College BaseBlog

Mountain West tourney coming to town

College baseball fans in the Metroplex should be pretty excited. The Mountain West Conference tournament is coming to TCU's Lupton Stadium May 20-24. Here is the tournament schedule. It will be a chance for fans to see San Diego State pitcher Stephen Strasburg, who could be next year's No. 1 overall draft pick. The Aztecs are also coached by Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. TCU currently holds the No. 1 seed and would open the tourney on Wednesday, May 21 at 7 p.m.

- RH

More regional projections

Here is rivals.com's latest NCAA Regional projections and TCU is a No. 2 seed headed to College Station. SEbaseball.com also had TCU as a No. 2 going to Texas A&M. Also noteworthy is the fact Dallas Baptist is a No. 3 in the Rice regional. It would be DBU's first appearance in the NCAA Division I postseason. Think DBU would be intimidated by Rice? Nope. They have knocked off the Owls twice this season, including once at Rice.

- Rick Herrin

Cashner stock soaring

The MLB draft stock of TCU junior closer Andrew Cashner is soaring. Baseball America has Cashner ranked as one of the top 25 prospects for the June draft. He was unranked before the season but has backed up his potential with production. I was starting to think Cashner could get as high as the supplemental round, but he appears headed to the first round with every 98 mph fastball.

Cashner's value could be very high considering a team could possiblly get him to the league quickly. He has already been drafted three times. But he can be wild. Cashner has 24 walks, hit seven batters and has seven wild pitches in 39.1 innings.

Cashner is currently 7-3 with seven saves,  2.06 ERA, a team-high 24 appearances and 61 strikeouts. He also has allowed just 13 hits. If you're an interested Rangers fans they select No. 11 in the first round.

- Rick Herrin

TCU builds national respect

Since the rise of the TCU Horned Frogs program in the last five years, it has sometimes been hard for them to gain national respect. Playing in the weak Mountain West Conference doesn't help. But the Frogs are getting it now. They cracked the rankings at No. 25 by Baseball America this week and are a No. 2 seed in this NCAA regional projection.

TCU (33-16) has been a No. 2 seed on two other occassions. In 2005 at the Waco Regoinal behind ace Lance Broadway and last year in Houston with Rice as the top seed. At this point, the Frogs appear headed to one of three likely regional destinations -- Texas A&M, Rice or Oklahoma State. All three could earn national top-eight seeds. TCU is still searching for its first NCAA Super Regional appearance.

College Station would be a daunting task. Rice is far less intimidating this year and OSU loves to swing for the fences in its home park.

- RH

Month two recap - Pt.II

April had plenty of positives, but there were some negatives from the month for TCU:

1.) Held up: TCU fans will remember the bottom of the first inning of the 3-2 loss to Texas A&M. Ben Carruthers reached on a double, then got to third on a wild pitch. Bryan Kervin grounded out to the pitcher. With one out, Clint Arnold lined out to right field. The gamble is there - Do you take the chance and send Carruthers in (thereby forcing the right fielder to make a great throw), or do you play it safe, and hope another batter will send in Carruthers?  Carruthers was held, and Chris Ellington grounded out on the first pitch to end the inning. Texas A&M went on to win, but was that play the game-winning run for TCU, and could it have changed the dynamics later when closer Andrew Cashner entered the game?

2.) Still stranded: The Frogs began the year struggling with players left on base. Through March, TCU was fourth worst in the Mountain West Conference with runners left on base, but finished April third. Ironically, the top three teams in the MWC are at the bottom. A look at where TCU stands:

Air Force - 301
Utah - 321
UNLV - 346
BYU - 368
TCU - 384
New Mexico - 403
San Diego State - 412

3.) They got away: TCU had four losses in April, but two came by one run margins to Oklahoma (5-4 in 12 innings) and Texas A&M (3-2). While it appears the Frogs are in line for a regional berth, a win over either team, especially the Aggies, could've boosted their RPI even more and all but punched their ticket. It would've been another impressive thing to show recruits as well.

4.) Home delivery: Sending runners in has improved, but it's also still a weakness of TCU's. The Frogs finished March next to last in the conference with 115 RBIs, but they were fourth after April (261).

5.) No easy task: You certainly can't be too tough on a team that faces a dominant ace like TCU did on April 25 against San Diego State's Stephen Strasburg. The Aztecs ace held TCU to one hit in a 4-1 victory. As mentioned before, Strasburg was the best pitcher the Frogs faced to that point, but come postseason play, teams that want to stick around in regionals and super regionals must find a way to hit dominant pitching. A look at some of the pitchers from the top five teams in the current Baseball America rankings -

Miami (1) - Chris Hernandez is 8-0 and has a 2.70 ERA in 70 innings pitched.
UNC (2) - Alex White (7-2) has a 2.13 ERA with 61 strikeouts and 23 walks in 55 IP.
Arizona State (3) - Tommy Rafferty (10-0) has allowed 21 earned runs in 52 2/3 innings.
Fla. State (4) - Matt Fairel (8-1) has a 2.92 ERA with 62 Ks, 23 ER and 28 BB in 71 innings.
Nebraska (5) - Johnny Dorn (5-1) has a 2.69 ERA and opponents are batting just .169 against him.

-Trae Thompson

Month two recap - Pt.I

April was huge for the TCU Horned Frogs. As the regular season winds down, and the Frogs eye a shot at the Mountain West Conference title, here are five positives from last month:

1.) The record: TCU finished the month with a 16-4 record, and also went from the bottom of the Mountain West Conference to the top. A closer look at what happened:
*Three straight series sweeps (Air Force, UNLV and BYU)
*Began the month 2-4 in conference, but went 11-1 in April.
*Wins over Baylor (3-2 and 4-3) and Dallas Baptist (6-4)
*Took 2-of-3 from San Diego State
*Two of its four losses were by one run, one of which came in extra innings.

2.) Bats awaken: An offense that struggled to produce runs and send runners in came to life for the Horned Frogs. TCU is batting .287, but is hitting .316 in conference play. In April, the Frogs outscored opponents 145-81 and averaged 7.5 runs per game. TCU also hit .296 during the month, led by center fielder Clint Arnold, who was 33-for-80 (.413).

3.) Garrison's performance: At one point in March, righthander Seth Garrison (pictured) had an ERA of 8.71. By the end of last month, that was cut in half (3.91). While Garrison remains winless at 0-3, his current ERA of 3.83 is third best among TCU's regular starters and his 18 walks is second on the team. Garrison became one of TCU's most consistent starters in April and could possibly be in contention for a No.3 spot in the postseason rotation. How his April turned out:
4/1 - vs. Baylor - 6.2 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER, 8 SO
4/8 - vs. Baylor - 4.2 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER, 1 SO
4/15 - vs. Okla. - 6.1 IP, 5 hits, 2 ER, 8 SO
4/21 - vs. DBU - 1 IP, 6 hits, 4 ER, 0 SO
4/26 - vs. SD St. - 1 IP, 2 hits, 1 ER, 1 SO
4/29 - vs. A&M - 7 IP, 3 hits, 2 ER, 6 SO

4.) The aftermath: TCU suffered a crushing 3-2 loss to No.5 Texas A&M on April 29. But the Horned Frogs bounced back with a 5-2 win over UT-Arlington last Wednesday, followed by a series sweep of Utah last weekend. Following its losses in April, TCU had winning streaks of four, two and four games.

5.) On track: April was definitely good to third baseman Matt Carpenter, who had a slow start to the season but entered last weekend's series with Utah batting .252 with 41 hits and 26 RBIs. A look at how he closed out the month:
SD State (Gm 1) - 0-3
SD State (Gm 2) - 1-4, 3 runs, 2 RBI
SD State (Gm 3) - 2-4, 3 runs, 3 RBI
Texas A&M - 2-3, 1 run, 0 RBI
UTA - 1-4, 1 run, 1 RBI

-Trae Thompson

TCU cracks top 25

The TCU Horned Frogs moved into Baseball America's latest top 25 poll this week at No. 25. When was the last time TCU was ranked and Texas wasn't? Rice is No. 7 and Texas A&M is No. 9.

The Frogs (33-16) are in first place in the Mountain West Conference and are trying to seal the top seed in the league tournament which will be at Lupton Stadium.

TCU is also building a strong enough case that it would likely make the NCAA tournament even without earning the automatic qualifier by winning the conference tournament. The Frogs' RPI is No. 42 according to Boyd's World.

- RH

Final

TCU wins 6-4, and sweeps the series. The Horned Frogs will play New Mexico for the conference title in two weeks. -Trae

Appleby done

Two runners are on with two outs in the eighth. Derek VerHagen is in to relieve for TCU. -Trae

See ya

Clint Arnold turned on a pitch, and just hit a two-run home run to left field. TCU leads 6-3 in the bottom of the seventh. -Trae