TCU head baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle knows an injury-riddled club cannot afford to make careless mistakes—like walks and errors—and hits have to be timely.
Schlossnagle got just that out of his team Sunday afternoon.
The Frogs beat Ole Miss, now ranked No. 20, 5-3 over the weekend, bouncing back from a 7-4 loss to the Rebels Friday night. TCU evened its record at 1-1 before heading to Waco for a matchup with in-state rival Baylor today.
On Sunday, TCU had to win on fumes.
Three starters were out with injuries Sunday, and a fourth—right-fielder Brance Rivera—played, but was bothered by a hip strain.
Sophomore Brett Johnson and redshirt junior Davy Wright both drew two-out walks then scored when freshman Michael Resnick knocked a double off the right-field wall to give the Frogs a two-run lead in the fifth inning.
Johnson, Wright and Resnick were all playing in place of starters Sunday. Wright, who was playing third base in place of an injured Jantzen Witte, and Johnson (second base) both started Friday night, while Resnick earned his first college start Sunday over Kevin Cron, who sat out with lower back stiffness.
True freshman Keaton Jones went hitless but made two plays in the field at shortstop.
Schlossnagle said the key to Sunday’s win was defense, something it didn’t have much of in Friday night’s loss and, at times, slipped up last year.
“I thought the story of the day was defense,” Schlossnagle said. “We handled the baseball. [Friday], we tried to turn a double play that we shouldn’t have tried to turn and that cost us a run. The missing part of our club last year was defense in the infield.”
The fact the Frogs got the defense it needed from a group of newcomers was even more impressive, he said.
“I’m just really proud of Keaton, really proud of Davy, really proud of Brett,” Schlossnagle said. “It’s a whole new team. It’s a whole new infield.”
Of course, Schlossnagle did not overlook what happened on offense, especially Johnson, Wright and Resnick’s fifth-inning sequence that put TCU up for good.
“Cron’s back tightened up and we had to run [Resnick] out there,” Schlossnagle said. “Brett had a good at-bat with nobody on and Davy had a great at-bat to draw another walk. [Resnick] finally shortened his swing just enough and got to a fastball.”
Schlossnagle said playing with second-stringers turned out to be a blessing in disguise Sunday.
“We’re playing with what, going into the season, was supposed to be our second-team infield,” Schlossnagle said. “Danny Morrison [former TCU athletics director] was here today, and he always called it a forward fumble. Sometimes those things happen for a reason.”
