TCU Baseball: Riding The River, Tailing The Taylor, Savage The Beast
TCU baseball sophomores River Ridings, Brayden Taylor, and Luke Savage are the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth Horned Frogs since 2006 to accept an invitation to play for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team. In doing so, they make program history; this is only the third time TCU has had multiple members on the Collegiate National Team roster.
Ridings made 21 appearances this season including one start. His considerable 10 saves leads the Big 12, ties at 15th nationally. He boasts 22 strikeouts in 22 innings pitched. He finished with a 6.75 ERA.
Taylor has proved no less impressive, having garnered a Player of the Week award last February, a fitting sequel to his freshman year in which he was named Big 12 Freshman of the Year. Taylor finished second on the team with a .314 batting average, 13 home runs, and 50 RBIs. Defensively, Taylor has had an incredible year at 3B with one remarkable catch after another, many worthy of a SportsCenter Top 10 designation.
Savage was added to the roster in June. He made appearances in 2022. He pitched 39.2 innings with 35 strikeouts, 17 walks, 34 hits, 14 runs (12 earned) and finished with a 2.72 ERA.
The first Horned Frog to earn a place on the National Team roster was Jake Arrieta, in 2006, the same year Jim Schlossnagle served as assistant coach. He was followed by pitching ace Kyle Winkler in 2010. In 2011, Josh Elander and Andrew Mitchell joined such elite ranks, and in 2013, with Schlossnagle as manager, Riley Ferrell, Brandon Finnegan, and Preston Morrison proved the Frogs' prowess, with more players invited to the Collegiate National Team than in any year. Evan Skoug joined the team in 2016, and in 2017, Sean Wymer completed the Horned Frog ascendance to the most elite team in college baseball.
The USA Baseball Collegiate National Team Training Camp will feature 48-50 of the premier non-draft eligible college players for a five-game Stars vs. Stripes intrasquad series in North Carolina from June 30–July 4. USA Baseball will name a final, 26-man Collegiate National Team roster after Training Camp, which will represent the United States at Honkbalweek Haarlem in the Netherlands from July 9–15.
The opening game of the Stars vs. Stripes series will take place at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina, at 7 p.m. ET on June 30. The Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP) in Durham, North Carolina, will host games two, three, and four. The first pitches of games two and four are set for 6:35 p.m. ET on July 1 and 3, respectively, and game three will start at 5:05 p.m. ET. Training Camp will conclude with the series finale on July 4 at Truist Field, the home of the Charlotte Knights, in Charlotte, North Carolina, with the first pitch at 6:05 p.m. ET. All five games of the series will be available to watch on USABaseball.com.
Team USA will begin Honkbalweek Haarlem against Japan on July 9 at 8 a.m. ET (1 p.m. local time) before taking on Italy, Cuba, the Netherlands, and Curacao to close out group stage play. The second round of competition will follow on July 14, ahead of the championship on July 15.
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