No. 10 TCU baseball drowns out the noise amid high expectations for 2026 season
TCU baseball heads into the 2026 season with heaps of expectations.
The Horned Frogs are ranked No. 10 in the country by D1Baseball.com, No. 9 by Baseball America and No. 11 by Perfect Game.
The Big 12 coaches unanimously picked the Horned Frogs to win the conference — as well as saying they would win the awards for player (sophomore outfielder Sawyer Strosnider), pitcher (junior Tommy LaPour) and freshman (infielder Lucas Franco) of the year.
TCU opens the season with the Shriner’s Children’s College Showdown this weekend at Globe Life Field, the Texas Rangers’ home ballpark, in Arlington. The Horned Frogs face No. 23 Vanderbilt at 3 p.m. Friday, No. 7 Arkansas at 7 p.m. Saturday and Oklahoma at 6:30 p.m. Sunday. All games will be streamed on FloSports.TV.
TCU sophomore utility player Noah Franco, who was selected to the preseason All-Big 12 team with junior outfielder Chase Brunson, Strosnider and LaPour, explained how the Horned Frogs ignore the hype surrounding the team and focus on the task at hand. They are ready to play after being swept out of their NCAA regional last season at Oregon State.
“It’s definitely motivation,” Noah Franco said. “You hate losing your final game, but after that loss, the next day, you rinse it, you move on to how we’re going to get better for the next following season. And now we’re at that point where it’s that following season ... working together to do what we can to not allow that to happen again.”
Noah Franco, a first-team All-Big 12 selection last season after hitting .313 with 11 home runs and 49 RBIs, said he and the team know they have to be resilient over the long grind of the season.
“You know you’re gonna have your ups and downs,” he said. “It’s just taking it day by day, riding it all out.”
TCU coach Kirk Saarloos, entering his fifth season at the helm, expounded upon Franco’s thoughts about handling the noise.
“We’ve talked about that a lot in terms of what’s the main thing,” he said. “The main thing is, as coach-speak and cliché as it is, it’s not the result. The results will be a by-product of the work you put in, and a lot of it is the mental work that we put in, in terms of understanding that, you know, it’s a long season, and our job is to get better consistently and keep your eyes off the scoreboard.
“Keep your eyes off your batting average or ERA. Let’s just try to become the very best team we can be. If we have that mindset of the team aspect first, your individual goals will get met, taken care of, but it always has to come back and be about the team.”
Strosnider and LaPour joined Noah Franco as first-team All-Big 12 selections last season. Strosnider, from Brock, was named freshman of the year after hitting a team-high .350 with 11 home runs and 51 RBIs. LaPour, a right-hander, went 8-3 with a 3.09 ERA and 88 strikeouts in 90 1/3 innings.
The one preseason Big 12 award the Horned Frogs didn’t win was newcomer of the year, but TCU has several transfers who will have a chance to play major roles, including pitcher Lance Davis (Arkansas) and first baseman Rob Liddington (Incarnate Word).
The pair talked about why they joined the Horned Frogs.
“The first thing was just the culture, overall,” Liddington said. “I felt like everybody was super nice, super welcoming. And, yeah, I’d say the winning culture in the past and what I can see [for] myself as an opportunity, as well as just as a team, how good we are.”
Davis said he was drawn to the atmosphere in Fort Worth.
“You get on campus, and I think the coaching staff creates a more relaxed environment,” he said. “I think they want [you] to step on campus and sort of feel the energy’s a little different than most programs, and I’ve loved it so far.”
TCU hopes that its returning players in conjunction with transfers can help get the Horned Frogs get back to the College World Series for the first time since 2023.
