TCU 12, Baylor 5: Numbers, notes and quotes from Frogs’ Big 12 win

Some of the facts, figures and quotes from TCU’s 12-5 victory against Baylor in the opening round of the Big 12 championship: (Game recap here).

Notable

TCU is 6-4 all-time in the Big 12 tournament. Wednesday’s victory put the Horned Frogs 6-2 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

TCU is 3-1 in Big 12 tournament games against Baylor. The Horned Frogs and Bears have played in the opening round three consecutive years.

The No. 3 seed, as TCU is this year, is now 26-36 in Big 12 tournament games. The No. 6 seed fell to 35-29.

Numbers game

33 Games with a home run for TCU this season out of 53 played.

17 Hits for TCU in the victory against Baylor, its most in a Big 12 tournament game.

3 Home runs for TCU in the game. Evan Skoug homered in the eighth.

Five hits

Luken Baker, named the league’s freshman of the year, became the fourth player to have five hits in a Big 12 tournament game, the record. Here is the list:

Curtis Thigpen, Texas, 2003 vs. Baylor

Curtis Ledbetter, Nebraska, 2005 vs. Missouri

Jacob House, Texas A&M, 2011 vs. Texas Tech

Luken Baker, TCU, 2016 vs. Baylor

Back-to-back

Evan Skoug and Luken Baker become only the second players to go back-to-back in home runs at the Big 12 tournament when they led off the eighth-inning with blasts to right and left, respectively.

It also happened three years ago. Ryan McBroom and Brady Wilson of West Virginia homered in consecutive plate appearances in the sixth inning of a May 25, 2013, game against Oklahoma State.

Runs scored

Baker tied a record for runs scored in a game with four. It has been done many times, the last by Jordan Danks of Texas against Kansas State in 2007.

What they said

“It feels really good that they’re going to be back for another two or three years. We knew these guys were special. Luken was a high-profile player. Josh wasn’t as high-profile nationally because he was a football player. But we knew he was really special, as well. Both of those guys are really good players. They are even better people and strong students. They are fun to be around every day.”

-- TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle, on Luken Baker and Josh Watson

“Honestly, I was just trying to get a good swing on the ball. I didn’t think it was going to go out. I just knew I hit it really well, and I was really pumped about it.”

-- TCU left fielder Josh Watson, on his second-inning home run

“The last time we played him, he did a really good job at changing speeds and throwing the ball where he wanted to. As a team, we didn’t square many balls up, especially myself; I was taking all of the good pitches and swinging at all of the bad ones, basically getting myself out. Today, he went with the same attack, and instead of being passive, I was aggressive. I swung at the early pitches to hit.”

-- TCU designated hitter Luken Baker, on Baylor starter Daniel Castano

“We did a really good job at our place against him. He does a phenomenal job with the strike zone. He doesn’t swing at a lot of bad pitches. We were very fortunate just to allow him to kind of get himself out at our place, popping him up or getting groundouts. I’ll tell you what, he squared up five balls today. That was pretty impressive. In regards to getting him out, you have to mix up and down. He is a big, tall target, and you have to find a way to get in there. Because if you don’t, those long arms are going to do some damage.”

-- Baylor coach Steve Rodriguez, on Luken Baker

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 8:22 AM with the headline "TCU 12, Baylor 5: Numbers, notes and quotes from Frogs’ Big 12 win."