TCU baseball shows off its pitching depth in sweeping Cal, improves to 10-1
The TCU baseball team couldn’t have scripted a better start to the season.
The Horned Frogs completed a three-game sweep of Cal on Sunday afternoon at Lupton Stadium, rolling to a 6-1 victory. TCU is now 8-0 at home this season.
Left-hander Russell Smith was terrific, allowing one unearned run with a career-high eight strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings. Relievers Marcelo Perez and Harrison Beethe closed it out with 2 2/3 scoreless innings.
For the series, the Frogs outscored the Bears 14-5. They got standout pitching throughout.
Friday starter Johnny Ray allowed four runs (three earned) over five innings, but the bullpen closed with four scoreless innings to make the come-from-behind victory possible.
Then right-hander Charles King turned in a gem with seven scoreless innings on Saturday before Smith and company went to work on Sunday.
“I’m super proud of them,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “It was a full team effort. We played really good defense, missed a couple plays today, but I think we showed the depth of our pitching staff.”
TCU has now swept two teams from Power Five conferences by opening with a sweep of the SEC’s Kentucky and now the Pac-12’s Cal. TCU also took two of three from Minnesota of the Big Ten.
TCU is off to a 10-1 start, its best start of the Schlossnagle era since going 11-1 to open the 2017 season.
On Sunday, Smith said he attacked hitters with a fastball down and then worked in his changeup as the game went on.
“It seemed they weren’t picking up the changeup,” said Smith, who opened the game by retiring the first 12 batters he faced.
Offensively, TCU got timely hits throughout the weekend.
Conner Shepherd delivered a solo home run in the eighth inning for the game-deciding run on Friday. Tommy Sacco had a two-out, two-run single in the second inning and later scored on a two-out single by Sam Thompson in the fifth on Saturday. On Sunday, four players drove in runs, including two by Phillip Sikes to extend the lead in the seventh inning.
TCU returns to action against UT Arlington on Tuesday night. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. at Lupton Stadium.
This story was originally published March 1, 2020 at 5:18 PM.
