Behind renewed confidence, TCU pitcher looks to continue Frogs’ fast start in baseball
The season is young but TCU baseball couldn’t ask much more from its rotation. The starters laid the foundation for TCU’s three-game sweep over Nebraska last weekend, including Brett Walker allowing two runs over seven innings in a 5-3 victory in the series finale on Sunday.
TCU (6-1) is riding a five-game winning streak going into its midweek game against UT Arlington on Tuesday at Lupton Stadium. Sophomore right-hander Cam Brown will look to keep the Frogs’ rotation rolling early on.
Brown got off to a promising start by throwing five scoreless innings with seven strikeouts in TCU’s 11-1 victory over Stephen F. Austin last week.
It was Brown’s first start since April 13 last season when he recorded one out against Tarleton State.
“That was the first time I’ve thrown against another team in a long time. Definitely pretty amped up going into the game,” Brown said.
Brown settled into a rhythm, though, retiring nine consecutive batters at one point, including striking out the side in the third.
It’s just one start but it’s a promising sign for Brown and TCU. This is a player who joined the program as a highly touted pitcher coming out of Flower Mound. He was a consensus top-70 prospect going into the 2020 MLB Draft but opted to pursue the college route.
Brown saw action in only three games last season for the Frogs, posting a 1.93 ERA in 9 1/3 innings pitched. That was a much more limited role than many thought Brown would have when he joined the program.
But Brown put in the work this offseason to become a bigger part of the team.
“Just kind of understanding what I’m doing, in more of the mental side of the game,” Brown said. “I think that’s where I was really lacking last year. I think it was just believing in myself and believing in the program that we have. Just fully acclimating myself to the culture.
“Deciding, ‘Hey, I want to be a big part of this team. I want to help our team have success.’ The only way I’m going to be able to do that is if I believe in myself as much as my team believes in me.”
It’s easy to see why TCU believes in Brown. He went 11-1 with a 1.90 ERA and 118 strikeouts in 84 innings his senior year at Flower Mound. MLB teams were interested in drafting Brown, too, but he slid too far in the 2020 draft that it became clear he would eventually honor his commitment to TCU.
Nobody was happier about how everything unfolded than TCU coach Kirk Saarloos, who recruited Brown to the school when he served as the pitching coach under Jim Schlossnagle.
And Saarloos liked what he saw from Brown in his first start of 2022.
“Cam’s big thing is controlling the strike zone,” Saarloos said following the SFA victory. “He’s got good enough stuff where he might scatter a couple of walks. He had two walks where he can kind of get away with it more than most other guys just because of his pure stuff.
“I thought he handled himself extremely well in terms of not having a start for quite a while now and for him to come out and dominate the strike zone and give us a chance.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
