ARLINGTON — At Burleson Centennial High School and in select tournaments, Jacob Meador got used to playing top competition.
On Tuesday night, he faced it again, this time in a TCU uniform. Playing in his first live action for the Horned Frogs, the freshman pitched two perfect innings in a contest against upper-level A-ball prospects in the Texas Rangers system at Globe Life Park.
Meador, the Horned Frogs’ top recruit, struck out two — including 41st overall MLB pick Davis Wendzel of Baylor — in pacing a group of eight TCU pitchers who fanned 15 and walked four in the scheduled 12-inning game.
“Yeah, he’s good. Not just him,” Frogs catcher Zach Humphreys said. “We’ve got a ton of good pitchers that came in.”
Sure enough, TCU used five newcomers — Drew Hill, Meador, Johnny Ray, Riley Cornelio and Jacob Speaker — to take on the minor-leaguers. Veterans Matt Rudis, Marcelo Perez and Haylen Green also pitched.
Hill, a transfer from South Mountain (Ariz.) Community College, and Perez each struck out three. Rudis pitched two hitless innings in what ended as a 3-3 tie.
“Here’s what I was super excited about — it was how our guys handled themselves on the mound,” TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “I didn’t think anybody really got out of their element. I thought we stayed in control, threw strikes. In our first couple of intrasquad games, guys were overthrowing. They were throwing harder than they threw tonight, but they weren’t throwing very many strikes. So I challenged them the other day in practice to be in control of yourself so you can be in control of your performance. But overall, very pleased with how we handled ourselves during the course of the game.”
Meador led the way. Pitching the third and fourth innings, the right-hander retired the Rangers’ first-round pick, Josh Jung of Texas Tech, on a fly ball to left to start his outing. He concluded the second with a ground ball to third from Curtis Terry and a strikeout of Sam Huff. In the third inning, Meador got Sherten Apostel to ground to short, popped Jonathan Ornelas to short and struck out Wendzel looking.
“It lived up to everything I imagined,” Meador said of the experience as a whole. “Everybody out here had great energy. It’s what we’re all about.”
Meador said he had pitched once before in the home of the Rangers but, “Today was different. I’m out here with my new guys, very first time on the field in this uniform. It just felt good. It’s been four years waiting on this experience.”
The Frogs were glad to see it, considering Meador could have opted for pro baseball after being drafted by the Seattle Mariners in June. Taken in the 31st round, Meador is one of four highly recruited signees who opted to play for TCU over the minor leagues, including pitchers Cornelio and Hill and catcher Kurtis Byrne.
“There was a very slim chance” of going pro, Meador said. “I was pretty much set on coming to TCU and pitching for Coach Saarloos and Coach Schlossnagle. Since my freshman year, it’s what I’ve been looking forward to and that was my idea going into it.”
The outing itself?
“I thought it was pretty good,” Meador said. “I’ve had trouble with my breaking ball lately, but I got up there, got a feel for it, got it going. It was effective. Change-up, I threw a few times. It was effective. Honestly, my catcher had me on pretty much every pitch, framing, calling good pitches. He knew what to do before I did.”
That was Humphreys, a senior who had one of the Frogs’ eight hits and scored in a three-run seventh highlighted by shortstop Tommy Sacco’s two-run single. Leadoff hitter Hunter Wolfe also had an RBI in the inning, walking with the bases loaded.
“Jacob did a really nice job,” Schlossnagle said. “You can see how special he has a chance to be.”
The performance coincided with the last baseball experience for anyone at the ballpark, which hosted its last MLB game on Sunday when the Rangers defeated the Yankees. Tuesday was the park’s last baseball game of any kind, period. By spring, the facility will be remade for XFL football.
“There’s a lot of sentimental value,” Schlossnagle said. “For me personally, one of the great benefits of being the coach at TCU is to be in a big-league city. Every manager that’s been here, from Buck to Wash to Banny and Chris and John Daniels, they’ve all been super nice personally and given me access to be out here and learn from them and spend time in batting practice and the clubhouse and with the coaches. That isn’t lost on me. I’m really thankful.”
The Frogs want to do this again next year, if they get a chance — in the new Globe Life Field. The Rangers minor leaguers are part of a Futures Camp being held in Arlington for the first time by the organization. The group of 40 players played a fall schedule that included Grayson College, Dallas Baptist and West Texas A&M before TCU.
The Futures campers are scheduled to play Texas Tech at Dr Pepper Ballpark in Frisco on Friday and Saturday.
“If they continue to bring their best players back to this area for instructional league or whatever they’re doing, we’d be more than happy to play any time they’ll have us,” Schlossnagle said.
(Photos by Melissa Triebwasser)