Darrell Royal said it. Bum Phillips said it. Lots of coaches said it.
“Dance with the one who brung ya.”
Jim Schlossnagle would love to.
But when the Big 12 baseball championship tournament starts Wednesday in Oklahoma City and TCU opens against Oklahoma State, a lot of the Horned Frogs coach’s best boot-shuffling partners will be sitting by the punch bowl.
Closer Marcelo Perez and first baseman Jake Guenther are the latest TCU players sidelined. Perez, a freshman right-hander with five saves, is shut down the rest of the season because of arm soreness, which had already kept him out the previous two series. Guenther was held out of the final two regular season games last week at Texas Tech with a sore wrist, the result of a collision May 12 against Kansas.
That makes 15 players who have missed time this year, Schlossnagle said, including two starting pitchers who underwent Tommy John surgery before the season and their Opening Day leadoff hitter, Porter Brown.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Schlossnagle said. “I don’t know how you survive it. We’ll see if we can.”
One way is with starting pitching, where the Frogs are actually in the best shape they’ve been all season. Nick Lodolo, Chuck King and Brandon Williamson have provided quality starts seven times in their last nine starts, posting a combined 2.97 earned-run average in 60.2 innings with 67 strikeouts.
Lodolo, who will pitch Game 1 on Wednesday night, has struck out 33 in his last 20 innings covering three starts.
“I do believe we’re still capable,” Schlossnagle said. “We absolutely have to play our best, which we’ve done at times. I actually feel pretty confident about our starting pitching. Lodolo, we know how talented he is; he can beat anybody. King has shown some consistency in keeping us in ballgames. Brandon Williamson, we haven’t played defense behind him, but his last three starts have been really, really good.”
The strategy for TCU is simple: Win the first two games. That means a day off and two chances to win one game to play for the championship and automatic bid to an NCAA regional. Realistically, it’s likely the Frogs’ only path. Their RPI sat in the 70s as the week began.
“There are plenty of teams across the country that win conference tournaments with less talent than we have currently healthy,” Schlossnagle said. “We just have to go play well. We’re going to have to play with some grit. We’re going to have to play with some determination. We’re going to have to be unconventional in how we play. We have to try to find a way to win ball games one at a time.”
Interestingly, the Frogs were in the same position a year ago and followed the formula to the championship game. They were an out away from the title when a fly ball lost in the sun cost them the chance to reach postseason. But the memory is instructive. The Frogs know it can be done because they gave themselves that chance a year ago.
“We sure did, with a team that I don’t think was necessarily as talented as this one, even with the injuries,” Schlossnagle said. “The difference is, that team played much cleaner defensive baseball. It’s the ability to get outs — routine outs. We’re the worst fielding team in the conference. That and the injuries on the mound have been the downfall to this point. But we’ve also had weekends where we played really good baseball, where we played consistent defense and got good pitching across the board. We’re certainly capable.”
The Frogs remember how to dance. Whoever can, needs to.
