After back-to-back losses against No. 7 Cal State Fullerton, the No. 8 Horned Frogs baseball team dropped its first series of the season, 2-1. It was the Frogs’ first regular-season weekend series loss in 20 series 8212; a streak which began March 27-29, 2009 against Mountain West Conference rival San Diego State.
“The whole season is about how you handle adversity, I told the guys that you can either fold or rise up and make it part of our story,” head baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle said.
The Frogs next chance to “rise up” is tonight against Dallas Baptist University at 6:30 p.m. at Lupton Stadium. The Frogs lost to DBU last season, 8-7, in Dallas.
Frogs’ junior pitcher Erik Miller threw a scoreless eighth inning in the 2010 loss to the Patriots, but Tyler Lockwood was credited the loss for the then No. 5 Frogs.
In Dallas Baptist’s last outing, the Patriots defeated South Dakota State, 5-2, as DBU senior pitcher Jared Stafford pitched a complete game, allowing two runs on eight hits.
The Patriots head into the cross-town matchup against TCU, 5-2 on the season.
Freshman pitcher Stefan Crichton is slated to start for the Horned Frogs as sophomore pitcher Matt Purke continues to nurse a blister on his throwing hand.
Junior right hander Kyle Winkler’s 7 1/3 inning performance (no earned runs allowed) on Friday, a 2-0 win for the Frogs, earned him MWC Pitcher of the Week honors. Senior pitcher Steven Maxwell earned a no-decision in a 8-4 loss to Fullerton Saturday, allowing two earned runs on six hits, but Miller gave up five runs on four hits for the loss.
Frogs’ freshman pitcher Andrew Mitchell pitched Sunday in Purke’s place, who was scratched for the start due his blister. Mitchell allowed a single hit in five innings and no runs, but senior reliever Trent Appleby allowed two runs over the last four innings on six hits 8212; the deciding run coming in the top of the ninth inning on Titan Michael Lorenzen’s single (he was thrown out at second on an attempted double).
The two losses over the weekend dropped the Frogs four spots in the Baseball America Top 25 Rankings (from fourth to eighth). Cal State Fullerton jumped five spots to No. 7 after taking two-of-three games at Lupton Stadium. In the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll, TCU fell from No. 3 to No. 10 after the weekend series against Fullerton. Florida (7-0) holds the No. 1 ranking in both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball polls.
Up next:
After Tuesday’s game against Dallas Baptist the Frogs will embark on their first road series of the season, traveling to Lubbock to take on Texas Tech for a three game series beginning Friday.
No. 8 TCU vs. Dallas Baptist
When: Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Lupton Stadium
Radio: 88.7 FM-KTCU
GoFrogs.com: watch the game live or follow on GameTracker.