Roll the tarp back and put fresh chalk on the base paths.Although Tuesday night’s nonconference contest was postponed, a mid-week ballgame will take place at Lupton Stadium.
A week ago, the No. 27 Horned Frogs baseball team had a taste of sweet revenge against the Oklahoma Sooners in a battle of top-30 teams.
Tonight, the Horned Frogs will try to bring the season record against teams in the Big 12 Conference to an even .500 in a game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
The last time that these two teams faced each other, the Red Raiders came out victorious in a 4-1 win over the Horned Frogs, whose bats were essentially held silent throughout the game. One of the only bright moments that shone during that game was sophomore Matt Vern’s inside-the-park home run.
Since that game, Vern has become a plague to Big 12 through pitching, and he is leading the Horned Frogs in every major offensive category against the big boys from Texas and Oklahoma.
The past two meetings against Big 12 competition have ended in TCU’s favor with the Horned Frogs’ (30-10, 12-2) offense coming alive against the Baylor Bears during a 6-3 victory April 10, and in an 11-3 shelling of the Sooners just one week later. During the win against the Sooners, the Horned Frogs managed to pound out five doubles helping erase the memory of the 13-5 loss that came April 3.
The Red Raiders (25-17, 7-10) are averaging 4.35 runs per game during conference play, and the team has the worst ERA in the Big 12 giving hope to a Horned Frog offense that is pushing almost eight runs across the plate each game.
Whether a win tonight will impact rank is not of importance, head coach Jim Schlossnagle said.
“It depends on how the other schools across the country play,” Schlossnagle said.
Although the home winning streak was silenced by the BYU Cougars last weekend, the Horned Frogs still have a 17-1 record while playing on the manicured grounds of Williams-Reilly Field during the 2007 season.
Following the Texas Tech game, the Horned Frogs will have one more game against a Big-12 team when they face the Baylor Bears for the second time this season.
