TCU baseball rallies to beat Baylor in Big 12 tournament opener, faces Texas Thursday
TCU rallied from a two-run deficit to beat Baylor 4-2 Wednesday afternoon in the first round of the Big 12 tournament at Globe Life Field.
TCU advances in the winner’s bracket to play Texas at 4 p.m. Thursday. The No. 5 Longhorns beat No. 4 Oklahoma State 4-0 earlier on Wednesday. The TCU-Texas game will air on ESPNU.
The No. 1 seeded Horned Frogs (36-18) struggled to get much going offensively against No. 8 seed Baylor starter Blake Helton. Helton held the Frogs hitless through three innings until Bobby Goodloe led off the fourth with a single. That was quickly erased, however, by a double play.
The Bears scored a run in the first against TCU’s Brett Walker and added another run in the sixth to take a 2-0 lead.
But the Frogs tied it with two in the bottom of the inning.
“We didn’t face him early in the year,” TCU coach Kirk Saarloos said of Helton . “He did a good job of changing speeds and throwing the breaking ball for a strike which then allowed him to throw it out of the zone, and get some chases from some of our guys.”
Tommy Sacco and Kurtis Byrne singled ahead of Goodloe’s run-scoring double to left. Byrne scored on David Bishop’s sacrifice fly to left.
In the eighth, Sacco walked and scored on a wild pitch before Brayden Taylor scored on Byrne’s single to left.
“When someone is in a groove like that you just kind of bide your time and when he shows cracks in his game, that’s when you take advantage like we did,” Sacco said.
Right-hander Marcelo Perez (6-2, 3.26 ERA) will get the start for the Frogs, who have won eight consecutive games.
“We have a our hands full, we know that,” Saarloos said of the Longhorns (40-17).
Saarloos said his bullpen is in great shape after Walker went 5 1/3 and Caleb Bolden threw 35 pitches in two scoreless innings of relief. Augie Mihlbauer and Garrett Wright finished the final 1 2/3 with a combined 27 pitches.
“Caleb threw 35 but he’s got a rubber arm and he can get us some outs tomorrow,” Saarloos said. “So for me, everybody is available, with the exception of Brett Walker.”
Big 12 Conference Baseball Tournament
(at Globe Life Field)
Wednesday’s games
No. 5 Texas 4, No. 4 Oklahoma State 0
No. 1 TCU 4, No. 8 Baylor 2
No. 2 Texas Tech vs. No. 7 Kansas State, 4 p.m., ESPN+
No. 3 Oklahoma vs. No. 6 West Virginia, ESPN+
Thursday’s games
Oklahoma State vs. Baylor, 9 a.m., ESPN+
Texas Tech/KSU loser vs. Oklahoma/WVU loser, 12:30 p.m., ESPN+
Texas vs. TCU, 4 p.m., ESPNU
Texas Tech/KSU Winner vs. Oklahoma/WVU winner, 7:30 p.m., ESPNU
Friday’s games
Game 7 Loser vs. Game 5 Winner - 3:15 p.m., ESPN+
Game 8 Loser vs. Game 6 Winner - 7 p.m., ESPN+
Saturday’s games
Game 9 Winner vs. Game 7 Winner - 9 a.m., ESPN+
Game 8 Winner vs. Game 10 Winner - 12:30 p.m., ESPN+
Game 11 Loser vs. Game 11 Winner (if necessary) - 4 p.m., ESPN+
Game 12 Loser vs. Game 12 Winner (if necessary) - 4 p.m. or 7:30 p.m., ESPN+
Sunday’s game
Championship game, 5 p.m., ESPNU
This story was originally published May 25, 2022 at 3:38 PM.
