TCU baseball gets its chance at first place in Big 12

TCU has not been in first place in the Big 12 since the first weekend of conference games — six weeks ago.

This weekend provides the Horned Frogs their first chance since then to return to the top of the standings.

TCU is two games behind Texas Tech as the teams begin a three-game series at Lupton Stadium. A sweep would put TCU ahead by a game with six to play; a Tech sweep would mean a five-game lead.

A TCU series win would cut the lead to a game; a Tech series win would mean a three-game lead.

But coming out of the weekend with a shot at winning the conference isn’t at the top of TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle’s mind.

“Sure, it means something, but playing consistent baseball means more to me than that,” he said.

TCU is 7-5 in its past 12 games after a 22-5 start. That includes a series loss at Oklahoma State last weekend, which followed a series sweep against Oklahoma the week before. Also in that stretch, the Frogs gave up an eight-run inning in a loss to Dallas Baptist. They were shut out once and pitched their own shutouts three times. They won by 10 runs once and eight runs twice and lost by nine runs and eight runs.

So it’s been an up-and-down month, complicated by the muscle strain to the arm of right-handed starter Luken Baker.

“Getting ourselves in a position to where we play well in all three phases of the game for a three-day period, like we did earlier in the season — there’s no doubt we’re capable of that,” Schlossnagle said. “That’s the most important thing to me. If we do that, then we’ll finish where we’re supposed to finish in the conference.”

Next week, the Horned Frogs play a non-conference series at Penn State. Their remaining Big 12 series are at Baylor and at home against Kansas State. Texas Tech finishes conference play with series at Kansas and against West Virginia.

The Big 12 tournament begins May 25 in Oklahoma City.

This story was originally published April 28, 2016 at 1:49 PM with the headline "TCU baseball gets its chance at first place in Big 12."