TCU baseball hopes it’s back on winning track as it travels to No. 7 Texas
TCU baseball coach Kirk Saarloos simply called it a bad week. The Horned Frogs went 1-4 last week, dropping back-to-back midweek games to Abilene Christian and UTSA and then two of three to West Virginia over the weekend.
The best way to get over a losing skid? By winning again.
TCU did just that in a 10-2 victory at UT Arlington on Tuesday night at Clay Gould Ballpark. Now the Frogs want to carry that momentum into a pivotal three-game series at No. 7 Texas this weekend.
“I just asked them to play with some energy, play with some attitude,” Saarloos said after Tuesday’s victory. “A lot of times when you’re not swinging it well, you’re not playing with a bunch of energy. … Ultimately we did a good enough job. A win is a win. Control what we can control and that’s going to play with some attitude, play with some energy and pitch the snot out of it.”
Tuesday marked a step in the right direction on that front.
Starter Caedmon Parker allowed two runs over three innings and then TCU had three relievers combine for six scoreless innings. Garrett Wright closed it out with three strikeouts in a scoreless ninth.
Offensively, TCU scored 10 runs on just six hits, taking advantage of four errors and eight walks by UTA.
“You’re going to have to manufacture runs when you’re not swinging it,” Saarloos said. “Play a little bit of a small game. They had four errors, but I think ultimately we swung the bats better on Sunday and hit some balls hard that didn’t show for it. A little bit of an improvement today, but still we’re going to have to gut it out and grit it out, and we’re going to have to pitch really good.”
Pitching will be the key to success this weekend in Austin. The Longhorns have the Big 12’s best offense from a batting average standpoint at .325. They rank second in runs scored with 234 and second in home runs with 45.
TCU is expected to roll out a weekend rotation of right-hander Riley Cornelio on Friday, right-hander Marcelo Perez on Saturday and right-hander Brett Walker on Sunday.
Injury updates
Saarloos provided a couple of injury updates following Tuesday’s game.
Junior left-hander Austin Krob (shoulder) is making progress but won’t be able to throw in a simulated game until early next week if all goes well. Krob may be an option coming out of the bullpen at some point in the Texas Tech series (April 14-16). He will return in a relief role and then possibly be stretched back out as a starting option from there, Saarloos said.
Catcher Michael Petrie (arm) is making progress, too, but is likely at least three weeks away from returning to game action. Saarloos put the Florida State series (April 29-May 1) as the target date for Petrie’s return.
Umpire incident
Saarloos didn’t have much to say a few days after his heated exchange with umpire Mark Winters on Sunday. Neither did the Big 12.
The conference does not publicly acknowledge sportsmanship reviews unless it’s determined to publicly announce sanctions resulting in a violation of the policy.
Regardless, it will be interesting to see if Winters is working a Big 12 series this weekend.
