TCU Baseball’s Season Ends Like It Started
For TCU and Jim Schlossnagle, the 2011 baseball season will be a tough one to swallow and a tough one to move on from.
They started the season ranked #1. Matt Purke was a top 5 MLB draft prospect. Jason Coats was their star left fielder. They opened the season to a record-breaking crowd at Lupton Stadium of over 6,000. Expectations were high, and student interest had never been higher.
TCU and Matt Purke started out the season against Kansas with a dominating victory against the Jayhawks, and Matt Purke was 1-0.
Well after that night, the honeymoon lasted just two more days. That Sunday TCU beat themselves in an extra inning game vs. Kansas, and they fell from #1 in the rankings. TCU would then drop 3 of their next 5 which foreshadowed the inconsistent play that would follow them all season.
Jim Schlossnagle said midway through the 2011 campaign, “We have had every talk you can have. At some point, we just have to play.”
He was right.
Schloss could talk, but did the team ever listen? Did they ever understand what it took to close out games that they absolutely had to have? Sure they had most of their team back from the one that made it to the College World Series in Omaha, but Bryan Holaday was gone as were several other key components of that 2010 team.
Jerome Pena told SportDFW in a preseason interview, “We are all our own leaders. Everyone leads themselves on this team.” That may have been just the issue. As a close follower of the program and having talked to players and coaches time and time again after each game this season, it was never identifiable who the vocal leader was on the team. Who was the one to step up when the going got tough? My best guess is Kyle Winkler. He seemed to be the only player willing to light a fire under his teammates when they were not excelling.
It was things like losing to a good, not great, Dallas Baptist team three times this season. It was losing to a team like Stephen F. Austin who they had no business losing to. It was letting a less talented Houston Cougars team come back from a 6-0 deficit to win in a March 25 game at Lupton Stadium.
All those occurrences were a sign of a talented team that would occasionally lose its focus. TCU played with passion and played with concentration, but it often took its own sweet time arriving. They heard all the pleading from their coaches, but did they listen?
Now the Frogs were not totally done-in by a lack of concentration. Injuries also derailed what could have been one of the nation’s best pitching staffs.
Matt Purke looked tired the entire season. When TCU shelved its ace midway through the season, Jim Schlossnagle said, “It is time for Matt to start thinking about Matt.” Purke may have a million dollar future ahead of him, but in 2011, Purke looked more like a pitcher still tired from the year before than the electric fireballer that TCU saw in 2010. Nonetheless, Purke’s ERA stayed in the 1’s for the entire season.
Stephen Maxwell also was shelved down the stretch of the season which forced the diaper dandy, Andrew Mitchell, to the rotation. Schlossnagle had hoped that Mitchell would be able to pitch out of the bullpen alongside fellow freshman Stefan Chrichton and Erik Miller. It was not to be.
Mitchell was instead TCU’s best starter down the stretch, and Mitchell will most likely be TCU’s Friday night starter next season as Purke, Winkler, and Maxwell may all be gone in 2012.
TCU should have been worried about where they were headed when they lost to the New Mexico Lobos twice in the Mountain West Conference Tournament. Now do not get me wrong, a lot of credit needs to be given to the Lobos. They played well, and beat a TCU team who may have overlooked them despite losing once to the Lobos in the regular season. Nonetheless the Lobos were just 10-14 in the MWC in the regular season, and the Frogs had no business losing to the Lobos when it mattered.
But that’s the thing. When it mattered most, TCU did not get the job done. Youngsters like Jantzen Witte, Kyle Von Tungeln, and Andrew Mitchell have hopefully learned a painful lesson. Hopefully they learned what it means to close out meaningful games in June that they absolutely must have.
Many of TCU’s players have worked their entire lives for the chance to dogpile at what was formerly known as Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska But it was not meant to be. Not this season. Not on that field. Not under those Lupton Stadium lights.
As Jim Schlossnagle stood on the steps of the visitors dugout at Lupton Stadium, he stared blankly onto the field where the Frogs were supposed to launch their bid into the Super Regional. He was flanked by Randy Mazey to his left, and freshman pitcher Andrew Mitchell who knelt on the steps. Watching Oral Roberts celebrate an 8-4 victory had to sting, and as both a fan of TCU and a fan of the many great men who played for TCU this season, I hope that it stung. It stung the fans, and hopefully it will light the fire under Jim Schlossnagle and the talent that he will bring back in 2012.
They do not need the preseason accolades or the extensive hype, just a desire to win and a hunger to once again grab what they let slip through their fingers this year.
You can follow Alex Apple on Twitter @AlexAppleDFW