The Horned Frogs are on a roll after a successful weekend to open Mountain West Conference play.TCU (19-15) has won its last five games, outscoring its opponents by a combined total of 59-15. The Frogs will face their next opponent, the Oklahoma Sooners, tonight in Norman.
Head coach Jim Schlossnagle said the team has been consistently improving and needs to carry its progression into the upcoming game.
“We’re playing really well right now,” Schlossnagle said. “We need to take some of this momentum into the game.”
Sophomore pitcher Sam Demel also said he thinks the team is doing what is necessary to win: it is focusing on each game as it comes.
“We’re on a five-game winning streak, so I think our strategy is working out pretty well,” Demel said.
The Sooners (24-10) are coming off a two-game winning streak, as they went 2-1 in their weekend series against the Texas A&M Aggies.
Junior first baseman Chad Huffman said he plans on making some improvements to his individual game before facing OU Tuesday.
“Baseball’s a game of failure,” Huffman said, “and it’s never perfect, so you constantly have to work on it.”
Huffman said to improve his game, he is going to focus on his batting more than anything.
“I need to get in the cages more and make some adjustments,” he said. “I’ve got to be more patient and not take myself out of the bat.”
Huffman, who leads the team in batting average (.382) and on-base percentage (.492), had one hit, one RBI and one run in Sunday’s game against Air Force. He said that before the game against the Sooners, each Frog needs to focus on improving his individual game to better the team as a whole.
“Everybody has something he needs to work on,” Huffman said. “If everyone does that, we’ll be a better team when we bring that together.”
The Frogs are on their longest winning streak of the season following the weekend series against the Falcons, in which TCU only allowed seven total runs.
Demel (4-2), who leads the team with an ERA of 2.32, pitched 2.2 innings in Sunday’s game, allowing no runs and only two hits. He also threw two strikeouts, the last of which clinched the win for the Frogs in the the ninth.
Schlossnagle said he had originally intended for Demel to start in the game against the Sooners, but because he was needed in the Air Force game, he is now unsure who will be starting for the Frogs today.
Schlossnagle said, his team is progressively becoming the team it wants to be, especially after the weekend’s results.
“We only had one error in 27 innings,” Schlossnagle said. “We raised our batting average 15 or 20 points in the last week, and we’re throwing well. We are just becoming a more complete team.
