Staying alive: TCU powers past Oral Roberts in College Station Regional elimination game
TCU baseball will live another day.
The Horned Frogs beat Oral Roberts 3-1 Saturday at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park to stay alive in the College Station Regional.
TCU plays at 1 p.m. Sunday against the loser between Texas A&M and Louisiana, who play Saturday night.
With a win, the will play the winner of the A&M/Louisiana game at 7 p.m. Sunday. If TCU wins both games Sunday, they would play in the regional championship at 6 p.m. Monday.
The Horned Frogs (36-21) lost their regional opener against Louisiana 7-6 Friday. That means TCU must win four consecutive games to win the regional and advance to the Super Regionals. The Frogs did just that in the 2012 College Station Regional after losing its opener to Ole Miss.
TCU starter Marcelo Perez held the Golden Eagles (38-20) scoreless through 4 2/3 innings but after a walk loaded the bases in the fifth, Caleb Bolden took over to face Oral Roberts clean-up hitter Jackson Loftin. Bolden’s wild pitch allowed the tying run to score, and after another walk reloaded the bases, Bolden escaped the inning with the game tied 1-1 with a fly out to left.
Perez allowed a run on five hits and a walk in 4 2/3 innings.
The Frogs didn’t take long to regain the lead, however. In the sixth, back-to-back home runs on consecutive pitches by Brayden Taylor and Kurtis Byrne gave TCU a 3-1 lead.
Byrne also came up big behind the plate. He made multiple run-scoring stops on wild pitches in the late innings to help secure the lead.
“On a day like today, when it’s 90 degrees, his uniform went from gray to charcoal gray because he was sweating so much and did an unbelievable job blocking pitches,” TCU coach Kirk Saarloos said. “It has to be pretty close to double-digit [stops]. He gets it done. You can’t say enough about what he’s done.”
Garrett Wright pitched 2 2/3 hitless and scoreless innings with four strikeouts to get the save and close it out for TCU. His previous long outing this season was two innings on March 30. He threw 51 pitches on Saturday but said he was available on Sunday.
“Just getting the ball down, get it in the zone and let my defense work, and they did,” said Wright, who played at A&M Consolidated High School. “I’d actually never pitched here before, living here all my life. So this was a first. It was awesome.”
Saarloos said Wright’s experience in long relief a year ago in the Big 12 tournament helped
“When our backs are up against the wall a little bit, we’ve extended him,” said Saarloos, who brought Wright in after lefty Augie Mihlbauer was used against one batter, the left-hitting Caleb Denny who led Oral Roberts with 11 homers and 19 doubles. With two on, Mihlbauer struck him out, setting up Wright, who retired the Nos. 4-5 batters.
“For me, it was an opportunities for guys who have been these situations before, and you kind of know what you’re going to get from them,” Saarloos said.
Saarloos wasn’t ready to announce who would start Sunday’s game, in part because he doesn’t yet know who the Frogs are playing.
Oral Roberts starter Isaac Coffey went six innings, allowing three runs on five hits and a walk.
In the third, TCU took a 1-0 lead on Tommy Sacco’s two-out, RBI double to left field, which scored Elijah Nunez from second.
“That was a really fun game to play in,” said Taylor, who was robbed of a couple extra-base hits by outstanding plays by the Oral Roberts center fielder Connor Beichler. “I was just finally glad I could hit it over them and not at him.”
This story was originally published June 4, 2022 at 3:32 PM.
