freshman) and Zack Plunkett (freshman) combined for 16 RBIs on the weekend.

Veterans Cody Jones and Keaton Jones both collected six hits. TCU split two games with the Mavericks last year, losing 10-2 at home and 12-6 in Arlington.

This story was originally published February 16, 2015 at 1:34 PM with the headline "TCU baseball focuses on mid-week pitching, UTA after opening sweep."