TCU baseball attempts to regain footing on new soil

TCU lost some momentum when it hit the road Wednesday night. That has been happening lately.

The Horned Frogs are 2-3 in their past five road games and 5-5 in their past 10 away from home. And if they’re going to regain momentum, they’ll have to also do it on the road — and at a park where they’ve never been.

The Frogs are in Morgantown, W.V., for a Big 12 weekend series against West Virginia at its new stadium, Monongalia County Ballpark. It will be TCU’s first visit to the park, which opened this year. The Frogs played at the Mountaineers’ previous home in Charleston two years ago.

“We’re going to have to go up there and play a lot better than we’ve played, at least in pitching and defense, the last four days,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “No question.”

The Frogs, who are coming off a 6-4 loss at Dallas Baptist, didn’t have a good experience the last time they were on the road for a conference series. They lost a three-game series at Kansas State at the start of April.

“And this will be a similar environment,” Schlossnagle said. “Going into a cooler place, going to a turf field where the ball really carries. It’s a place we’ve never been. Just going by what I’ve been told or what I see on television.”

The new stadium holds 2,500 fans and traditional dimensions — 325 feet down the lines, 375 to the alleys and 400 to center field. The Mountaineers are 10-5 on the new field, but only 3-5 in their last eight there.

This is a five-game week for the Mountaineers. They lost a game at Charleston against Marshall on Tuesday and a game at Radford on Wednesday.

TCU had an eight-game winning streak snapped by DBU. The winning streak began after the series loss at Kansas State. But even in sweeping a series against Texas last weekend, Schlossnagle thought the Frogs weren’t crisp. And they committed four errors Wednesday.

“It’s 18- to 22-year-old kids,” Schlossnagle said, when asked why even veteran teams slump. “If I knew what it was, we’d avoid doing it. It happens to every club. We’ve been fielding .980 or better most of the season. Now we’re obviously under that. What’s disappointing is that it’s not errors on really tough plays.

“It’s a rough stretch. Luckily, we’ve won three of the four games.”

This story was originally published April 30, 2015 at 1:57 PM with the headline "TCU baseball attempts to regain footing on new soil."