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.
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