The first weekend of the college baseball season is always a little like Punxsutawney Phil, the famous groundhog.
Some teams are ready to emerge from their wintry lairs in mid-February; some aren’t.
TCU was, justifying coach Jim Schlossnagle’s customary non-conference ambition. The three games in Arizona produced two victories, including a 10-2 spanking Sunday of Vanderbilt, the No. 1-ranked team in the country.
“I’m super proud of the way they played,” Schlossnagle said, just off the plane from the trip to Scottsdale. “Friday night [the season opener, a 2-0 loss to Cal State Fullerton] we left 12 guys on, we didn’t get a timely hit and ran ourselves out of a couple of innings, but I told team after the game I was proud of the way they handled themselves.
“I felt like we started six or seven new players in lineup, and I didn’t feel like anybody had ‘deer in the headlights.’ Their presence was good. They controlled their emotions.
“I was super proud of them. All we needed were a couple of timely hits, some balls to fall, and that happened on Saturday and spilled over into Sunday.”
The 9-4 win over Virginia in Saturday’s game featured 14 hits and a solid four-inning season debut from pitcher Jared Janczak, returning from injury. Janczak threw four innings – 72 of the 75 pitches that the coaches had planned – and allowed two hits and two runs.
“It was chilly and he’s still coming back from two shoulder surgeries,” Schlossnagle said. “We had a long inning in the fourth and he was at 62 pitches, and in hindsight I was trying to get him the win and I wish I would have just kept him in the dugout.
“But he said he felt good today. He’s kinda like a veteran major league pitcher who’s coming off a surgery and now he has to figure out what kind of routine he needs to have in-between starts that allows him to feel his absolute best when he pitches.”
All three TCU starters pitched well while sticking to the judicious pitch count that Schlossnagle and pitching coach Kirk Saarloos have planned. The Frogs bullpen made that a lot easier, pitching 13 1/3 innings over the three days and allowing only two earned runs.
Schlossnagle lost two sophomore pitchers, Caleb Sloan and Russell Smith, to season-ending injuries before the season convened.
“With the two injuries we’ve had,” he said, “the protective gloves are on at the highest level with our starting pitching. I’ve got to keep those guys healthy, because one of the strengths of our team is going to be being able to keep Charles King and Jake Eisler in the bullpen.”
King pitched three scoreless innings in relief of starter Nick Lodolo in the Friday game. Lodolo allowed five hits, two runs and walked only one in a game where the Frogs out-hit the Titans but left 12 runners stranded.
The D1Baseball.com poll released Monday morning didn’t reflect it, but TCU breezed past the top-ranked Commodores. The Frogs inched up one spot to No. 18. Vandy stayed at No. 1.
Newcomer Brandon Williamson was the day’s pitching star, striking out seven in 3 2/3 innings. The lefty transferred to TCU from North Iowa Area Community College and showed no problems Sunday from the two corrective hip surgeries he underwent in the fall.
Schlossnagle was delighted with Williamson’s performance.
“Brandon Williamson missed the entire fall and had been on a game mound only four times until today,” the coach said. “The last time the guy pitched in any kind of game — even an intrasquad game, really — was last May, and that was at a junior college game in the Midwest. And the next time he’s pitching it’s against Vanderbilt in a major league spring training ballpark with 100 scouts there. I’m just super proud of him.”
Porter Brown and Austin Henry, two of the new names in the lineup, hit a combined 13 for 27 in the three games. Brown, a freshman from San Antonio Reagan, was the DH in the Arizona games, and Henry, a junior college transfer, started at second base.
“Porter is a really good athlete who can really run,” Schlossnagle said. “He’s got a good swing and knows the strike zone. He really puts together good at-bats.
“He kinda won the leadoff job in the last week or 10 days leading up to the season, and he’s taken it and run with it.”
All in all, Schlossnagle assessed, the MLB4 tournament turned out to be a rewarding way to begin the season. Some warm-weather teams shy away from scheduling tough non-conference games away from home. The Texas 1997 team didn’t play a road game until April 5.
But Schlossnagle has always had a demanding schedule. The Frogs go to Houston in two weeks for the annual college tournament at Minute Maid Park. TCU’s home opener is set for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. against Abilene Christian.
