Hello old friend: TCU faces former coach Jim Schlossnagle at Texas A&M regional
TCU baseball is headed to the College Station Regional to face former coach Jim Schlossnagle and the Texas A&M Aggies.
The No. 2 seed Horned Frogs (36-20) will open against No. 3 Louisiana (36-21) at 7 p.m. Friday at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.
The Horned Frogs (36-20), who won the Big 12 Conference regular-season championship, went 1-2 in the conference tournament, which knocked them out from hosting.
The Aggies (37-18) are the No. 5 national seed and will open against Oral Roberts (38-18) at 1 p.m. Friday. Schlossnagle left TCU for A&M last June after 18 seasons coaching the Horned Frogs.
“We’re not facing Jim, we’re facing Louisiana,” TCU coach Kirk Saarloos said. “Any time you play in a regional it’s going to be an awesome experience. The environment at Blue Bell [Ballpark] is phenomenal. And we’ve had some great times there as a program, but this is a new team.”
The Frogs won a Super Regional at Texas A&M to advance to the 2016 College World Series.
In 2012, TCU won the College Station Regional to advance to the Super Regional against UCLA.
A year ago, TCU went 1-2 as host in the Fort Worth Regional.
Of course, TCU and Texas A&M aren’t certain to play each other. The double-elimination tournament, however, is likely to result in at least one showdown between the Frogs and Aggies if they both win at least one game.
“If and when that matchup happens, it’s going to be a great opportunity for two Texas programs going after one another, that have some history in postseason play,” Saarloos said. “If you’re a college baseball fan you can’t wait for that matchup. We have to take care of business [against Louisiana].”
TCU will play Friday’s game without Saarloos, who will be serving the second of his two-game suspension. The NCAA suspended Saarloos for excessive expression after he was ejected in Thursday’s loss in the Big 12 tournament.
Saarloos was happy the NCAA sent the Frogs somewhere within driving distance.
“I’m glad we’re two and a half hours away where our fans can get in the car and come down,” he said. “That’s the thing that fires me up the most, that our fans are able to travel down and not have to get on a flight.”
TCU took two of three from Louisiana in a series in 2021. The last time TCU played Oral Roberts was in the 2016 Fort Worth Regional, a 7-0 Frogs win. The last time the Frogs played the Aggies was a 1-0 loss at Minute Maid Park in March 2019. TCU beat A&M twice in 2017, including in an elimination game in the 2017 College World Series.
Schlossnagle has led the Aggies back to the postseason after they failed to make the SEC Tournament a year ago. He thinks the Horned Frogs deserved to host after winning the Big 12 regular-season title.
“Obviously, I have mixed feelings because I love TCU and really have been rooting hard for the players there,” Schlossnagle said. “Right now, my focus is on our team here and Oral Roberts.”
Schlossnagle led TCU to five College World Series and won a program record 734 games from 2004 to 2021.
He figured one of the at-large Big 12 teams — TCU, Oklahoma and Texas Tech — was headed to College Station.
“They can’t go to Texas, they can’t go to Oklahoma State,” Schlossnagle said. “They’re not going to ship all three of those schools, so one of them was going to come here. So, God and the NCAA committee seems to have a little sense of humor. So, TCU is the one that is coming.”
This story was originally published May 30, 2022 at 11:21 AM.
