TCU baseball clinches a share of Big 12 regular-season title, but the celebration waits
TCU baseball has won another Big 12 title.
The Horned Frogs clinched at least a share of the conference’s regular-season championship with an 8-6 victory at Kansas State on Friday night in Manhattan. It’s the program’s third regular-season championship since joining the Big 12 in 2012.
The team, though, wasn’t celebrating afterward. Instead, they’re focused on winning an outright title with a victory over K-State in the team’s regular-season finale on Saturday.
“I didn’t hear one person talk about it,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “I haven’t met with them, but there was no celebration. I’ve received some text messages, but guys understand what’s at stake and understand that we have to continue to play good baseball.
“It is on some level a championship, so I’ll take it but I’m not good at sharing. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.”
TCU (36-15, 17-6 Big 12) has a one-game lead on Texas (39-13, 16-7 Big 12) going into the regular-season finale. TCU can win the title outright and clinch the top seed for next week’s conference tournament with a victory over K-State.
However, if TCU loses and Texas wins, UT would be the top seed for the Big 12 tournament. Texas won the regular-season series against TCU, 2-1, earlier this month. Texas is hosting West Virginia for the final game of its three-game series on Saturday.
The Frogs won Big 12 regular-season titles in 2015 and 2017. The 2015 title was an outright championship, while the 2017 title was shared with Texas Tech. The Frogs advanced to the College World Series both of those seasons.
TCU entered Friday’s game reeling, losing five of its last seven including the opener to K-State, 4-2, on Thursday night.
But the Frogs responded Friday.
TCU jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second inning, highlighted by an RBI double by shortstop Tommy Sacco. The Frogs made it 5-0 in the fifth on a RBI single by Conner Shepherd.
K-State pulled to within 5-2 in the bottom of the fifth, but TCU made it an 8-2 game on a three-run home run by Porter Brown in the sixth. It was Brown’s second homer of the season.
The Wildcats scored a single run in the bottom of the sixth and then made it interesting by plating three runs in the seventh to pull within 8-6.
The Frogs prevailed, courtesy of a strong relief outing by left-hander Haylen Green. The senior retired the final five batters to secure the win, and with it a share of the Big 12 title.
Green entered with two on and one out in the eighth, but ended that threat by getting a fielder’s choice groundout and strikeout. He then worked a perfect ninth inning.
TCU starter Austin Krob allowed two runs on five hits with four walks and six strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings.
“I thought we played well, but there were some crazy things that happened in the game,” Schlossnagle said. “There were some crazy hops on the turf, but I thought we competed well.”
On the down side, TCU first baseman Gene Wood left with an injury. Wood had just returned from a shoulder injury. Schlossnagle is hopeful that Wood will be able to return soon.
This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 9:30 PM.
