Frogs Open Regional Play Friday Afternoon
6/3/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 3, 2004
Austin, Texas -
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TCU begins play in the 2004 Austin NCAA Regional Friday afternoon as they play the second-seeded Oral Roberts. The Frogs enter the tournament on a five-game win-streak and fresh from winning the Conference USA Tournament Championship. The Golden Eagles are winners of 15-of-their-last-16 games and are ranked No. 13 in most polls. This marks the first time in 10 years that the Frogs will take part in post-season play. Eugene Espineli will face Dennis Bigley in the opening game of the tournament at 1:00 on Friday at Texas' Disch-Falk Field.
* The Tournament
Riding a five game win streak, the Horned Frogs are coming off winning the Conference USA Post-season Tournament which earned them an automatic bid into the NCAA Regionals. The Frogs will head to Austin to take part in the Austin NCAA Regional hosted by the University of Texas. Joining the Frogs in Austin are (1) Texas, (2) Oral Roberts and (4) Youngstown State.
The Texas Longhorns are the number one national seed in the tournament with a 50-13 record and ranked 2nd in the major polls. They are making their 46th trip to the playoffs. The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles enter the tournament with the best record in Division I at 48-9, winners of the Mid-Continent regular season and post-season tournament. Youngstown State (22-30) enters the field having won the Horizon League Tournament to qualify for their first-ever regional.
* Fresh Contributions
For the first time in a long time, the Horned Frogs feature three true freshman. The three fresh faces have been huge so far as they are hitting at a .345 (223-646) clip and have a slugging percentage of .569. They have slugged 32 home runs and collected 133 RBI to go along with 41 doubles. As a group they have an on-base percentage of .435. Collectively, they have scored 158 runs.
* Austin Powers Way To MVP
Austin Adams exploded onto the scene in the Conference USA Tournament this past weekend. Adams hit everything in sight, slugging four home runs and driving in 12. He was the unanimous pick for MVP of the Tournament with a .542 (13-24) batting average and a 1.125 slugging percentage. He hit his first career grand slam in the second game versus Houston and the game-winner against Louisville.
* Mound Domination
The Horned Frogs led all pitching staffs with a 3.50 ERA. Including the outstanding starting pitching by the Frogs, the bullpen was lights out. The 'pen allowed only one earned run in 21 innings pitched for a 0.43 ERA. Chase Perry and Robbie Findlay combined to pitch 17 scoreless innings, striking out 16. In all, the Frogs struck out 37, walked only 10 as they went 5-1 with 2 saves. The pitchers held opponents to a .270 batting average in six games.
* Sparkling Defense
A big part of the Frogs success over the past week has been due to outstanding defensive play. Prior to the tournament, the Frogs had had only 15 games that were error-free. In the tournament alone, they had four errorless games. TCU averaged 1.46 errors a game and in the tournament, they made only four errors in six games. They played the last three game without committing an error. The Frogs were the best fielding team in the tournament with a .983 fielding percentage.
* Offensive Explosion
The offense came alive for the Frogs in the tournament. As a team they hit .319, which was second-best in the tournament. The Frogs collected 66 hits, 19 of which went for extra bases. They hit 11 doubles and eight home runs. They finished the tournament with a .488 slugging percentage and a .396 on-base percentage. They drew 21 walks and were hit by a pitch six times. The Frogs also stole four bags in the tournament.
* It's Been A Long Time
The Horned Frogs will be making their first tournament appearance since 1994 this weekend when they head to Austin. This will be their third tournament appearance in school history and they will be seeking their first post-season victory. The other season they moved on was in 1956. The 1994 team qualified for the Midwest Regional that was played in Stillwater, Okla. The Frogs went two-and-out in that tournament, losing to Cal. State-Fullerton and Oklahoma State. In 1956, they dropped two to Arizona in the Region 6 Playoffs.
* Tracking The Pseudo-RPI
After a 5-1 week in the conference tournament, the Frogs Pseudo-RPI, as calculated by BoydsWorld.com, jumped to 42, third best among C-USA schools. Only East Carolina (15) and Southern Miss (28) have a better RPI than the Frogs. Tulane is right behind at 47, followed by Houston at 48. Two of the Frogs opponents in the Regional have RPI's better than them, Texas is at two, while Oral Roberts is ranked 36.
* A New Saves Leader
With the save in Sunday's championship game, Robbie Findlay broke the record for single-season saves. The save was the 11th of the season and second in the tournament. He has 13 career saves which is third on the all-time list. He needs just two more to break the record held by Travis Barr. Findlay has converted all 11 save opportunities he's been give.
* Climbing The Charts
Clayton Jerome continued his climb up the pitching charts in his two appearances this past week. He has now pitched the most innings of any TCU pitcher, breaking the previous record of 378. He has pitched 380.1 innings in his career. His victory on Sunday moved him into sole possession of second place with 28 career wins. He also moved into second place all-time in career strikeouts, he now has 311.
* In The Clutch
The Frogs made the most of their opportunities in the Conference USA Tournament. They got some clutch hits with two outs, as 19 of the 35 runs scored were plated with two men down. Austin Adams and Bo Cogbill led with five two-out RBI. The Frogs hit .338 with two outs as a team. With a runner on third and less than two outs, TCU hit .429.
* Sibling Rivalry
With his double in the eighth inning, Chad Huffman recorded his 94th hit of the season. The 94 hits ties a school record for hits in a season. Interestingly enough, the record is held by Chad's brother, Royce and Terry Trofholz. Royce set the original mark in 1999 and Trofholz tied the record in 2002. Chad has two opportunities this upcoming weekend to set a new record.
* Frogs Versus Tournament Field
The Frogs have a lot of history with two of three schools in the Austin Regional. TCU and the Longhorns are rivals from the old Southwest Conference days. Texas owned the rivalry as they hold a 215-55-2 advantage in games played between them. The Frogs took 1-of-3 from UT in 2002, the last time they met and 2-of-3 in 2001. Against Oral Roberts, the Frogs are 11-23 all-time. The last time the school's met was in 1999. The Golden Eagles won both meetings that season. The last Frogs victory against ORU came on 2-28-98 when they defeated the Golden Eagles 27-5. TCU has never faced Youngstown State.
