FORT WORTH — In a four-game homestand, the fans at Lupton Stadium got their offensive fireworks.
TCU hit nine home runs to wow the home crowd. They were long blasts that cleared the fences at all points of the perimeter — into the trees beyond the berm seating in right, off the canopy in the home bullpen in left center, between the scoreboard and light stanchion in left, over the yellow “400” numbers in center field, over the NCAA logo in right center.
You get the picture.
Also, nine doubles.
Oh, and a triple from roadrunner-fast Johnny Rizer.
The result was 36 runs in 33 innings against Abilene Christian on Wednesday and a weekend series against Grand Canyon.
You could say that’s why the Horned Frogs (5-2) won three of four in the homestand, and you’d be correct. But only partly correct. The Horned Frogs finished off the winning week with a 6-5 victory in Game 3 of the series against Grand Canyon on Sunday thanks to another part of the game — defense.
Right fielder Andrew Keefer chased down a ball in the right field corner, threw to first baseman Jake Guenther, who relayed to catcher Alex Isola to cut down the tying run at home in the eighth inning, preserving the one-run lead and demonstrating that while the Frogs may sport a physical lineup, it has not been at the cost of defense.
Guenther hit two home runs in the homestand, but also spent much of it looking good with the glove. It wasn’t the first time.
“He made a nice play against Vanderbilt out in Arizona on a 3-6-3 double play,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “It was a heck of a nice job by Keefer, too — he’s a converted infielder — just to get to that ball. It stuck at the bottom of the fence, and he got it in. Did a nice job.”
Isola, too, did a nice job in catching the ball and making the tag exactly according to new rules in college baseball. Fielders can no longer block the plate or base without the ball.
Defense showed up again in the ninth inning when second baseman Austin Henry made a running backhand stop of a hard-hit ground ball, only to see it ride up his glove and pop in the air, where he then barehanded it, stopped his momentum, which was carrying him toward second base, turned and threw in time to first for the out.
The play by Henry, who had struck out with the bases loaded in the previous half-inning, prevented the leadoff hitter from reaching base in the ninth, and freshman right-hander Marcelo Perez took advantage to complete a six-out save in his first save opportunity.
“Really proud of Austin to go out there and make that play to lead off the ninth,” Schlossnagle said. “It’s really a nice job of not taking an at-bat to the field.”
Same goes for Perez, who was sharp with 25 pitches, 18 for strikes, against seven batters. He struck out one and gave up two hits.
“Super proud of the way he came in there throwing strikes against what I think is a really good offensive team,” Schlossnagle said. “If you don’t make pitches, if you don’t command a secondary pitch, they can give you a lot of fits. Super proud of him.”
Of course, there’s nothing like some offense. Guenther hit a two-run homer in the first inning and an RBI double in the third. Isola followed with a home run to score Guenther for a 5-0 lead.
Josh Watson’s sacrifice fly in the fourth inning put TCU ahead 6-3, enough to make a winner of junior-college transfer Brandon Williamson (1-0) in his second start.
“There’s plenty of good pitchers on this staff who could do the same thing I’m doing,” the right-hander said. “And they are doing the same thing I’m doing. It feels great to be able to start and have a bullpen like we do coming in behind me.”
Williamson’s start was just one of the things that encouraged the Horned Frogs this week. Nick Lodolo showed potential to dominate on Friday nights. Jake Eissler reinforced his value in long relief. The Frogs won despite not having their top two shortstops.
“Lodolo took a huge step forward. Eissler did what he’s done now since the end of last season, and I thought Williamson was better than last week,” Schlossnagle said. ”We got Perez in the game when it mattered, so he got good experience. And we showed a little bit of our depth. Our two front-line shortstops are both hurt. Bobby Goodloe only got one play, but he did a good job while he was out there. Conner Shepherd hasn’t been a starting player in our lineup, and he did an awesome job yesterday and he did great again today.
“I told the team before the game, this was a great opportunity for us to show the quality depth in our lineup.”
It showed. Offense and defense.
