FORT WORTH — The scouting report on Adam Oviedo a year ago wasn’t too complicated. Good hitter who’s still figuring out the college breaking ball.
That book might be getting out of date.
The TCU shortstop pummeled a breaking ball deep to left center for his first college home run Saturday, one of his three hits and the team’s 21, and he drove in four runs in the Horned Frogs’ 16-4 rout of Eastern Michigan.
The hits and RBIs were all career-highs for the sophomore from Alvarado High, a season-long starter at shortstop last year for the Frogs but who missed the first seven games this year with an arm injury.
“The thing I’m most impressed about with Adam is he’s putting together good at-bats,” coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “The offensive side of the game was not real kind to him last year. He’s doing a better job of laying off breaking balls and bad pitches and getting good swings at good pitches.”
Oviedo hit .228 with five doubles and 25 runs batted in 55 games last year. After Saturday’s 3-for-5 with a sac fly, he’s at .423 with two doubles and eight RBIs in eight games.
“He’s gotten a lot bigger and stronger, there’s no doubt about it,” Schlossnagle said. “We noticed even before his injury that he was getting to fastballs and hitting the ball with more authority. But with him, it’s always been about recognizing the breaking ball. He certainly saw a lot of them last year because that was his weakness. Last year, he would swing at the breaking ball that was out of the strike zone and would take the hanging breaking ball. Today, for him to hit a home run on a breaking ball, I don’t care whether it was good or bad, that’s a good sign for him.”
Oviedo, 6-foot and 205 pounds, said he wouldn’t call himself a power hitter. But like every player, he wants to maximize his offensive contribution. To that end, he gained 15 pounds from a year ago and worked on all aspects of his swing.
“We’ve been working hard, and it’s coming along,” he said. “I’m very happy to see the results.”
Oviedo is a valuable player for the Frogs and becoming more important. Upon his return, he made two starts at third base, where the Frogs penciled him in for this season, although he had no prior experience. When starting shortstop Hunter Wolfe suffered a groin injury last week at Long Beach State, Oviedo slid back over to his natural position at short. Saturday was his fourth straight start there, and for the fourth straight start, he was error-free.
Depth matters right now for the Frogs. They also played Saturday without DH and leadoff hitter Porter Brown, who suffered a shoulder injury on a swing in his second at-bat Friday night. The freshman from San Antonio played the remainder of the game with a brace, walked in his third at-bat, then lined to second and suffered the injury again.
Brown is hitting .262 with a team-high seven stolen bases. Wolfe is hitting .333 and tied for second with six steals.
“Our two most dynamic baserunners are not on the field,” Schlossnagle said. “I don’t know when they’ll be back. I’d like to think they’ll be back next weekend, but Porter has an MRI scheduled for Monday; who knows what that’s going to show us. Wolfe is still real tender in the groin. And his legs are his game, so he’s got to be healthy to play.”
When Wolfe returns, Oviedo can slide back to third. In the meantime, the Frogs have gotten catcher Zach Humphreys time there and still have last year’s starter, Conner Shepherd, as an option.
“It’s coming along,” Oviedo said of his work at third, where he never played, even in high school. “It’s more of a forward-backward motion than left-and-right at shortstop. So definitely, the more experience I get there, the more comfortable I’ll be.”
He’s not the only one getting comfortable.
Alex Isola hit his fourth home run Saturday, Josh Watson went 4-for-4 with his first home run, and Andrew Keefer had three hits as part of the 21-hit attack. Austin Henry drove in two more runs to push his club lead in RBIs to 23.
In two games against EMU pitching, the Frogs have 28 runs and 33 hits.
That’s been the biggest thing coach has been talking to us about, being relentless,” Isola said. “Once we score three runs or six runs, we’ve had a tendency to take our foot off the gas. The good teams and the great teams really find a way to keep the foot on the throat. That’s kind of what we’ve been hoping to do, never give an at-bat away and every pitch matters. That’s been our attitude the last couple of days.”
