TCU baseball knocks off Oklahoma State to win Big 12 tourney; Frogs to host regional
TCU baseball entered the Big 12 tournament with questions about whether it’d host a regional in the NCAA Tournament.
The Frogs were reeling, losing six of their final nine games of the regular season. But they responded and made a statement by winning the Big 12 tournament, knocking off Oklahoma State, 10-7, in the championship game on Sunday night.
Before the game had concluded, the NCAA announced TCU as one of 16 sites to host a regional. TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle took it a step further afterward, saying “without question” the program should be one of the eight national seeds when the bracket is revealed Monday morning.
Schlossnagle even found his inner Mark Twain, joking: “The reports of the Frogs’ demise are greatly exaggerated.
“It was great night, a great week. It’s not our ultimate goal, but certainly exciting and I love seeing the team happy and celebrating.”
In just one week, TCU has gone from being a team that was reeling to being one looking like it’s poised to make a deep postseason run. The Frogs won four of five games in the conference tournament, making program history in the process.
TCU shared the Big 12 regular-season title with Texas, and is now the league’s tournament champion. It’s the first time TCU has won both in the same season. The Frogs were regular-season champs in 2015 and 2017 and tournament champs in 2014 and 2016.
“It’s awesome, man,” Schlossnagle said. “Every season has its ups and downs. The way we played the last three weeks of the season was disappointing, embarrassing and certainly not who we are. For these guys to come here, how hard they played, it just represents the character of the team and how gritty they are.”
The star of the game, and the tournament, was TCU outfielder Porter Brown. He was named the tournament’s most outstanding player and closed with an impressive day at the plate.
Brown had five RBIs in Sunday’s victory with a two-run single in the second inning and a three-run double in the fifth.
TCU found itself in an early hole after Oklahoma State scored five runs in the top of the third to take a 5-2 lead. The Frogs committed two errors that inning. But they answered in the bottom of the third with a two-run home run by Phillip Sikes and then scored five runs in the fifth, highlighted by Brown’s double.
“I’ve just gotten hot at the right time,” Brown said. “I got some crucial RBIs in today’s game and helped us win a ballgame.”
This story was originally published May 30, 2021 at 9:12 PM.
