FORT WORTH — Life in the Big 12.
It requires a plan, and TCU had one that almost produced two wins in two games against Oklahoma State.
Instead, it fell an inning short.
Marcelo Perez, asked to pitch back-to-back days after being required to save Game 1 despite a six-run lead, gave up two solo home runs in the ninth inning of Game 2 on Saturday in a 7-6 loss.
Five pitchers had gotten the Horned Frogs that far on Saturday — Haylen Green, Jake Eissler, Augie Mihlbauer, Dalton Brown and Charles King. That probably would have been enough had TCU not stranded 12, including the bases loaded in the seventh and eighth innings.
Instead, with only a run to spare, the freshman Perez (2-1) tried for his fifth save, with the wind blowing out to right and the 3-4-5 hitters due. The 3 and 5 hitters homered, lofting pitches that rode the wind. Well, one didn’t need any ride.
No matter, it was Perez’s first blown save and evened the series.
The Cowboys (17-8, 4-1) out-homered the Frogs (17-8, 3-2) five to nothing.
“Well, obviously they got more balls in the air than we did,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “Harder, at least. And there you go. Having to use Marcelo last night affected today’s game . . . It was last night that screwed up today.”
Now the Frogs face the same situation they faced last week. Win Sunday or lose a conference series at home.
Nobody can afford that in the Big 12.
“Playing a really good team in a great conference. Life in the Big 12. It is what it is,” Schlossnagle said. “You’re going to have some games where it goes your way and some where you get challenged. It’s all about how we respond tomorrow.”
It’s all about starting pitching, which makes it all about Brandon Williamson. The junior left-hander struggled in two of his previous three outings, at Long Beach State and at home against Texas. But he’s 2-1 with a 3.42 earned run average and 28 strikeouts in 23.2 innings.
“Hopefully he’s going to give us a better performance than he did last week, and I’m confident that he will,” Schlossnagle said. “But he has to be able to use more than one pitch. These guys are dead set on fastballs, as you can see.”
It was 49 degrees at first pitch. The wind swirled. It blew out to left when Oklahoma State got balls in the air to left, homering three times in the first three innings, twice against Haylen Green in the second. It blew out to right when Perez gave up his two in the ninth.
Eissler gave up the other home run, a drive to left in the third inning. But pitching in his normal role of long relief, he gave the Frogs four innings and gave up nothing else.
“I was proud of the way our guys competed,” Schlossnagle said. “I thought Eissler was a little bit better. And Augie did a nice job. They got the bigger hits than we did. We had opportunities to break the game open. Either they made a pitch or made a play, and we couldn’t stretch our lead.”
That’s baseball. Life in the Big 12.
