Texas A&M offense rocks TCU late to claim College Station Regional title
We should have seen it coming.
The rivalry between TCU baseball and Texas A&M wrote another wild chapter late Sunday night and into Monday morning at the College Station Regional.
The Aggies escaped with a 15-9 win against the Horned Frogs after erupting for seven runs in the ninth to advance to the Super Regionals.
Texas A&M, the No. 5 national seed, will host the winner of the Louisville Regional next weekend at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.
The seven-run rally in the ninth came after a five-run explosion in the seventh. The Aggies scored all of their 15 runs in the final four innings.
The Horned Frogs, who finished their first season under Kirk Saarloos at 38-22, built a 3-0 lead before the Aggies scored twice in the sixth.
And then the floodgates opened in the seventh.
The Aggies (40-18), loaded the bases with no outs against Luke Savage and tied it at 3-3 with a single to center. A&M took a 4-3 lead on a sacrifice fly to center before Dylan Rock’s three-run homer off Garrett Wright blew it open.
But TCU rallied, too. The Frogs answered the Aggies’ five runs with four of their own in the bottom of the inning, including Brayden Taylor’s three-run homer, to tie it at 7-7.
Again, in the eighth, A&M reclaimed the lead with a run. But TCU took the lead back on Tommy Sacco’s two-run homer.
The seven-run ninth, however, was too much for the Frogs to overcome.
“That’s what they’ve hung their hat on, playing really good offensive baseball,” Saarloos said. “After them putting up a five spot in the seventh to take the lead, you can’t say enough about our offensive club and coming back.”
Jim Schlossnagle, who was the coach at TCU the previous 18 seasons, is in his first with the Texas A&M. This was the first time he has faced his old team and former assistant coach Saarloos, who was named Schlossnagle’s successor when he left for College Station last June.
“This is a tough one for me,” said an emotional Schlossnagle after beating his former team. “I’m excited we were the team that won, but way more excited to just move on. What a ball game.”
Schlossnagle hugged and chatted with several players and TCU staff on the field after the game. He said he was making sure they knew how much he care about them and lamented whether he left the program appropriately.
“If I had it to do over again, I would have handled things a little differently this time last year,” he said. “I didn’t get to meet with the team when I left. I called every player [but] I never got to do it probably the right way. I wanted those guys to know how much I love them.”
For five innings, TCU left-hander Austin Krob, who hadn’t started since May 6, was pitching his best game of the season.
Krob held A&M scoreless through 5 1/3 innings, while striking out eight and limiting the Aggies to three hits. But in the sixth, he ran out of gas and was replaced by Savage with two on and one out. Both runners scored.
Saarloos used four pitchers in the seventh to try to slow down the Aggies offense and seven in the game.
The last time Texas A&M reached the Super Regionals was 2017 under Rob Childress.
TCU took a 1-0 lead in the third after Tommy Sacco was hit by a pitch and moved to third on Brayden Taylor’s single to right and a throwing error. Sacco scored on Kurtis Byrne’s ground out to second base. The Frogs added two more runs in the fourth after David Bishop led off with a single
TCU eliminated Louisiana 6-1 earlier Sunday behind an outstanding start by Cam Brown, who allowed one unearned run over eight innings.
This story was originally published June 6, 2022 at 12:11 AM.
