TCU baseball gets much-needed spark in series-opening victory over Texas Tech
Luke Savage had the word “chip” showing through the undershirt of his jersey during a postgame news conference on Thursday night. It’s cliche but the entire TCU baseball team has taken on the approach of playing with a “chip on their shoulder.”
After all, the Horned Frogs had lost seven of their last 10 going into their three-game series against No. 4 Texas Tech.
“We’re like, ‘We’re seen as the underdogs now,’” Savage said, explaining the shirt. “We want to go out and prove everybody wrong, so we’re playing with a chip on our shoulder. We’ve got goals and we’ve got aspirations and we’re going out there to take them.”
Well, TCU took a step in the right direction with a 7-4 victory over Tech in the series opener at Lupton Stadium. Savage threw two perfect innings, highlighted by four strikeouts, to close out a game that hung in the balance much of the night.
The Red Raiders took an early 2-0 lead, which looked like it might stand through the first four innings. But the Frogs’ bats eventually came to life, producing a single run in the fifth and three more in the sixth to take a 4-2 lead. Tommy Sacco had a solo home run to start the scoring in the sixth followed by an RBI groundout by Kurtis Byrne and a run-scoring double by Luke Boyers.
That lead was short-lived by TCU. Tech erased it in the top of the seventh with a two-out, two-run homer by Easton Murrell to tie the game at 4-4. Murrell’s hit came on a 3-2 pitch from TCU starter Riley Cornelio.
Cornelio walked the next batter, ending his night after 6 2/3 innings. Cornelio allowed four runs (one earned) on five hits with nine strikeouts and two walks.
Tech was in position to take the lead with standout Jace Jung coming to the plate. But TCU lefty Augie Mihlbauer struck out Jung to end the threat in the seventh.
“Augie comes in and faces one of the best hitters in the country and that’s what he’s been doing for the last month or two now,” TCU coach Kirk Saarloos said. “He’s come in and thrown really good pitches.”
TCU regained the lead with two runs in the bottom of the seventh. Brayden Taylor drove in the go-ahead run with a RBI single and later Reed Spenrath brought in a run on a groundout. The Frogs cushioned their lead with a solo home run by Gray Rodgers in the eighth.
Everyone in the dugout afterward agreed that the victory provided a much-needed spark for a team that has hit a rough patch of late.
“Absolutely,” Rodgers said. “I think a lot of it started Saturday against UT. We met as a team and our dugout energy increased so much. It’s carrying over. We had great dugout energy against DBU (on Tuesday), but the energy wasn’t carrying over to how we’re playing. I think now we’re putting together a full team effort.”
TCU (22-12, 8-5 Big 12) and Texas Tech (27-10, 7-3 Big 12) meet again Friday night at 6 p.m. The series finale is set for 2 p.m. Saturday.
