Coach wants consistent play
TCU wants to concentrate on pitching, defense this weekend
By Danny Gillham
Skiff Staff

The TCU baseball team will be in action this weekend as they play three games in three days at Dell Diamond in Round Rock.

Special to the Skiff TCU senior infielder Levi Robinson attempts to tag out UTA’s Robby Deevers as he dives back to second. Deevers went on to score on a single by Matt Lindenmeyer in the bottom of the fifth.

After victories over ranked opponents Texas and Baylor, the Frogs lost Tuesday to The University of Texas at Arlington, evening TCU’s record at 2-2 on the young season.

“Starting off at Enron Field (home to Major League Baseball’s Houston Astros), everybody was pumped,” said junior infielder Mike Settle. “And then we went to UTA and didn’t have the same enthusiasm.”

Head coach Lance Brown said the team is looking for identity and consistency in this early portion of the schedule.

“We’re just trying to get a feel of what team is going to show up and which day we can depend on them,” Brown said. “So hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will play enough games to know where we stand.”

The Frogs are logging many miles on the road in these first weeks, a move that Brown said was planned.

“In our conference, the top four or five teams we all play on the road,” Brown said. “So our schedule is designed that we will play a lot of games on the road against fairly tough competition to get us ready.”

The Frogs open the weekend at 1 p.m. Friday against Southwest Texas. At noon Saturday they take on Texas Tech and finish the weekend with a 4 p.m. match-up Sunday against Southwest Texas.

Brown said the Frogs will face a “solid” baseball team in Southwest Texas. He said that excluding depth, the Bearcats are comparable to Conference USA teams.

The Frogs will be looking for revenge Saturday. The team lost the year opener to the Red Raiders, 2-1. The two teams will also meet twice next week and twice later in the season.

“They always have a good ballclub,” Brown said of Texas Tech. “They always end up in the (NCAA) Regionals ever year. It will be a good test for us. We’ll have six quality ball games against Top 25 teams to see how we do.”

Brown said that the match-ups against the Red Raiders should help the team with the competition that awaits them in C-USA.

Settle said players will gain an advantage of familiarity by facing the same teams throughout the season but must avoid complacency.

He said that pitching and defense will be the main keys for victory this weekend.

“We’re going to score runs off and on,” Settle said. “But as long as our pitching and defense stay strong, we can win the games.”

Danny Gillham
d.r.gillham@student.tcu.edu

credits

TCU Daily Skiff © 2002