The No. 3 Horned Frogs will travel to Waco on Tuesday to face Baylor, which is ranked No. 16, according to Baseball America. TCU’s No. 3 ranking is a drop from Collegiate Baseball’s preseason No. 1 ranking after Sunday’s 4-3, extra-innings loss to Kansas.
The Frogs are ranked fourth in Baseball America’s top-25 poll. Freshman Andrew Mitchell (0-0, 4.50 ERA) has been tabbed as the probable starter, making it the first start of his college career. The Bears will start left-handed sophomore pitcher Josh Turley (0-0, 5.40 ERA).
Baylor also played extra innings in its Sunday game against Oral Roberts, but the Bears won their opening series finale 5-4 in 10 innings. Bears’ freshman pitcher Trae Davis won his second game of the season out of the bullpen, and sophomore Jake Miller clinched the game with a 10th inning walk-off single. The Bears dropped their season opener to ORU 7-3, but took the second game of the series 9-4.
Notes
TCU has won 20 straight regular season series dating back to 2009.
Tuesday’s game marks the 302nd time the Frogs and Bears have played.
Baylor leads the series 157-140-4, while TCU is 9-9 against Baylor under head coach Jim Schlossnagle.
TCU took two out of three games against Baylor in 2010, highlighted by a 9-0 shutout of Baylor in the NCAA Regional.
Frogs weekend recap
2010 Freshman Pitcher of the Year Matt Purke opened up the season Friday in front of an opening day record crowd of 6,099. The Frogs blasted the Jayhawks 8-2 while Purke pitched four innings in limited action, allowing one hit and striking out three batters.
Junior pitcher Kyle Winkler followed Purke’s act on Saturday, statistically outdoing Purke with eight strikeouts and no earned runs in seven innings pitched. Junior Erik Miller pitched the final two innings for the Frogs with three strikeouts and no hits allowed. Winkler’s efforts earned him Mountain West Conference Pitcher of the Week honors.
Fan support at Lupton Stadium for the first two games of the series prompted an e-mail response from Schlossnagle addressing students who helped break the all-time series record before the third game was played.
“Not only did you show up in great numbers but you all were vocal, loud and into the game from even before the first pitch,” Schlossnagle wrote in the e-mail. “You have helped create a big-time college baseball environment that not only is appreciated by our team, but really helps them play even better.”
A record number of fans sat through the longest TCU game in more than a decade as the Frogs played 14 innings on Sunday. The Jayhawks halted TCU’s bid to open up the regular season with a series sweep in front of the new TCU record weekend series crowd total of 14,893 fans.
Miller was credited with the loss as he allowed two earned runs on two hits in 4 1/3 innings. Senior pitcher Steven Maxwell was the starter, allowing two earned runs on six hits, but Kansas starting pitcher Tanner Poppe matched Maxwell’s six-inning effort, allowing a single run on three hits.
“We had our chances, we hit the ball hard,” Schlossnagle said after the Sunday loss. “It’s tough to score runs on a windy day like this. But we had great pitching. Erik Miller was outstanding. It’s hard to say that when you lose a game you get better, but I think we got better today.”
No. 3 TCU at No. 16 Baylor
When: 4 p.m. today
Where: Baylor Ballpark, Waco
Radio: KTCU-FM 88.7
GoFrogs.com: Follow GameTracker or listen live
