TCU baseball stumbles into May, hoping history can repeat

Sunday was a day to forget for TCU.

First, the Horned Frogs lost the resumption of a suspended game from Saturday. Then, the worst pitching performance of the Jim Schlossnagle era — six pitchers walking six batters, hitting two, throwing three wild pitches, giving up four home runs, 20 hits and 21 earned runs in seven innings — resulted in a 21-3 thumping and a series loss at Texas Tech.

It left the Frogs with a 1-3 week and a 4-6 mark in their last 10 games, their worst stretch of the season.

But maybe they remember — they were in almost the same position a year ago.

In fact, they’re in better position.

A year ago, a series loss to Texas Tech left TCU at 30-12 and 2  1/2 games out of first place in the Big 12.

This year, the series loss to Texas Tech left TCU at 31-11 and a game in first place.

“It’s the No. 1 RPI league in the country,” Schlossnagle said after a series victory against Baylor last week, assessing the state of the Big 12, where the top six teams are separated by only three games. “It’s going to be like this every weekend the rest of the year.”

As the calendar turned to May last year, the Frogs hit a higher gear. They won 19 of their next 23 games, not losing again at home, en route to a spot in the College World Series semifinals.

This year, May arrives with four home games for TCU, starting Tuesday with the resumption of a suspended game from March 21 at Abilene Christian.

The action will start at 6:30 p.m. with TCU leading 2-0 with two outs and a runner on third in the top of the fifth inning, batting as the visitor. The lead was built on Evan Skoug’s sacrifice fly in the first inning and Elliott Barzilli’s home run in the third inning. Dalton Horton started and pitched 2.2 innings, relieved by Trey Morris.

The game originally scheduled for Tuesday between the teams will not be played.

The Frogs, 19-4 at Lupton Stadium this year, resume Big 12 play on Friday with the start of a three-game series against Texas, which sits 2  1/2 games back.

This story was originally published May 1, 2017 at 1:16 PM with the headline "TCU baseball stumbles into May, hoping history can repeat."