(6/6/22)
Written by John Raley
Last night the TCU Horned Frogs faced off against the Texas A&M Aggies in the NCAA Baseball Championship Regional in College Station, Texas and boy was it a game. Both squads got off to slow starts going scoreless through the first two innings. TCU struck first, scoring one run in the bottom of the third inning and two in the fourth to jump out to a 3-0 lead heading into the fifth. The Aggies answered with two runs in the top of the sixth to make it a 3-2 game heading into the final three frames of play.
This is where things got interesting.
Texas A&M scored five runs in the top of the second inning. The first two came off a 2 RBI single courtesy of leadoff hitter Trevor Werner who is hitting .261 on the year. The Aggies added on with a sacrifice fly from Jack Moss which brought in Jordan Thompson. To cap off the top of what seemed to be the perfect inning for the Aggies, Dylan Rock hit a missile over the centerfield wall to give the Aggies their fifth run of the seventh inning. At that point it seemed A&M had taken the life out of the TCU dugout. The Horned Frogs quickly came back to life getting two runners on base to start off the inning. Infielder, Tommy Sacco, hit a single into left field which brought in Porter Brown to close the Aggies lead to three runs. Soon after with two runners on base Brayden Taylor responded with his own bomb into center field to score three runs tying the game back up at 7-7.
In the eighth inning, A&M was able to tack on another run from an RBI single from Trevor Werner that brought Jordan Thompson back to home plate. The Aggies had a one run lead heading into the bottom of the eighth all they had to do was hold on. Tommy Sacco had other plans. He homered into left center field for a 2 run blast that brought in Porter Brown who was on base.
Then the Aggies did something special.
They scored seven, yes, seven runs in the top of the ninth inning. The first came off another RBI single, this time from Troy Claunch. Jordan Thompson followed that up with a bases-loaded ground out from Jordan Thompson and a 2 RBI single, this time from Jack Moss. Dylan Rock wasn’t done for the night either as he hit a 2 RBI double deep into left field. Rock also scored the Aggies last run of the game off of a single from Austin Bost.
TCU had given everything they had and it just wasn’t enough last night. They went scoreless in the bottom of the ninth to end the game, losing 15-9 for their second loss which eliminates them from the NCAA Baseball Championship. The Horned Frogs struggled on the bump all night long. While starter Austin Krob didn't give up a run, he was pulled early in the sixth inning after throwing 100 pitches. After that the bullpen for TCU had a game pitchers have nightmares about. They went through 6 relievers over the last 3.2 innings, three of which threw less than 15 pitches during their appearances. In the end the Aggies offense was just too much for the Frogs to handle coming off of their game against Louisiana earlier in the day. The Aggies will play the twelfth ranked Louisville Cardinals in the next round, the winner will advance to Omaha with a chance at taking home the title.