TCU still fueled by emotion, response following star’s injury

The shock of losing Luken Baker so suddenly has faded, but the memories remain clear for TCU.

“I’m truly amazed that we won that Friday night,” coach Jim Schlossnagle said, thinking back to May 12 in Norman, Okla., when the sophomore hitter left the game after hurting his left arm in a collision with a baserunner.

The play, as Baker reached back into the base path for a throw, could have ended the eighth inning with TCU leading. Instead, it tied the game and stunned the Horned Frogs.

“The emotion of that, when it happened, how it happened, to whom it happened, and right in front of our dugout — it was a horrible sound to hear him yelling in that kind of pain,” Schlossnagle said last week, before the Frogs closed the regular season with a series win at Cal. “It was an emotional kick to the heart big-time. The bus ride from the ballpark to the hotel was incredibly quiet. It felt like we lost the game.”

The Frogs hadn’t. In fact, they scored three runs in the next half-inning that night, minutes after seeing Baker taken out of the stadium, to win the game and clinch a share of the Big 12 regular-season championship.

But they couldn’t forget the scene.

“He’s probably my closest friend on the team. To see him go down like that and to see his face and to see it happen, it was excruciating for me,” catcher Evan Skoug said. “I got right down and prayed for him. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.”

Much later, after Baker returned from the hospital past midnight, the team learned the seriousness of the injury. Their cleanup hitter had suffered ligament and muscle injuries and a hairline fracture.

“I’ve seen some bad stuff happen on baseball fields,” senior pitcher Mitchell Traver said. “I’ve never seen that. As soon as I saw the look on Luken’s face and what he was saying … it made my heart hurt. It could have been worse, believe it or not.”

The Frogs are hopeful Baker can come back in time for some action in the NCAA postseason, which begins June 2.

But they’ve at least gotten some games under their belt without him while keeping afloat in their bid for a national seed. Now the Frogs (39-14) enter the Big 12 tournament this week in Oklahoma City aiming to repeat as champions and perhaps improve their stock. The Frogs open the double-elimination tournament at 4 p.m. Wednesday against Kansas.

“We’re really sad and devastated for his injury. You hate to see something like that happen to a guy with that bright a future,” third baseman Elliott Barzilli said. “But with the team, we just know it’s something we call adversity. It happens. We’ve just got to bounce back and respond our way.”

The Frogs, a projected No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament, are 3-3 without Baker. The offense has continued to churn along at 5.7 runs per game in that time thanks to seven home runs, including four by Skoug. New cleanup hitter Cam Warner homered last weekend at Cal.

“The morale and the attitude in the clubhouse is no different than what it was when Luken was in the lineup,” Skoug said. “I think that speaks to how mentally tough this team is. We’ve been banged up really bad. … It’s a little different because it is Luken, a one-of-a-kind baseball player — once-in-a-generation, in my opinion — but everyone’s buying into the process. Everyone’s responding well.”

As is Baker, Skoug reports.

“He’s had an amazing outlook on it, a lot better than I can say I’d handle it,” Skoug said. “It’s an inspiration to our team. The only thing I could think during that game is, ‘How is he? How’s he going to be? What’s going on?’ ”

Skoug answered his own questions.

“He’s going to be just fine. He’s going to be the same Luken Baker that he always is.”

This story was originally published May 22, 2017 at 12:11 PM with the headline "TCU still fueled by emotion, response following star’s injury."