TCU Wins Big 12 Baseball Tournament, Heads to NCAA Regional Tournament in Fayetteville, Arkansas

 

TCU Baseball defeated Oklahoma State 12-5 on Sunday, May 28, to win the Big 12 Conference Baseball Tournament and earn the conference’s automatic spot in the 2023 NCAA Division 1 Baseball Championship.  

TCU is the second seed in the NCAA Fayetteville (Arkansas) region, joining number-one seed Arkansas (41-16), which also is a national third seed, Arizona (33-24), which is the regional’s third seed, and Santa Clara (35-18), which is the regional’s fourth seed.

The Horned Frogs will play Arizona (33-24), of the Pac-12 Conference, at 8 pm (Central), on Friday, June 2. ESPNU will televise the game.

Arkansas, of the Southeastern Conference, will play Santa Clara, of the West Coast Conference, at 2 pm Central, on Friday, June 2. ESPN+ will televise the game.

The winner of the double-elimination bracket will face the winner of the Terre Haute Regional in the Super Regionals. That bracket includes host Indiana State, Wright State, North Carolina and Iowa.

The Horned Frogs went 4-0 and scored a record 48 runs during the Big 12's baseball tournament, held in Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, May 24-28. 

Globe Life Field is the home of Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers. Globe Life Field is a retractable roof stadium. The roof was closed for all games of the tournament.

In addition to defeating the Cowboys in the tile game, which attracted a record championship-game crowd of nearly 15,000, TCU during the tournament defeated Kansas State, 16-3, Kansas, 14-4, in an eight-inning, run-rule game, and Kansas State, 6-3.

TCU’s perfect run through the tournament increased its winning streak to six games and raised its 2023 record to 37-22 (13-11 Big 12 regular season). In May, the Frogs' record was 14-2.

TCU third baseman Brayden Taylor was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

In the tournament, Taylor batted .500, with eight hits over 16 plate appearances. He had four doubles and three home runs.

On Wednesday, May 24, against Kansas State, Taylor hit his 44th career home run, tying the TCU career home run record (Royce Huffman, 1996-99). On Thursday, May 25, against Kansas, Taylor blasted his 45th career home run, to set TCU Baseball’s career home run record. In Sunday’s championship game, Taylor hit his 46th career home run. Taylor has hit 21 home runs this season, tied for third-most in a single TCU season (Chris Thomsen, 1991).

Taylor scored 10 runs during the tournament, the most of any player. He had 11 RBIs, the most for any player in the tournament. His four doubles, three home runs and 21 total bases also were tournament highs. 

Taylor was named to the all-tournament team, as were fellow Frogs Karson Bowen (catcher), Elijah Nunez (outfielder), Kurtis Byrne (designated hitter) and Ben Abeldt (relief pitcher).

TCU Baseball has won a combined eight Big 12 championships since joining the Big 12 in 2013. The Horned Frogs won the regular season title in 2015, 2017, 2021 and 2022. In addition to this year’s tournament title, TCU won tournament titles in 2014, 2016 and 2021.
 
The Horned Frogs have won 10 conference tournament titles in program history (2004, 2005 – Conference USA: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 – Mountain West; 2014, 2016, 2021, 2023 – Big 12).

In the Fayetteville regional, the Frogs will be making their fourth straight appearance in the NCAA championship tournament.

TCU is one of eight teams nationally that has qualified for NCAA regional tournament play in 17 of the past 19 years. The Horned Frogs won regionals and super regionals and qualified for the College World Series (in Omaha, Nebraska), in 2010 (the last year the college world series was played at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha), 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

TCU 2023 Football Schedule; Horned Frogs Open Season Against Colorado, in Fort Worth

FOX Sports has announced that TCU’s Sept. 2 season-opening home football game versus Colorado will have an 11 am kickoff, as Fox's "Big Noon Kickoff" game.

The Horned Frogs have seven home games this fall, including four of the opening five contests. 

Here is TCU's 2023 football schedule:

• September 2: Colorado; 11 am CT; in Fort Worth; TV: Fox Sports ("Big Noon Kickoff")
  
• September 9: Nicholls; 7 pm CT; in Fort Worth; TV: ESPN+
  
• September 16: Houston; 7 pm CT; in Houston, Texas; TV: Fox Sports (Big 12 Conference Game)
• September 23: SMU; 11 am CT; in Fort Worth; FS1
  
• September 30: West Virginia; in Fort Worth (Big 12 Conference Game)
• October 7: Iowa State; in Ames, Iowa (Big 12 Conference Game)
• October 14: BYU; in Fort Worth (Big 12 Conference Game)
• October 21: Kansas State; in Manhattan, Kansas (Big 12 Conference Game)
• November 2 (Thursday): Texas Tech; 6 pm CT; in Lubbock; TV: FS1(Big 12 Conference Game)
• October 28: bye
  
• November 11: Texas; in Fort Worth (Big 12 Conference Game)
• November 18: Baylor; in Fort Worth (Big 12 Conference Game)
• November 24 (Friday): Oklahoma;111 am CT; in Norman, Oklahoma; TV: Fox (Big 12 Conference Game)

The 2023 Big 12 Conference Championship Game will be held on December 2 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Complete Big 12 2023 football schedule: here

2023 TCU Athletics Hall of Fame Class Announced

 

 

The 2023 TCU Athletics and TCU Block T Association 2023 Hall of Fame induction class includes the 1983 women's golf team, Scott Atchison '99 (baseball), Ricky "Tank" Carder '11 (football), Kishelle Paul-Guy '09 (track & field), Matthew Purke '13 (baseball), Sarah Scherer-Oursland '13 (rifle) and Carrie von Uhlit '10 (equestrian) as the 55th class. David Medanich '79 (men's soccer) is the Vintage Category honoree. Longtime athletics trainer Chris Hall '83 is the Special Contributor recipient.
 
The class will be inducted on Thursday, September 28, in a ceremony at TCU's Brown-Lupton University Union. They will be recognized at TCU's September 30 home football game versus West Virginia.

The 1983 women's golf team, which consisted of head coach Fred Warren, Marci Bozarth, Kris Hanson, Anne Kelly, Jenny Lidback, Rita Moore and Rae Rothfelder-Deal, won the 1983 NCAA women's golf National Championship that was held in Athens, Georgia. The team became the first TCU women's program to win a national championshipt. Bozarth, Lidback and Moore were named All-Southwest Conference honorees. Bozarth and Lidback earned All-American honors.
 
Atchison was a standout pitcher for the Horned Frogs from 1995-99, earning All-Southwest Conference honors in 1995 and 1996 and being named All-Western Athletic Conference in 1999. He led TCU in wins and innings pitched in 1995 and 1999, when he also led the squad in earned run average. He earned the program's Outstanding Pitcher Award in his final season with the Frogs. Atchison was a Major League Baseball pitcher from 2004-15, playing for the Seattle Mariners, San Francisco Giants, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and Cleveland Indians.
 
Carder was a three-time All-Mountain West Conference selection (2009-11). He was named MWC Defensive Player of the Year in 2010 and 2011. He is a two-time All-American honoree, being named to six different All-America teams in 2010 and a pair of All-America squads in 2011. Carder was selected in the fifth round of the NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills in 2012. He played five seasons in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns (2012-16), where he tallied 50-plus tackles in 78 games played.
 
Guy was a three-time All-American at TCU, where she ran primarily third-leg for the Horned Frogs in the 4x400 relay event. She earned All-American honors in that event in 2006 (outdoor) and 2007 and 2009 (indoor). Guy was the Mountain West Conference Indoor Champion in 60-meter hurdles in 2006 and 2008. She was a four-time MWC Outdoor Champion in the 100-meter hurdles, coming in first-place from 2006-09. Guy owns the school record in the 400-meter hurdles (outdoor) with a time of 57.70, which she ran in Des Moines, Iowa, on May 26, 2007. Her 4x400 relay team owns the school record with a time of 3:30.00 (2006).
 
Purke is TCU's all-time leader in single-season wins, totaling 16 victories in 2010. His 142 strikeouts that season ranks second-most in school history. He earned All-Mountain West Conference First Team honors, in addition to being named the MWC Freshman of the Year. A 2010 All-American, Purke was the National Freshman of the Year that season. Despite being drafted 14th in the first round in the MLB Draft in 2009, Purke opted to attend TCU. He was drafted in the third round by the Washington Nationals in 2011. Purke made his major league debut on May 20, 2016, with the Chicago White Sox.
 
Scherer-Oursland was an eight-time All-American for the rifle team, earning the honor in air rifle and smallbore all four years as a Horned Frog. She fired a perfect score of 600 in air rifle as a junior; at the time, she was the second female to do so and fourth athlete overall. She helped lead TCU to team national championships in 2010 and 2012, when she was a national champion in the smallbore event. Following her career at TCU, she was a two-time Olympian in 2012 and 2016.
 
Von Uhlit becomes the first TCU equestrian athlete to be named to the Hall of Fame, following a decorated career. She is TCU's all-time leader in wins (89), victories in Reining (49), overall winning percentage (.739) and single-event winning percentage (.778 in Horsemanship). She posted a program record 24 Most Outstanding Performer (MOP) awards, which included a school-record 17 MOP's in Reining. With TCU in its second year of collegiate equestrian competition, von Uhlit helped propel the equestrian team to a Western National Championship over Georgia in 2008.
 
Medanich was a three-time All-Southwest Conference player for the Horned Frogs from 1977-79. He led the Frogs in scoring four of his five seasons, while netting a school-record 93 career goals. A five-year captain, Medanich started every game in which he played at TCU. He joins his father, Frank Medanich '44, who as a football player was inducted into TCU's Hall of Fame in 1993.
 
Hall served as the longest-tenured Athletic Trainer within the TCU Athletics department for 30 years. He became TCU's Director of Sports Medicine in 2003, becoming the fifth head athletic trainer in school history. A 1983 graduate of TCU, Hall was primarily responsible for athletic injury recognition and care, treatment and rehabilitation for the men's basketball team. He also was coordinator of all athletic training support services for the athletics department. Prior to his retirement from TCU in 2015, Hall worked with and covered every sport that competed for the University.