FORT WORTH – On an afternoon when the TCU Horned Frogs pounded out 21 hits and felled the visiting Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks 19-3, there was no question who was the day’s MVP.
It was the angel of mercy who decided to shift the game’s starting time from 6:30 to 3 p.m.
“That would be me,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said, smiling as he raised his hand.
Instead of a nine-inning Iditarod, the Frogs and Jacks got in their Tuesday work under bright sunshine and a temperature somewhere in the bearable high 40s.
And Schlossnagle also was able to see how his team responded after Sunday night’s uninspired 12-2 cheek-slapping at the hands of Rice.
TCU, now 7-4, won only one of three at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Classic played at Minute Maid Park in Houston. Whatever polls credibility the Frogs earned in beating Houston 10-6 and losing a 1-0 game to highly regarded lefty Asa Lacy and Texas A&M, they flushed away in the drubbing by the Owls.
“Of course, I’m always trying to justify things in my own brain,” Schlossnagle said. “So I went through our World Series teams’ seasons and picked out from 2014 to 2017 where at least once, if not two and three times, we had games like that.
“If you play enough baseball, you’re going to have games like that. They’re meant to remind you that it’s never about the best team, it’s about the team that plays the best.
“I’ve told them since day one that we’re good enough to accomplish anything we want to accomplish this season. But we’re not good enough to just throw our gloves on the field. We’re not good enough to not play well.
“I was actually going to meet with them this morning and talk about that, but I decided not to. I just wanted to see how they’d react.”
For the sake of context, it seems fair to point out that the SFA pitching staff was stretched thin by a four-game weekend series against Portland.
But still, Tuesdays have long been a college baseball coach’s worst day of the week.
Not this Tuesday, however. The Frogs struck for seven runs in the bottom of the first inning and took it from there. Another 7-spot in the fourth pushed their lead to 18-0, and the TCU bullpen extracted the final 12 outs.
Lefty Haylen Green pitched the first five innings for the home team, holding the Jacks scoreless while allowing only two hits, pleasing Schlossnagle measurably in the process. Green had last been on the mound in that fog-out fiasco last Wednesday at Sam Houston State, when the lefty gave up seven hits and seven runs in the first two innings and the Frogs had fallen behind 10-3 before a Stephen King-like fog settled in.
“I’m really pleased with Haylen,” Schlossnagle said. “He made some adjustments just in the bullpen on Sunday.
“Kirk [Saarloos] went to him after that game that got fogged out, and he said, ‘We’ve got to make some changes.’ Haylen, to his credit, said, ’I’ll do everything you want. I’m tired of getting hit like that.’”
Saarloos and Green worked on arm angles and release points.
“It was just to give him some deception,” Schloss said, “and it showed today after the first inning.”
Schlossnagle had no trouble naming the day’s second major development.
“The other massive highlight for us was Matt Rudis, because he hasn’t been available to pitch,” the coach said. “I was going to wait and have him throw in an intrasquad game before putting him in a real game, but after Sunday we just said screw it, we’ve got to get this guy in the game. He throws 92-94 with a really good breaking ball and lots of strikes.”
The freshman from Madisonville had meniscus surgery after injuring his knee lifting weights before he enrolled at TCU.
The Frogs need Rudis – or somebody – to step up and help anchor the bullpen while expected weekend starter Jared Janczak continues to struggle to find his rhythm following surgery.
Against the Aggies last Saturday, TCU simply ran into one of the country’s top sophomore left-handers. Lacy is 3-0 on the young season and has struck out 30 in 18 innings. Opponents are batting just .109 against him.
Sunday was a different story. Schlossnagle didn’t want to use the excuse that some had offered, that the 8 p.m. starting time after sitting around the hotel all day – the team had to check out of its hotel rooms at midday – had sapped his team’s enthusiasm.
“If a pitcher goes out there and he’s fully healthy and dealing, no one ever talks about waiting around,” Schlossnagle said. “We’re in this conundrum of not knowing exactly what we’re getting out of the bullpen with exception of [Jake] Eissler, [Charles] King and [Marcelo] Perez.
“There’s nothing worse than not knowing what you’re getting coming out of the bullpen. Is he going to throw strikes today?
“How do you find out? You’ve got to pitch them.
“Janczak didn’t have good stuff, didn’t have command, and King did OK for a couple of innings, but he ran out of gas. And then it became a matter of let’s start running them out there and see what happens. Rice starts waylaying balls, we kick one and walk, walk, walk. A sinking liner to right field gets dropped. Just a bad baseball day.”
Another road trip awaits. The Frogs leave Thursday for the West Coast and a three-game series at Long Beach State, followed by a single game Tuesday at San Diego.
Warm weather, Schlossnagle hopes. And a team that learned its lesson last Sunday.