After another ‘wake-up call,’ TCU baseball heads to K-State with Big 12 title at stake
Jim Schlossnagle felt TCU baseball received its wake-up call a couple weeks ago.
The Horned Frogs had a chance to clinch a Big 12 title on their home field, but Texas delayed any celebration with a dominant 9-3 victory on May 9 at Lupton Stadium. Afterward, Schlossnagle described it as an “embarrassing” game.
Unfortunately for the Frogs, the embarrassment carried into last weekend against the University of Louisiana Monroe. TCU dropped two of three to ULM and has now lost four of its last six games.
“The mood of the team? Obviously at the beginning of the week they were embarrassed, disappointed, frustrated. Whatever term you want to use,” Schlossnagle said. “I didn’t think we needed a wake-up call because I thought our wake-up call was against Texas. We’ve already proven that we can beat any team we play and we’ve proven that we can lose to any team that we play.”
The good news is TCU is still in the driver’s seat for the outright Big 12 regular-season title and one-seed in next week’s conference tournament. The Frogs have a one-game lead on the Longhorns with three to play.
TCU (35-14, 16-5 Big 12) opens a three-game series at Kansas State on Thursday night. Texas (38-12, 15-6 Big 12) hosts West Virginia. The Frogs won the Big 12 regular-season title in 2015 and 2017, and are looking for their third since joining the Big 12 in 2012.
As far as Schlossnagle is concerned, this is when the season truly starts for the Frogs. Everything they want is in front of them.
“Each team has a chance to write its own story,” Schlossnagle said. “Just like in life, you can use something that’s a negative and turn it into a positive or you can keep pouting about it. We’re not going to make any excuses for what happened. ULM kicked our rear end for all but the last five innings of the series. They deserved to win the games. Now it’s our turn to respond to that.”
K-State (29-20, 8-13 Big 12) has lost four of its last six, but did win a series against Texas Tech earlier this season. The Wildcats’ best player is sophomore left-hander Jordan Wicks, a possible first-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft who is scheduled to start Thursday.
Wicks hasn’t had the type of season most expected, going 5-3 with a 3.42 ERA, but is capable of shutting down an offense.
“We go into every single game anticipating that the pitcher we’re facing is going to be at his best,” Schlossnagle said.
TCU’s pitching staff, meanwhile, remains a work in progress. Schlossnagle said left-handers Russell Smith and Austin Krob will remain the starters for the first two games but right-hander Johnny Ray could return to the rotation for the series finale Saturday.
Ray had been pulled out of the rotation for the ULM series.
“I find it really hard to believe that we are going to accomplish what we want to accomplish without Johnny Ray being a part of it,” Schlossnagle said. “He had a really good bullpen session Tuesday. We’ve had some great conversations this week. Frankly, I’m excited to see Johnny Ray pitch again regardless of what the role is.
“Basically he’s a representation of what I’m hoping for out of our team. We get on a bus today with a clear, positive, determined mind and take confidence from the things we’ve done well.”
Briefly
▪ On the injury front, Schlossnagle sounded optimistic about the availability of outfielders Elijah Nunez and Hunter Wolfe and first baseman Gene Wood. Nunez is 100%, although may not immediately return to the starting lineup. Wolfe is getting close to 100%. And Wood is cleared to hit, but may not be available to field.
▪ TCU baseball had three straight midweek games canceled to close the season. Schlossnagle said the team had to make a decision on this week’s game vs. Texas State by 3 p.m. Monday. At the time, the forecast called for between 80% and 100% thunderstorms between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. “We had to make a decision Monday afternoon because they were either going to fly out of DFW or Austin for their series against Coastal Carolina this weekend,” Schlossnagle said. “Of course Tuesday ended up being a gorgeous day. We practiced outside.”
