Barry Lewis
TCU Baseball Is The #2 Seed At The College Station Regional
For the first time since the Texas A&M Aggies won the Big 12 regular season in 1998, the Big 12 regular season champion will not host a regional in the NCAA baseball tournament. Instead, the TCU Horned Frogs will travel to College Station as the #2 seed in the Texas A&M regional. Joining TCU in College Station are their Friday night opponents and #3 seed, the University of Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns and the #4 seed, the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles.
KillerFrogs was at the TCU Selection Show watch party to get reactions from players and coaches.
University of Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
TCU will face the University of Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns in their first game Friday at 7:00 p.m. CT at Blue Bell Park's Olson Field in College Station. If you cannot make it to the Texas A&M campus, you can watch the game on ESPN+.
The Ragin' Cajuns (36-21) won the Sun Belt Conference Tournament to get an automatic bid in the field of 64. It is the first time in six years for UL to make the tournament and the first time under head coach Matt Deggs. The Cajuns have been Ragin' on the basepaths all year with 134 stolen bases, good for 7th most in the nation this year. They stole five bases in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament Championship come-from-behind win over Georgia Southern. Georgia Southern is hosting a regional site that welcomes Notre Dame, Texas Tech and UNC Greensboro.
UL has seven pitchers on their staff with ERA's below 3.00, led by standout reliever Bo Bonds. Bonds is ranked as the #60 rated relief pitcher in the country by D1baseball.com sporting a 3-2 record with five saves. In 41.1 innings pitched, Bonds has a 2.61 ERA while walking 22 and striking out 62 while holding opponents to a .167 batting average.
UL's weekend starting rotation consists of three seniors with solid yet unspectacular numbers.
| Pitcher | Record | ERA | GS | CG | IP | H | BB | K | OBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
RHP Jeff Wilson | 4-3 | 4.52 | 15 | 2 | 73.2 | 82 | 22 | 55 | .283 |
LHP Brandon Talley | 3-3 | 3.64 | 12 | 0 | 71.2 | 74 | 26 | 66 | .269 |
RHP Jacob Schultz | 4-3 | 3.94 | 10 | 2 | 77.2 | 75 | 22 | 72 | .258 |
On offense, the Ragin' Cajuns are led by D1baseball's #11 ranked 1st baseman in the nation, Carson Roccaforte. Roccaforte enters the regional hitting .364 with a .685 SLG%, 9 doubles, 13 home runs, 53 RBI's, 20 BB's, 26 K's and 19 stolen bases. Roccaforte is the only left handed hitter in UL's regular starting lineup. UL has 4 other regular starters hitting above .300
- RF Heath Hood .341 17-20 stolen base attempts
- 3B Tyler Robertson .322 21-24 stolen base attempts
- DH Connor Kimple .319 9-12 stolen base attempts 9 home runs
- C Julian Brock .307
Texas A&M (37-18) vs Oral Roberts (38-18)
This game might not turn out to be the easy win for the SEC West Champions we all expect it to be. While Texas A&M boasts D1's #29 ranked starting pitcher in RHP Nathan Dettmer (5-2, 3.19), Oral Roberts also has a true ace in LHP Ledgend Smith (6-4, 1.90). An Oklahoma native, Smith originally committed to the University of Oklahoma before transferring in state to Oral Roberts. It will be interesting to see if first year Aggie coach Jim Schlossnagle uses his ace in game 1 or saves him for Game 2. Oral Roberts has an ace in the bullpen as well in Cade Denton (3-0, 0.55).
Other Star Players to Watch in the College Station Regional
- Texas A&M 1st baseman Jack Moss .370 5 hr 6 sb
- Texas A&M 2nd baseman Austin Bost .360 6 hr 1 sb
- TCU SS Tommy Sacco .354 10 hr 12 sb
- TCU 3rd baseman Braydon Taylor .309 8 hr 7 sb
- Texas A&M 3rd baseman Ryan Targac .275 12 hr 7 sb
- Texas A&M outfielder Dylan Rock .329 12 hr 13 sb
While the headline will be the potential matchup between former TCU skipper and current Aggie head coach Schlossnagle and his former assistant and current TCU skipper Kirk Saarloos, the reality is that both Texas programs are in for a dog fight in their first game. Neither program had better get caught looking past their initial opponent as the Frogs found out the hard way last year with Schlossnagle at the helm.
With Saarloos still serving suspension for one more game, Associate Head Coach Bill Mosiello will act as skipper for Friday night's game against the University of Louisiana.
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